How to Stop Leash Pulling

Leash pulling is an almost universal problem in dogs. It boils down to the rate of activity discrepancy between humans - slower, bipedal movers more interested in a stroll and visually assessing the environment than a quadrupedal dog rapidly surveying the complex depth of scent information in their vicinity. the fundamental difference in movement through the environment leads to frustration as the dog wants to outstrip the slow human, re-reading the scents four or six times faster than we comfortably move. When hooked together, the human wants to slow down and the dog wants to speed up. What results is disastrous - broken hips, broken arms, dislocated thumbs on the human end of the leash and aggression and nervousness on the dog's end.

Why is leash pulling such an issue and how do we solve it?

We don't use gimmicks, tricks, or complicated harnessing getups that ultimately never address the real issue.

We return to first principles.

Ultimately, all dog behavior is predicated on practical solutions for the dog. The reason they pull on leash is because it gets the human to move faster and allows the dog to access scent information they otherwise wouldn't be able to limited by the leash. It allows the dog the illusion of control in an environment that isn't being controlled by the human - if (in the dog's perception) the dog can drive away threats before the threats are imminent, then they have succeeded in making themselves safe.

The first order of business is then to making leash pulling not work. You can't proceed in the direction of the pulling dog. Yielding into the pressure created the problem.

Some trainers will advocate aversive equipment like headcollars, "no pull" harnesses, paired with enticement with food to try and convince the dog to slow down. That does somewhat work, as you are pairing the consequence to pulling with a reward for staying near. I have found that the more bulky and complicated the protocol in the real world the more difficult to implement it is and the less universal is its efficacy across breeds and temperaments of dogs.

My approach is to go back to the laws to which we are all bound - the laws of physics.

I change directions - smartly and with intention - as soon as the dog's attention is away from me and towards the environment. as we are attached, this means the dog can either encounter the end of the leash or they can come with me. I do it in a manner where I won't be hurt and the shock on my body is minimized, in a predictable and thus controllable fashion so that the dog - very practically - starts to watch me instead of the environment around them. This results ultimately in the action that is called "heeling", where the dog walks attentively next to you, in a focused manner. Instead of constantly scanning the world for threats or rewards, they pay attention to where they are relative to you and let you handle the threats (as it should be, as you are the leader and thus take on the risk of the outing).

Some people scoff at heeling, calling it old fashioned and unnecessary, but by the end of this (admittedly not EASY) process, my dog will be walking at my side amongst distractions without a single gimmick or bulky tool - not even a plain leash.

Sometimes the best and most enduring results are created with hard work rather than workarounds.