so smart

this new puppy bentley is so smart. cannot believe how ez to train - except the leash. he is so intimidate by it. i have taken 4 obedience classes with bigger dogs and never had a bit of issue but this dog just is very very hard to leash train. i am doing 5 min sessions with just letting him go where he wants and never pull on him for awhile until he isnt scared.

its going to take some time but will prevail. once he gets what you want he totally cooperates. i may have him drag the leash around the house tomorrow keeping my eye on him constantly so he doesnt get it tangled.

Leash training my Fletcher was a bear too. He's nearing his 2nd birthday and still pulls even on a EZwalk harness when we come across kids and sometimes other dogs. I had never owned a puppy before and I was so worried about house training and teaching him manners like greeting people at the dog or not to jump up in people, but that was pretty easy. I have tried just about everything except hiring a private trainer....if there are no kids or dogs around he walks great, no pulling walks with a loose lead just a few steps ahead of me. My solution has been to move away from the walking path and have his sit and wait, which he does.

I recommend letting him drag a short leach around the house during indoor play times. If your using a collar switch to a harness and have him wear that too. Of course you know NEVER crate or Xpen a dog with any collar/harness on.

This is one of the issues where training in a positive methods group class is really beneficial, especially early on. Dogs tend to learn easily and reliably in a house or garden where there are few to no distractions, but the places where we want them to actually respond to their commands and training is in places where there are lots of distractions. So a group class sets up just this environment and pups/dogs learn to focus despite the background activity. All dogs at any age benefit from group classes and really enjoy them and they are very good for tightening bonds with an owner and reinforcing self control in a dog (plus they get to meet lots of people and dogs) -- so cannot recommend enough, doing classes whenever possible throughout a dog's life. I hear so often "But I know how to train and enjoy doing it from home" -- which is great for additional work and reinforcement, but not really the overall point with training .

There are many techniques for getting a dog to walk in a relaxed way on a lead. One technique for reactive dogs is to require a sit every time you stop (this is easy to train and comes to be expected without giving any command.). Then if the dog starts to pull or jump or bark, stop and into a sit the dog goes. Only go forward when s/he is relaxed again. Dogs can also be put into a relaxed downstay for further calming. This of course requires patience from owners, as well as time. But the dog will not change its behaviour unless it understands desired versus unwanted behaviours and has a repertoire of self-calming behaviours, positively trained and reinforced by owners.

It's worth noting that training needs regular reinforcement. If a dog isn't put through its paces in a fun way every few days or so, it will start to forget what it has learned (think of learning a language or a new skill, and not practicing it -- we are the same!).

Ian Dunbar has lots on getting pups used to leads and training a calm walk in his free download book After You Get Your Puppy and other documents and videos on www.dogstardaily.com.