Photo shows Kelsie sitting while holding her teal and black braided leash in her mouth.
Behaving nicely while on a leash is an incredibly important aspect of my job as a Service Dog. Good behaviorist is imperative for a Service Dog since my girl only has public access rights with me as long as I’m under control and not “unruly,” which means I have had to learn how to walk calmly on a leash. Pulling on the leash would make my girl’s chronic fatigue worse, so I must walk with a loose leash and make sure I don’t pull my girl (except when I’m doing a Forward Momentum Pull). Furthermore, because I sometimes encounter crowds or tight spaces while I’m on the job, I have had to learn to stay close to my girl while I’m working. Some people would call this position a “Heel,” since I stay right by my girl’s foot while I walk.
Whether you call it heeling or another term, loose leash walking is crucial for Service Dogs and pet dogs alike. It’s a fundamental aspect of a polite, well-behaved dog. My girl even has a personal belief that all dogs should be able to be walked just from a person holding the leash with a pinky finger (however, for some dogs, this might not be attainable during their lifetime, but it’s a good goal to have). However, walking nicely on a leash doesn’t come naturally to most dogs, so training this behaviour can be a slow process.
Before you even start to train loose leash walking or heeling, you’ll want to choose the appropriate equipment for your dog. If you have a dog that pulls while walking on a leash, you’ll want to opt for a harness rather than a collar. Tracheal damage can occur from a dog that pulls while wearing a collar, so until your dog learns to walk nicely on a leash, it’s best to walk them in a harness instead. If your dog is wheezing because they’re pulling so hard, then you definitely shouldn’t be using a collar! Some dogs can be redirected easily with a head collar, but a strong puller should not be worked in a head collar, since that kind of pulling can cause facial or neck damage (I talk about head collars in this article). A harness is by far your best bet for keeping your pup safe until they learn how to walk nicely on a leash.
Not all harnesses are created equal, however. At least until your pup learns how to stop pulling, you’ll probably want to stay clear of back-clipping harnesses. Harnesses that clip on the dog’s back can actually encourage pulling: think about sled dogs and the harnesses they use! So although a harness is safer than a collar when teaching your pup to walk nicely, the wrong kind of harness can be unintentionally counter-productive. Therefore, you’ll most likely want a harness that has a clip in the front over the dog’s chest. When a dog pulls on a front-clip harness, the pulling is redirected so that the dog is turned to face you. Pulling = going nowhere. Pairing training with the effects of this harness should, over time, teach your pup the tools they need to walk nicely on a leash.
But even within the realm of front-clip harnesses, there’s variation. Y-front harnesses are probably your better option for front-clip harnesses, especially if your pup is a strong or constant puller. The Y-front shape better follows the natural shape of a dog’s scapulae and therefore isn’t as likely to cause musculature changes in dogs that pull against these kinds of harnesses. Straight-front harnesses (like the ever-popular Easy Walk harness) have the potential to cause abnormal muscle development, particularly in dogs that are heavy pullers. The straight front can restrict the dog’s movement and therefore can lead to muscle changes over time. In dogs that aren’t frequent pullers, this shouldn’t be too big of an issue, but since even a back-clip on a straight front can cause these musculature changes, I personally think it’s better to avoid straight-front harnesses whenever possible. However, many guide dog harnesses are designed with a straight front and do not cause severe changes in musculature, so of course, not all straight-front harnesses are “bad.” At the end of the day, the most important thing is to choose the harness that works best for you and your pup! And if you’re at all unsure about a harness and its potential effects on your dog, it’s always best to ask your vet or a qualified trainer to get a second opinion.
Kurgo has a variety of harnesses with front clips, but you can also find a number of front-clipping harnesses on Amazon, including the Ruffwear front range harness. Your local pet store might have some, too! We have a PongoPetz harness that has both a back and a front clip. I already knew how to walk nicely when I got my PongoPetz, which means I’ve never been walked with my leash on the front clip, but PongoPetz can also be a good option.
Once you’ve chosen your equipment, you can employ a couple of different methods simultaneously to shape your pup’s loose leash walking. I’m going to call these the “Treat Reward Method” and the “Walkig Reward Method.”
Treat Reward Method
With your pup on a leash, use a treat to lure them into the position you want when you’re walking your dog on a leash. Reward and repeat, adding a command word (e.g. “Heel”) after several repetitions. Once your dog is consistently figuring out the position, say the command word and take one step forward while luring your dog forward with a treat. If your pup stays approximately in the right position, reward and repeat the exercise. Over time, you will want to build up the number of steps you take, and you will also want to slowly phase out luring so that your pup is offering the behaviour on their own. This will give your pup a solid foundation for understanding the “correct” place to walk while on a leash.
Walking Reward Method
While walking your pup on a leash, you will stop walking forward whenever your dog pulls or puts tension on the leash. As soon as your dog takes a step towards to you ease the tension on the leash, use a verbal reward (e.g. “Good!”) and walk forward again. Here, the walk serves as your dog’s reward, since walking is what your dog wants (hence the pulling). Repeat this every time your pup pulls — sometimes it will seem very tedious and sometimes you might not get further than a couple of inches at a time, but it’s important to stop walking every time your dog pulls so that your dog learns that pulling gets them nowhere. Your dog, particularly if they tend to pull strongly or lunge, should be wearing a body harness for the Walking Reward Method, because pulling or lunging against a collar can cause tracheal damage. A front-clipping harness is ideal, since the harness will turn the dog towards you whenever they pull, which will further reinforce the idea that pulling will not get them what they want. You may also want to click and reward whenever your dog walks within a certain radius of you, because this will teach your dog a behaviour that they can offer instead of pulling (plus, once your dog understand the concept of heeling through the Treat Reward Method, you can begin asking for a heel and rewarding for that).
I highly recommend using both the Treat Reward Method and the Walking Reward Method while training loose leash walking. The Treat Reward Method teaches your dog where you want them to be, while the Walking Reward Method teaches your dog what you don’t want them to do: the two methods effectively work in harmony to shape the behaviour you want while decreasing the behaviour you don’t want. You pup may pick up on one method faster than the other, and that’s okay! Every dog learns at their own pace, and since loose leash walking is a difficult concept for dogs, either or both methods might take a while to “stick” with your dog. Just take things slowly and remember that any progress is still progress!
Of course, not everyone is looking for a formal obedience heel, especially if you just have a family pet that you want to be able to walk without your arms getting dislocated. Feel free to adjust either method to get the heel that works best for you. When I’m not working, I personally often walk with a little tension in my leash, and that’s okay! My girl likes a little tension in the leash because it helps pull her along lightly without having me do a formal Forward Momentum Pull when I’m “off duty.” She still gets the benefits of the pull, while I get to think I’m not working! However, even if you’re okay with a bit of tension in the leash, it’s important to be able to tell your dog to decrease that tension, and I make sure that I come back closer to my girl as soon as she tells me that I’m pulling too much for her. It’s important that I have the ability to walk without tension on the leash, even if my girl is okay with it, because she has young nieces and nephews who might want to walk me, and I don’t want to hurt them by pulling to hard and accidentally pulling them over. That would be bad! So even though I keep light tension on my leash, I still know how to walk with slack in the leash when I need to. And, of course, I almost always walk with a loose leash while I’m working — I like to be a model citizen!
Best of luck with teaching your dog how to walk nicely on a leash. It can be a long, difficult process, but I promise that the end product is infinitely worth it!
Happy trails!
Kelsie Iris
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Kelsie Iris: Service Dog 