Loose leash training a puppy?
Friday, October 28th, 2011 at
7:01 pm
I want to start loose leash training my pup. What length of leash should I get?
Filed under: Dog Training
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I’m gonna go against the crowd here and say let’s go old school. Throw all the fancy contraptions out the window. Get a 6 foot leash with a flat buckle collar. When walking, adjust the flat buckle collar so it is at the very top of the dog’s neck just below his ears and jaw. Trust me, I don’t care if everyone swears doing this will instantly injure a dog’s neck. It won’t happen as long as your leash corrections are not overly harsh. When a collar is properly positioned a dog can’t really pull against it with enough force to injure its neck.
Give him just enough leash so that the leash will be slack and relaxed when he’s walking closely by your side with his head up. And just WALK. When you want your dog to take a break from the walk and explore the area, stop in a nice area and give him all 6 feet of leash to work with. Or let him off the leash if you can. Let him wander and sniff and pee to his little heart’s content. Then when it’s time to go again, bring him back by your side and start walking.
These flexi-leash things are a BAD IDEA. Every dog I have ever seen at the end of one was off on their own little planet, sniffing the ground obsessively, peeing every 10 seconds, and fixating on all the different distractions in the environment. Their owner was the LAST THING in their mind. Just that guy way back there 20 feet behind them holding the other end so that the dog will not be separated from their meal ticket while they’re out exploring. The dog is also normally the last thing on the owner’s mind. Most of them are day dreaming or yacking on cell phones until they realize their dog has gotten into trouble way up there, except the stupid contraptions have no way to easily pull the leash in when the dog is lunging the other way with all their weight. So they’re standing there reeling in the cord manually or just struggling to hold the dog in place and not let it go any further.
In this situation, in the dog’s mind it is THEIR walk and you are just along for the ride. The flexi-leash encourages this mentality. Dogs with this sort of mentality DO NOT learn to walk well on the leash. You want your dog to learn that it’s NOT THEIR WALK. The walk is to benefit BOTH OF YOU and the object is for them to move in sync with you. This means they don’t need the freedom of 20 feet of leash at all times. They should practice walking by your side, and then in a time and place of your choosing you will give them some slack so they can go indulge their senses. Things like harnesses and flexi-leads give a dog opportunities to turn their heads and fixate on distractions to the level where they become OBSESSED with getting at something. Feeding into the obsessive behavior (sniffing every single inch of ground, peeing every 5 seconds, jumping on every stranger, fixating on squirrels and cats, etc…) is what creates a dog that fights you every step of the way on the leash. They now think it’s THEIR walk, THEIR chance to explore everything that catches their interest on their own terms.
how big is the pup?
a 6 foot is long for mine
You should get a retractable leash which usually extend anywhere between 18-26 feet. With such a leash, you can begin by giving the puppy very little lee-way in how far they can go away from you, and as they get better, you cna slowly give them more and more leash easily.
I use a good six foot leather leash.
I just use a regular show lead, about 4 feet.
It will depends on the size of your dog, and where you are going to train them, is it inside the garden, house or outside near a road or a field. There are many different recommended lengths of leash, and if you are going to be doing all of the above, I recommend using a ‘flexi leash’ so that you can adjust the length accordingly.
This website lets you know the recommended length for each activity – I hope you find it useful!
http://www.raisingspot.com/adopting/pet-leash-for-puppy
Six foot max. Gives the puppy some freedom but also gives you control to reel the puppy in quickly if needed. Never use a retractable leash on an untrained animal – and i wouldn’t use any kind of flexible leash (i know they make some that coil up to a four foot length but when pulled release to six foot). Six foot, solid, leather or nylon.
I would either get a 6-foot or a longer training leash (like 15 feet).
Training is give and take- at least is in the way I do it.
You need to establish walking time and free time, or as I use the word ‘flextime’ with my guy.
A 4-foot leash doesn’t really give the pup any freedom when you choose to give him some.
It’s like ying and yang ( or whatever) there has to be flextime for him to understand what isn’t flextime ( walking time, like a champ not an asshole).
My guy walks champ-like and Im proud of him.