For the most part, it is easier to teach your dog not to pull on their leash in the first place than it is to curb the habit once it has become second nature to them. That’s not to say that you can’t successfully teach an older dog to stop doing this but you can expect it to take longer compared to training a puppy. Here are our tips for teaching your dog not to pull on their leash during walks.

Why Dogs can’t resist pulling on their leash

Dogs are often easily excited by their surroundings and will want to have the freedom to explore them at their leisure. They can therefore feel that they are being restricted and restrained by their leash. If your dog is allowed to pull on their leash – even sometimes – they will continue to do so due to the fact that it pays off and leads to the desired effect of being able to stop and explore.

Training Your Dog Not to Pull on Their Leash

While you are training your dog not to pull on their leash, all walks should be considered training sessions. You should therefore look to keep walks fairly short and fun.

Because this won’t provide adequate exercise, you’ll need to arrange this on top of your walks. This should have the added bonus of tiring your dog and using up excess energy that is otherwise likely to encourage them to pull on their leash.

Training will often need to begin when you first put the leash on your dog. If your dog has not yet learned to be calm and still at this stage, you’ll need to teach them the sit-stay command to encourage them not to get over excited before the walk even begins. If they are not calm at this point, it is unrealistic to expect them to be well behaved during the walk.

After this, it’s time to make sure that they can stay calm before the walk begins so that things get off on the right foot. This may involve staying still and pausing walks every time your dog pulls on their leash – even before you have actually made it through the door. This will gradually teach them that their ‘fun’ ends or does not even begin whenever they pull on their leash so that they are less inclined to continue to do this. You can reinforce this by ordering your dog to come back and sit by you whenever they pull on their leash and you stop the walk, and then offering a treat.

Have you experienced problems with your dog pulling on their leash during walks? How did you overcome the issue, and did you find it difficult? We’d love to get your thoughts in the comments section below!

[Photo Credit:  philhearing]