How to Leash Train A Puppy

September 14th, 2009 at 6:02pm

If you have a new puppy, wouldn’t you like to know the easiest way to start his leash training? Get an early start on that by starting to leash train your puppy at a very young age. By six weeks of age my young puppy could already walk on a loose leash. At 8 weeks old, my puppy walked with his leash like he’d been doing it all his life.

Try this simple and easy technique to quickly get your puppy used to the leash. My neighbor has an older dog that is scared at just the sight of the leash. If their first experiences with the leash were negative they won’t be happy to see the leash come out.

Use this easy method to begin leash training your puppy with positive reinforcement.I start the leash training of my puppies this way, and they never undergo any negative experiences with the leash. In fact, they get excited when they see the leash, because they know they are about to go for a walk with Dad.

Begin with placing the puppy’s flat collar around his neck (the choke collar shouldn’t be used at this time). That in itself is no big deal and the puppy shouldn’t even react. Go ahead and put the leash on the collar, but just let it lay on the ground. There is no need to hold the leash just now. Let the puppy walk around the area you have chosen for the leash training without any restraints. Stay close behind the puppy so you can free his leash if it gets caught up in anything. By keeping the leash from entangling, your puppy will cruise around stress free, hardly noticing he is trailing a leash.

The following leash training step starts after the puppy is accustomed to cruising around dragging his leash along. Now you should pick the end of the pup’s leash up, but still keep it completely slack. Now you can walk with your puppy but let him keep walking along without your controlling him. Begin the next step in leash training after your puppy is very used to walking along with you on his loose leash.

Next you’ll want to teach him to walk without pulling on his leash. Use treats as a reward to encourage your puppy to learn a loose heel while you walk together. Put the reward in your left hand, so the puppy learns he wants to be close to your left side. The heel position asks your puppy to walk at your left side. Use a happy voice to call your pup over to your side and give him lots of praise and a treat reward for listening. Be sure to reward the puppy each time to positively reinforce the right behavior.

If the puppy is not listening, try to give him a very gentle pull on the leash to get him to look over and see the treat he’s about to get.

Once you have his attention using a happy tone of voice he’ll come over and you can reward him for listening. You will see him quickly learning that he’ll get something good for listening. Puppies at only six weeks old are capable of learning the basics. Stay calm and don’t get frustrated as you begin leash training your puppy. Try not to make it an unhappy time for the puppy when training him. Use only positive training techniques to leash train your puppy, (or for any further obedience training). Dogs will learn a lot faster if you make it fun and rewarding for them while they are in training. I think even people learn things a lot quicker with this method also.

Continue repeating this training frequently on a daily basis until your puppy walks comfortably at your side with a loose leash. Now that he has learned to do that, he is on his way to learning how to walk in the “heel” position. That should be all there is to get started with leash training. If you have followed this easy plan, you should have nothing but fun when taking your puppy for a walk on his leash.

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