From pulling to perfect
From pulling to perfect Heelwork is by far the most common issue that clients come to us about and that is simply because it usually an activity that most people do once or twice a day with their dogs. If the dog is a puller on the lead, any lead time can become very stressful, frustrating and in worst case scenarios dangerous for the dog and owner. This usually results in the owners looking for methods to manage this with the use of head collars, harnesses and other equipment or avoid lead walking all together. The use of equipment whilst occasionally successful in making walking more pleasant do not solve the problem, but merely mask it by making it uncomfortable for the dog to pull. To successfully train your dog to walk nicely on the lead takes consistency. When we say consistency, we mean consistency that during the learning process the dog is prevented from practising the pulling behaviour. As usually a dog pulls to get to something it wants, smells, dogs, people, the park for example. So, every time we allow our dogs to pull we are inadvertently rewarding them by letting them move closer to their goal. Dogs are simple creatures on the face of it, in general they repeat behaviours we reward and do behaviours less that we interrupt. We teach loose lead walking by use of treats and building a reward history of being in the correct position, combined with stopping and resetting if the dog pulls. Quickly the dogs realise that nothing is to be gained by pulling but remaining on a loose lead in the correct position they get rewarded by praise and treats but also by continuing forward. If you would like to take your pooch from pulling to perfect, then please get in touch for more information. Jemma Martin - Whistle and Wag Dog Training