Welcome, enthusiastic viewers, to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. On today’s program we present part three of our three-part series featuring renowned dog trainer and animal behaviorist Carolyn Menteith along with Dogs Trust, one of the largest and oldest dog-welfare charities in the United Kingdom. Carolyn says that when a dog is well-trained both she and her caretaker enjoy a more relaxed, loving relationship. In this episode, Carolyn discusses teaching our canine companions how to walk on a lead, to stop pulling, and to stay.

Today I’m going to show you how to teach your dog to walk nicely on the lead without pulling. This will transform your walks and make them far more enjoyable and a lot safer for you both.

9 TEACH YOUR DOG TO WALK ON A LEAD

Step 1 Lure Your Dog

So to start to teach your dog how to walk on the lead, strangely we are going to do it without one, because I don’t want the temptation for the dog to pull or for you to pull on your dog. This isn’t about tug of war this is about walking nicely besides you.

So the first step as always is to show the dog what you want. So take a treat, hold it near the end of his nose so he sees where it is, and then take a few steps forward with him nice and close beside you on the left hand side. Come on Barley. Keeping the treat near the dog’s nose. If the dog loses interest, put the treat back on the nose and just lure him back again. Oh, you are so clever. What a good boy! So practice that lots until you can do 10, 15 paces with the dog staying beside you.

Step 2 Make Your Dog Think

Step two is to get the dog to think about what it is that got him the reward last time. In other words, walking beside you. So, show him you’ve got a treat – and then without holding it on the end of his nose this time, walk with him and encourage him to come with you. Ready, Barley? Let’s go, good boy! Oh good lad! And then he gets the reward at the end.

And you need to practice this a lot, so that every time you walk, he walks closely beside you.

Step 3 Name the Action

Step three, as always, is putting a name to the behavior. So we want him to know that when I say either “heel” or “close” or whatever you like, that he should be walking beside me. So, no treats, ready, nice and close, close, close, close. Oh you are so good, so good, yes!

Good boy. And practice this a lot so that you link the behavior of being close to you with the words.

Step 4 Practice Everywhere

The stage four is to get out and about and practice this everywhere. So your dog learns that he always walks close beside you on the lead. You have to use a lead for this bit, because it’s not safe otherwise. So use your long training lead because that’s really useful to be able to attach the other end onto your belt, so that you’ve got your hands free.

Come on then. Let’s go and do it again, good, good. Our dogs genuinely believe that the quickest way to get us to go anywhere is to pull. This makes walks unpleasant for both of us and if you’ve got a large and strong dog, it can be dangerous. It can even injure your dog’s neck if he’s continually pulling all the time. So we have to train our dog that he will never ever get anywhere faster by pulling ever again.

10 TEACH YOUR DOG TO STOP PULLING

So to help me show you how to teach your dog never to pull again, I’ve got Digby here. Now you need to start in a really quiet place with no distractions. You need some really nice yummy training treats – there you go, Digby – your six-foot training lead and that needs to be clipped on to a plain flat collar. There we go, we’re ready to go.

So step one of teaching this, is to teach your dog that a loose lead is good. So as long as the lead is loose, it doesn’t matter where he is, you can give him a treat. Hold it right at the end, and he has to learn that “loose lead” means “good stuff for the dog.” Now after you’ve practiced that a lot so that your dog knows that every time you clip the lead on, the lead ’s got to be loose when you’re standing still, it’s time to be able to move around a bit.

So remember, if the lead is loose, he gets a treat. It doesn’t matter where he is, he can be on either side of you, front or back, as long as that lead‘s loose, he gets the treat. So yeah, get one for that. Good. Oh yeah, still loose. If at any point the lead gets tight, you just stop giving him the treats, stand, wait ’til he comes back to you and the lead ’s slack again and then give him the treat, and practice this all the time. He has to know the minute that lead goes on, it’s got to be loose.

Yeah, good boy! Now as you know from the other films, step three is putting a name to the behavior. But this is the only one that’s different, because the cue for your dog not to pull is now going to be clipping the lead on in the first place. Not pulling is going to be your dog’s default behavior from now on, isn’t it, Dig? Good lad! So once you’ve practiced that a lot so that your dog knows not to pull on the lead, now you can start to other distractions to make it a little bit harder. Maybe something like a toy that your dog really loves, like Mrs. Pig here.

And what you’re going to teach the dog is the only way that he’s going to get to that toy is with a slack lead. So you start walking towards it. “We’re going to go and see Mrs. Pig. Look, Mrs. Pig! And if the lead gets tight, you back up. As soon as he comes back to you, start walking again. So the only way he’s going to get to Mrs. Pig, is if he does it on a loose lead. And if he gets all the way there, he can have it.

Yeah! Good boy. Very well done. Your dog has to believe 100% that the only way he’s going to get to that toy, is if the lead’s loose. If the lead gets tight at all, it’s going to take twice as long. As long as he believes that, it’s in his interests to keep the lead loose. Good boy! Shall we do that again?

See, I told you it was really easy to teach your dog to walk on a loose lead. He just has to believe with all his heart and all his soul, that never again will he get anywhere faster by pulling. The only quick way to get anywhere is on a loose lead, but it does take a lot of commitment. From now on, your dog must never, ever pull on the lead again. And that can be difficult because sometimes you just quickly want to get somewhere.

But if he pulls just once and gets there faster just once, he’s always going to believe that it’s worth doing. So if you don’t have that commitment or maybe there are just days when you don’t have time, you could put a harness on your dog or a head collar on your dog, just to give yourself a bit of power steering. It’s far better that you walk your dog on one of those than let him go on half strangling himself on a collar, which could cause injury to him and it could also be unsafe for you. So from now on, get out, and practice and make sure that your dog never, ever pulls again.

I’m going to show you how to teach your dog to stay in one place. This is the beginnings of having a “go anywhere” dog. It’s really useful if you can get your dog to lie quietly if you stop for a chat or to wait in the back of the car while you clip on a lead before you go for a walk, or more importantly, if you’re going to take him out visiting to friends’ houses. You can teach your dog to stay in either a stand, a sit or a down, but the down’s the most useful because then your dog can lie quietly beside you.

11 TEACH YOUR DOG TO STAY

So to help me show you how to teach your dog to stand or down, I’ve got Bac. Bac, come on man. Halo, lovely! So before you teach your dog to do a down stay, you have to make sure that she’s got a really good down. If your dog doesn’t, go back over the “down” film and practice that until it’s perfect. So Bac, down. Oh, perfect.

So now you can work on the down stay. So the first thing you’re going to do is get her to stay down for longer. So you’re going to ask her to lie down, and then you’re going to count to five seconds before you reward her. Just hold your hands up and then after 5 seconds, give her the treat.

So, Bac, down. Hold your hands, it’s almost like a stop sign for five seconds, and reward her. She’s so clever. Make sure you give the reward while she’s lying down. You’re rewarding her for staying down, not for getting back up again.

Our many thanks, Carolyn Menteith and Dogs Trust, for sharing your thorough knowledge on positive training to improve the relationship between humans and their canine companions. Your insights and experience help us develop a better understanding and a more joyful partnership with our beloved dog friends. May we continue to be immeasurably enriched by our precious animal co-inhabitants.

For more information on Carolyn Menteith please visit: www.DogTalk.co.uk Dogs Trust please visit: www.DogsTrust.org A copy of the Dog Training Made Easy with Carolyn Menteith is also available at the above website.

We are grateful for your thoughtful company on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. Enlightening Entertainment is coming up next on Supreme Master Television, right after Noteworthy News. May the Earth be evermore graced with the loving and noble presence of our animal friends.