Walking your dog can be one of the most satisfying interactions that occur between owner and dog, or it can be the most frustrating activity of your day.
How your walk goes will all depend on the amount of time you spent leash training your puppy.
Puppies by nature are a very curious and free animal, and they want to run ahead and sniff and pee on everything they see.
This can be cute and adorable when they are small and light, but as they grow and gain weight it will become an irritating activity.
It is never too early to begin to leash train your puppy once they have been weaned off of their mother.
One mistake I have seen people make is attempt to leash train, and house train your puppy at the same time.
I do not recommend doing this as it will confuse your dog and cause your training cycle to take longer.
If you house train and leash train at the same time, he will get mixed signals and wonder "does this guy want me to pee or walk in a straight line".
The techniques below are for large breed dogs only! Leash Training is a relatively simple process, providing you have the right equipment; before we even begin to discuss the training methods, we need to make sure you are fully prepared.
You will obviously need a leash, but not just any leash; I recommend a six foot leather lead.
The next item on your shopping list is a good collar.
Many experts will disagree on the type of collar to use, but I personally recommend a pinch collar to a choke collar.
A pinch collar looks mean compared to a choker, but the spikes are actually designed to spread the pressure evenly on the dog's neck, and replicate the pinch a puppy would receive from his mother when he misbehaves.
Before using a pinch collar, inspect it to make sure that none of the prongs are overly sharp, and attempt to get one with a rubber safety cap on the spikes.
You can also use a choke collar if you so desire, but I do not like them because they cut off the air supply, the pressure is not evenly distributed on the neck, and cause injury to the developing neck bones.
Once you have your collar and leash, invest in a good chew toy to give your puppy as a reward for proper behavior.
The last thing you will need, as with any training method is time and patience.
Before you can begin to leash train the dog, you have to do is train yourself.
You need to learn how to give a proper correction, how to properly award your dog, and of course what the proper position for walking is.
Dogs learn behaviors via association, a firm no and a solid correction means they have done something wrong and a reward means they should continue the behavior.
To give a proper correction you need to tug quickly and firmly on the leash and say the word no sternly.
Do not under any circumstances tug and hold the leash, prolonging the pressure on the neck that can cause serious harm to your animal.
After sometime the puppy will associate the word no with a collar pinch and it will be an effective correction on its own.
To properly reward the puppy during training, keep a chew toy or a tennis ball in your pocket, and when he or she does something that pleases you, give them the toy and pet them, telling them good boy good (insert action here) to reinforce that the behavior they exhibited was appropriate.
I avoid using dog treats such as biscuits for training, because then they will come to expect a food reward every time they do the right thing.
The last thing you need to learn before passing it on to your dog is the proper positions for dog and human.
Where exactly your dog walks in reference to you is a matter of personal preference, but as a former canine handler, the method I use and teach is the working dog's heel.
The heel has the dog positioned on your left side, his front shoulder even with your knee, and you have a comfortable grip on the leash with your left hand about six inches from the clasp.
Leash training a puppy does not require you to take long walks or have large open space in fact I suggest you do it in an area that your puppy is familiar with to minimize the potential distractions.
The first step to teaching a young dog to walk on a leash is just to get him used to wearing his collar, put it on him and let him get used to the strange weight on his neck.
Once he is used to the collar the next step is to hook him up to the leash and start teaching him the commands that you will use when you walk around the neighborhood.
My puppy and I spend hours in the living room just practicing the heel position.
The easiest way I have found to teach a new dog that position is to place him there and tell him heel, then give him his chew toy for a moment, after about an hour of this, walk forward of your dog, and with a slight tug of the leash tell him to heel, and if he does not respond when you give him the command give him the correction If he properly responds give him his reward.
After he begins to understand where he belongs when you command him to heel, tell him to heel, walk a few steps next to him, gently correcting him if he leaves his position, and rewarding him if he does well.
Your puppy will not learn these steps all in one day, so be sure to spend at least an hour a day reinforcing what you have taught him.
When you feel that both you and your puppy are ready to take your leash training to the next step, it is time to go walk the neighborhood, when you do this be sure to bring a supply of plastic bags, often your dog will have a bowel movement on his walks.
Once you get out on the streets you will be able to tell whether or not all of your work in the house paid off.
Take him outside, give him his heel command and step off.
If he is distracted by all the new sights and smells of the neighborhood, do not let him become distracted and forget his training.
The mistakes I see many people make include, but are not limited to being afraid to correct your dog when there are public eyes upon you, letting them have the freedom to explore the new environment without giving them a correction, and my biggest pet peeve not being prepared in case the dog does need to use the washroom.
These mistakes are easily correctable as long as you remember what you learned.
Do not worry that people are watching you correct your dog; if you use the technique I taught you earlier it is not cruel and you will not hurt them.
It is natural to want to allow your dog to explore new things when he is out of your yard for the first time, so when you walk, set a destination where you can let him roam and run free before resuming your walk.
When I walk my dogs, I often walk them to the local dog park where they can run and be rewarded for proper behavior on the trip over.
If your dog does go to the bathroom while you are leash training them, be sure to praise them for not going in your home and reward them for proper behavior, after you clean it up with your plastic bag.
Training a dog to walk on a leash is a simple task if you just remember the basics.
Dogs learn their behavior from association, aka reward and punishment so do not be stingy with either the corrections or the praise.
Patience is a virtue, especially when it comes to training, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a well trained, well behaved puppy.
It will serve you well in your training process to think of a puppy as you would a human child, they are looking for direction and guidance from the dominant member of the family, their parents, and that my friends is you.
These techniques were written to be used with a brand new puppy, but remember it is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks.
If you do apply these techniques to an older dog, it will require more practice and more patience, the older the dog, the more set in their ways they have become.
I wish you luck in leash training your puppy and enjoying many long walks throughout the years to come.