Does taking your dog for a walk prove stressful at times? If so, a dog trainer may have just the answer – and all it requires is one simple change and three minutes of work per day.
Lisa Burton, who founded Listen Dog Training and regularly provides canine tips and tricks on TikTok, claims following her advice will see an improvement in your pet’s behaviour.
“One of the most common problem behaviours I receive training requests for is to teach dogs to walk nicely on a loose lead,” she began.
“So I’m going to show you my top hack, which will take no more than three minutes a day to implement and involves absolutely no yanking, choking or shouting at your dog and I promise if you make this simple routine a non-negotiable part of your daily dog walk, you will see noticeable results.”
Lisa went on to explain that there are normally two problems that result in your dog “straining at the end of their lead like a maniac” – the first of which is down to their excitement over their surroundings.
“They become deaf and dumb to the human tied to them because they are so desperate to forge ahead and find gratification out there,” she said.
Meanwhile, the second cause of such behaviour is the anticipation of going for a walk. Lisa continued: “Putting your shoes on, the lead coming out and stepping over the threshold has sent their arousal and excitement levels spiraling through the roof – and an overexcited, over-eager and highly-distracted dog is never going to walk calmly on a loose lead by your side.”
So, how do you resolve this? Lisa explained that the key is to “tackle the problem at the source” as every walk begins.
“Instead of throwing open the door and allowing your dog to drag you towards the street, the first thing you do once the lead is on is you’re going to ask your dog for a really basic behaviour they already know, such as a ‘sit’ or a ‘down’ – before you open the door,” she advised.
Once your pet has succeeded with this, Lisa recommends spending three to five minutes “re-engaging your dog’s ability to think and their connection with you”.
To do this, she said getting your to dog perform another basic behaviour request once you’ve stepped out of the door, before spending around a minute on a few little engagement exercises to ensure they’re “fully connected” to you before you set off.
“The first time you do this, you may find you have your dog’s attention for all of 30 seconds,” Lisa warned. However, to ensure the approach has a “long-term, game-changing effect”, she reiterated you should ensure the engagement routine is “non-negotiable”.
Lisa continued: “Dogs are master predictors, so once this calm and attentive period of focus becomes attached and associated with the beginning of your walk, you will find it becomes easier and easier to engage with a calm and connected dog as you leave the house, and you may even see them offer this kind of behaviour themselves.”
As it becomes easier over time to engage with your dog during the first few minutes of your walk, Lisa said you should gradually increase the amount of time you give cues and ask for engagement as you set off.
“Sometimes I’ll keep stopping and ask for a ‘sit’ and do a little bit of luring until we are halfway down the street,” Lisa added. “That way, they can still engage with us even when they’re in that big, exciting environment.”
Closing, Lisa revealed the longer you do this, the far more you will see your dog give you “spontaneous check-ins” on your walks, because they’re wondering if you’re going to engage.
Outside of walks, meanwhile, you can also improve your pet’s behaviour by introducing new tricks such as ‘spin’, ‘give paw’ or ‘nose touch’.
“You can then integrate these into your routine down the line,” Lisa advised. “The greater variety of cues you both have, the more varied it is for your dog and the more focus the will have to give you in terms of how they will get their next reward.”
Writing in response, one dog owner admitted: “My dog needs to work on this. I just thought it was excitement for getting from point A to B, but you’re right he’s way overexcited before the walk begins when he sees me getting everything ready.”
A second person penned: “I think this will really work with my dog but as soon as he knows I have treats, he will not walk any further until he has one.”
Whilst a third praised: “Great advice. Will definitely try this with our 10-month old cockapoo. Ours goes hyper when the we try putting the harness or lead on to go for a walk. That’s something we would like to change.”