First Loose Leash Walking (Leashed) Session (11 weeks) (Patreon)

Hey Everyone!

So this is the complete video of Osa’s first loose leash walking session on a flat collar.

I’m a big proponent of putting puppies on harnesses exclusively and saving the flat collar for when you’re practicing loose leash walking skills (and only for that time.) Young puppies aren’t capable of walking on a loose leash for long periods, and by using a harness primarily for those times they will pull (walking around the neighborhood, in the yard etc.), saves the collar for a piece of equipment for the dog that signifies that we ALWAYS walk by my human’s side when a leash is attached to the collar. As they mature, you can advance the dog to longer and longer collar sessions, but changing where the leash is attached to keeps the expectations clear for the dog. And whenever we can provide clarity, we should! 

So this video shows her first session on the flat collar. I start by just rewarding for sitting next to me with a nice “J” in the leash, indicating to her that looseness and being next to me is the goal of this exercise. She’s already had three weeks of getting reinforced on that left side heel position, so she’s familiar with that reward zone. Next I will start moving forward, clicking and rewarding for just 1-2 steps at a time. I want the dog to be successful!

I find that many people expect too much of the dog, too soon, especially in loose leash walking. My goal is to teach the puppy what to do, not to teach them what I don’t want them to do, and with loose leash walking, I want to treat my leash as a safety belt and not a steering wheel. It’s there if training fails, but I don’t want to have to use it constantly to control the dog. If Osa were to hit the end of the leash, I would stop, not move forward, wait for her to look back at me, or encourage her to come back into heel position, depending on the situation.

The session of walking is a little over a minute. When I finish the session, I unclip her collar and then immediately feed. I do not want me unleashing her to be a cue to run away. I want her to know that sticking with me, even when unleashed is very rewarding.

Overall, I’m really happy with this session with Osa. Later in the day we did another similar session, but walking through the office area of the Fidelco building, which she did really well with. I won’t start training this much outside until we’ve mastered it inside without distractions. When I do move outside, it will be to the driveway first before grass.

Hope this was helpful! Thank you all for being DoggyU Patreon members and supporting the DoggyU channel. I appreciate you so much!