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Walking on leash is
taught off leash.
Puppies will follow
anything that moves,
so the basic technique
is just to start
walking in a counterclockwise
circle with a puppy
on the inside, and
wait for him to notice
and start following you.
When he's anywhere
near your left side,
click and give a treat.
You want the puppy to
encounter distractions
so he can learn that
walking with you
is a more reinforcing choice.
Don't worry and
don't say anything,
let the puppy work it out.
Once he seems to understand
that being near your left side
gets him a treat, you can wait
until you take two steps, then
three steps, and then gradually,
you can work your way up
to more and more steps.
Once the puppy's walking
several steps in a row with you,
you can add a collar
and then a leash.
And now you're ready to take
your puppy out into the world.
If you've shaped it
correctly, the puppy
should automatically follow
you anytime you call him to you
and start walking.
The leash is not
a trainer and it's
immaterial to teaching
this behavior.
You should use a leash
when you walk your dog,
but that leash is only
there as a backup.
Think of it as a mountain
climber's safety rope.
Not something you rely on,
but could save your life
when things go wrong.
You can outrun puppies
under 12 weeks old,
so you can use any large
space to do this exercise.
But for older puppies
and adult dogs,
you should only do this exercise
in a safely fenced in area.
Here's Betty, ready for her very
first leash-walking session.
Let's learn how to do leashes.
She has no idea she's
supposed to be working.
So I call her, reinforce
her for coming to me,
and then start walking.
I'm going to click
her any time she's
within a few feet
of my left side.
At first, it doesn't matter
if the puppy actually knows
why she's getting clicked.
Even if the puppy just happens
to be in position, click.
Just keep walking in a
small circle, positioning
yourself so that the
puppy is on the inside.
Looks like she's got it.
Now we can boost the difficulty
for her by adding a collar.
With puppies, you have
to take baby steps
and change only one
thing at a time.
Adding a collar may not
seem like a big challenge,
but it's new and it
feels funny on her neck.
Once she is used
to the collar, it's
time to boost the difficulty
again, by adding a leash--
Now you're going
to have a leash on.
Now we're going to
add that on, yes.
--which is a bit
more of a challenge.
The leash is tricky,
because when the puppy hits
the end of the leash, it
activates his opposition
reflex, and he'll naturally
pull and fight against it.
Continue to let the leash
run through your fingers.
Drop it if necessary
and keep moving forward.
The second your puppy starts
moving toward you, click.
In no time at all,
the puppy will
learn that hitting
the end of the leash
is a cue to come back to you.
Once Betty's used to the
leash, I boost the difficulty
yet again by asking for two
or three steps in position
before I click.
Yes, good girl.
By the end of the
session, Betty's
walking about 12 steps on
leash, which is more than enough
for a puppy this age.
She's getting tired,
it's tough work.
Whoa, this walking on a
leash stuff is tough work.
This session lasted
just over two minutes,
and it's time for a nap so Betty
can process all she's learned.
I think that's enough.
I think that's enough for a
tiny puppy, here's your puppies.
Did you like it?
That was a big lesson.
Two days later, we
have some visitors
who are thinking about
bringing home a puppy.
And Betty's ready to demo her
loose leash walking skills.
And I'm going to click her.
As soon as I put the collar
on, give her a cookie.
Whoa, so she has a good
association with that.
Betty's only had that one
two-minute training session,
yet she comes out 100%
more confident than she
was in the last session.
This is a perfect example of
the power of short sessions
with lots of rest in between.
Very nice.
So you see how
that kind of works.
But training the puppies
is only half the equation.
The prospective
owners also have to be
taught how to communicate
with the puppies.
Rocco comes out to give
them their first lesson.
It's cold, it's out here, I'm
by myself without my peeps.
Puppy, puppy, puppy.
Now it's Rosie's turn.
Just start walking off.
Your goal for a puppy
younger than 12 weeks
should be just a few
steps with lots of treats.
Teaching them to walk for longer
distances and weaning them off
treats will come later.
Here, the tiny tug on the leash
activates Rosie's opposition
reflex, and she begins bucking
and fighting the leash.
The opposition reflex
in dogs is powerful,
and when you activate it
by tugging on the leash,
you could ironically wind
up teaching the puppy
to pull on the leash
instead of walk with you.
When she grabs it.
Yeah, you just wait
till she looks at you.
OK.
Yeah, that's it.
She'll forget about
it right away.
If, on the other hand, you
avoid tugging on the leash
while you're training
him, your puppy
will learn not to
fight the leash,
and you'll never have
a problem with it.
Just two minutes
spent on this exercise
now will save you hours
of training in the future,
and laying the foundation
for many enjoyable
walks together in
the years to come.