Why do some dogs struggle to walk nicely on a leash?
There are many components that come together when working on nice leash manners.
Teaching a dog what is expected from them while being on a leash is one thing. And often, this step alone is overlooked. We as humans, growing up with all these ideas about what a good dog is and what they should bring to our lives, often expecting a dog to understand that being on a leash means walking nicely next to us. When in reality, putting a collar and a leash on does not automatically translate to the dog that this means walking and behaving in a specific way. It does not tell them that there is a human at the other end of the leash. They unfortunately do not just understand that the pressure they randomly feel around their necks is connected to us and their location in space at that time, their speed, and that they can shut this pressure off anytime they like. We need to teach them this. It is up to us to teach them how to engage with us, what the pressure around their necks means and that they can switch this pressure off by coming back to us, looking at us.
In addition to leash skills and manners, there are many other factors that can impact a dog’s behaviour on a leash. Some of which can make it almost impossible for a dog to walk nicely next to us.
If a dog is very insecure or fearful, it can lead to the dog either trying to be by our side all the time (which often looks like we are blessed with a dog that just naturally understands leash manners), or a dog that is non stop trying to escape everything in this world and will just not stop pulling. Overly excited or hyper aroused dogs often struggle with impulse control, meaning that they will react to just about every trigger they experience, may it be movement, smells, or sounds. Dogs that are not exposed to the outside world enough will struggle to calm down, as they only have so much time to explore their world and they will try to squeeze it all into the small window they have available. And then there are the dogs that do not get adequate physical exercise a day, who will struggle to contain all their physical energy. If you are working with a smaller dog breed, you will potentially not notice this problem as much as you will with a larger dog breed. Especially for larger breeds, it is not natural and requires quite some effort in younger years to walk at our pace. Whenever you let them roam free, you will notice that they often move faster than us.
Depending on what the reasons are as to why your dog is struggling to walk nicely, the treatments are very different. They all start with teaching the dog what is expected from them while being on a leash and how to engage with you. This work ideally starts in an area with low distractions so your dog can learn and understand. If your dog doesn’t look up to you when you are saying their name while walking next to each other, if your dog doesn’t respect the end of the leash and keeps dragging you wherever they want to, if their ears and eyes are focused on everything but you and no matter what you do, everything else seems more interesting, you want to start your work here.
After this, a review of the current exercise and stimulation level is recommended. What breed are you working with, age, and temperament. Based on that, you want to look at what you are providing to your dog at this stage. Many cases of dogs displaying unwanted behaviour are rooted here. If a dog requires a certain level of mental and physical exercise and we do not provide this to them, they will find other outlets for this and we can not blame them for it. No matter how well our dogs are trained, if we do not provide them with the physical and mental exercise they require every day, they will struggle to behave even if they wanted to. So this is what we need to look at on a daily basis.
If your dog is struggling with insecurities, fear, and anxiety, or hyper arousal, over excitement, over stimulation, and impulse control, we need to work on those before we can expect our dogs to be able to walk in a relaxed and focused manner. We need to gradually expose them to their triggers in a safe and guided manner, and teach them what we expect of them in different situations. And this is not just for their overall leash manners, but is also the foundation of any work with leash reactive dogs.
If you are struggling with your dog’s leash manners, would like your dog assessed, and get help with their training, feel free to reach out to us at any time. We do offer in person sessions in Fort McMurray as well as virtual sessions all over Canada.
