How To Stop Your Dog From Pulling on the Leash
It’s always annoying when you’re out on a pleasant walk at the dog park, and without warning your dog yanks the leash at full force jerking you forward, possibly pulling it out of your hand in the process. You scream at them to stop but it’s no use because they saw their best buddy and want to go play.
It’s important to stop this behavior as soon as possible though. If it isn’t dealt with there can be problems later on. For example, your pooch could rip out of his collar and go chasing after wildlife. This would be terrible if they ran away and couldn’t find their way back.
Luckily we have some tried and tested solutions on how to stop your dog from pulling it’s leash once and for all!
Contents
Why do Dogs Pull on the Leash?
First of all, I will address the reasons why they have this annoying habit. A lot of people believe that the reason dogs do this is because they want to be in control and have dominance over humans. This is simply not true. Dogs are much more simple-minded and the reason that your pooch pulls mostly comes down to all the stimuli that they are exposed to on a walk.
All the new sights and smells are triggers for our canine friends to go and explore. They simply don’t have the control to deny this urge sometimes.
They also walk much faster than us naturally and find the human pace of walking to be much too slow. This leads to pulling as their fast pace is much too speedy for us to keep up.
4 Easy Steps to Stop Leash Pulling
Use a Strong Chest-Led Harness
These types of heavy duty dog harnesses are not only chew-proof, but the design also helps to stop pulling. The clip for the leash is on the side which makes it so that when they pull the force tilts their body and they go to the side instead of forward.
This breaks their momentum and greatly reduces the amount of force they can pull with. That makes these harnesses the top way to stop your puppy from pulling on the leash.
Don’t Enable Leash Pulling
Often times the person that walks the dog is subconsciously reinforcing this behavior. Whenever a dog is successful in pulling their human where they want to go it reinforces that the behavior will get them what they want. They will then continue to repeat this as they remember that it worked in the past.
The longer this habit goes on the harder it is to break. That’s why it’s important to catch it early and correct it.
Stand Your Ground
Whenever your dog is pulling excessively a trick you can try is to tense up and stand completely still. This will show them that they can’t simply go wherever they want to go.
Only when they relax should you continue on the walk. For the really stubborn puller dogs, you can try and reverse direction whenever they pull.
Give Rewards
Dogs are simple-minded creatures that are easily motivated by rewards. Just giving them a small treat whenever they are walking nicely makes a big difference. The most effective way to do this is to give out tiny treats more frequently. You can break up the treats and give them twice as often. Once your dog starts to walk without pulling you can slowly decrease the frequency of the treats.
Rewards don’t always have to be treats either. You can mix in lots of praise and petting. They love human contact and it will work almost as well as food. The end goal should be to make your dog feel good for walking by your side.
Stop Leash Pulling Conclusion
Overall you want to focus on rewards and praise. Show your dog that you’re happy when they walk nicely. Don’t enable them by allowing the pulling and if necessary use a chest-led harness to stop the pulling.
