My dog pulls on the leash : the reasons and my advice

Your equipment for the walk is not suitable

Sometimes the collar or the harness causes physical or emotional discomfort for your dog. The sooner the walk is over, the sooner you take it off when you get home (if you take it off once at home).

Your dog's body changes, both because he becomes an adolescent after being a puppy, and because he becomes an adult afterwards; his body stabilizes for several years. Your dog's body changes may be due, among other things, to his growth, to a weight lower or higher than the expected standard, to aging joints, to chronic pain. You will therefore have to change your dog's collar and/or harness several times in his life.

Discomfort can come from texture as well as from the adjustment. A harness that’s too tight keeps him from moving comfortably; a harness that’s too loose regularly twists on his back and legs. A collar that’s too tight strangles him at the slightest trot, which happens to be his usual gait; a collar that’s too loose travels between his ears and neck, potentially creating irritation from chafing.

From a physical standpoint, it is therefore essential for your dog that the equipment used is the most comfortable and best adjusted.

From an emotional standpoint, if he has associated the harness and/or collar with something unpleasant, it will sometimes be easier for you to offer him a new one, rather than changing his perception of the one he already has.

If you keep the same tool, depending on your dog's reactions, associating the steps of putting the harness and/or collar on with something pleasant (treat, toy, scratches), while paying attention to his body language, allows him to perceive the tools with less reluctance, even not at all.

To train to put a harness on : https://youtu.be/9VQPXQB6Z6I

He is faster than you are

Dogs are not equal: a Borzoi will reach a destination faster than a Pug.

Even though, very few humans are able to compete on a daily basis with all the dogs.

Their usual gait is rarely walking, but rather trotting.

When running, some breeds are capable of exceeding 50 km/hour; others range between 25 and 35 km/hour.

I invite you to assess your running speed, as well as the distance. You will quickly realize that your dog will beat you every time, unless he suffers from some kind of health problem and/or is a particular age (puppy or very old).

Taking into account your dog's cruising speed, his gait without physical constraints such as a leash, will help you to implement appropriate learning, without frustration or re-acceleration on his part.

Instead of pulling on the leash when you start getting annoyed because he has been pulling, instead of growling at him for pulling, instead of stopping the second he pulls (otherwise you can forget how effective your action is in making him make the link), I suggest teaching him to modulate his pace. You can practice in the form of a game, first at home and off leash. Each time you say "slow down," you slow down your own walk; if he does likewise, you congratulate and reward him.

To make it pleasant for him outside, you can invite him to slow down during a run with him, then speeding up again (which then becomes the reinforcer for slowing down).

He does not go on a walk often enough

Your dog loves to walk, but he rarely go on walks or only in a restricted area. This can create a high level of excitement in him that makes it difficult for him to focus on the lessons you want to teach him. His primary goals are to let off steam and get rid of the excess of energy.

Sometimes, dogs don't need to walk 50 km or 3 hours, but to take their time to explore and sniff. If the going outside is limited to peeing near the tree right in front of your house, his body is not relieved. Walking satisfies other parts of his body: regulates the digestive system, allows good blood circulation, maintains the muscles.

Unless your dog is frightened by several elements outside, unless walking is an ordeal for him, by extending his outings, whether in duration, exploration, distance, or regularity, he will be less likely to consider that each of his outings is to be lived intensely because "you never know when the next one will be".

He anticipates you won’t stop so he goes ahead

You tend to be in a hurry and/or distracted when you are walking your dog. A destination to go to. A call that monopolizes your attention. Your dog's regular stops, whether to sniff a tree, then another, then the next one, or to urinate, or to look at what's happening on the other sidewalk, are not to your taste.

To make up for your lack of breaks so that he has time to sniff and communicate with his peers, so that he has time to observe and store information about his environment, your dog may take the lead: he walks far enough ahead to have the opportunity to perform his doggy behaviors.

If sometimes you need to reach a destination, while your dog is an explorer of the smallest blade of grass, by offering him walks for him, at his exclusive pace, he will be more inclined to ignore the environment during certain outings.

If you leave your attention for your dog, rather than for the person you are speaking with on the phone, this will prevent you from moving forward without realizing that your dog is urinating and you are pulling him while his paw is raised or his body down.

If you give him time to observe, by potentially interacting with him, you help him build his internal "library" about what surrounds him and to evaluate their interest.

He feels like getting away from an element or getting the element get away

Your dog is uncomfortable or even frightened when an element can be seen or heard. For example: he sees a human approaching "too" quickly, with his hands out in front to pet him; he hears a dog with a deep voice barking closer and closer; he sees a truck passing near him; he hears children screaming.

Your dog may have several strategies when faced with a frightening element: freezing (he is paralyzed, he becomes so tense that he is like a statue), pretending (he has his nose to the ground but does not sniff, he raises his paw but does not urinate, he looks elsewhere), charging (he lunges to scare the element away), fleeing (he pulls to go in the opposite direction of the element that frightens him).

Whatever his strategy - pulling on the leash to scare away and the element flees or pulling on the leash to flee himself - it is motivated by fear. If you only act on the fact that he pulls, you do not resolve the motivation of his behavior, which then is likely to remain present and potentially be expressed differently.

If you have identified what scares your dog, what makes him uncomfortable, by keeping "safe" distances for your dog, by associating the element with something pleasant for your dog, you will be able to change his perception of it.

Some dogs will pull from start to finish of their walk because they are anxious in the environment where they are. Their motivation is to get away from this place. They expect danger, even if there is none present. It is then good to work upstream on self-confidence, on trust in you, in the environment, step by step.

He wants to get closer

Your dog is showing a desire to reduce the distance between himself and an element of the environment. This could be another dog, a scent, a human, a car, etc. His goal can be varied: to smell, to fight, to play, to appear scary, etc. The emotions that push him forward can be anger, joy, mixed with frustration. Your dog can also be propelled by his hormones that prompt him to get closer to some of his peers. The first step is to make sure that what your dog is expressing has a positive valence. The strategies to implement will not be the same if your dog is "just" frustrated at not moving faster to play with a friend, than if he has unlearned how to express certain signs of communication and reduces the distance to catch a dog by the neck. We do not treat rudeness in the same way as unbridled anger. On one hand, calm behaviors will be reinforced by reducing the distance. On the other hand, it will be a question of teaching the dog other strategies, other expressive means, and of modifying its perceptions of the elements.

His behavior has been reinforced

A dog that pulls on the leash and achieves his destination wins. He learns that pulling enables him to obtain a benefit. The pulling behavior is then reinforced. He reproduces it more willingly. This can happen when your dog approaches a scent hastily and can sniff it. It can happen when your dog approaches an individual by pulling and can interact with it. Sometimes, a longer leash allows you to adjust to within a few centimeters so that he reaches certain identified goals without pulling. Sometimes, when you know it is to relieve himself, accompanying him in his acceleration instead of asking him to hold back while he is in a hurry, allows him to see that pulling does not produce a favorable consequence, since then there is no tension on the leash.

Train your dog not to pull

What about starting by teaching your dog that being walked on a leash or a long line can be nice for him?

Several elements to implement beyond what has already been written :

➤ praise him as much as possible when he does not pull so that he understands the expected behavior and not just the one you do not want.

➤ use a term that informs him that the pace will be slowed down; for example, you say "slow down" and you slow down yourself for a few steps, whether you are walking or running with him

➤ use the leash as a seat belt and not as an element of communication with your dog.