Tightening The Leash

I’m a loose leash fanatic! There I’ve said it, I cringe when I see a dog walked on a tight lead. As a behaviourist and trainer I understand why a person walking a dog has ended up doing this and I know full well the message that is sent down that lead. Who hasn’t been told by a trainer to “loosen that lead”, “be relaxed”, “you are making your dog anxious with a tight lead”, “as soon as the lead tightens you dog is looking for trouble”…… and so on and so on – there are a myriad of other reasons that we can add to why it is best to loosen the lead when walking our dogs. All this is apart from the fact that it actually hurts shoulders and arms when you have a dog that “pulls like a steam train”!

It was actually professionally grooming dogs that led me to fully realise the extent of what we are teaching our dogs when we tighten that leash. Some of the dogs literally try to hang themselves by lifting both front legs off of the table and using any neck restraint to try and swing their heads/necks/front part of bodies on while straining forward with their back legs. These aren’t dogs that are stressed, these aren’t dogs that hate being groomed; these are just dogs that have learned that a tight lead means you can get to the next place. Dogs that believe the groom should be finished and they should be on their way to the next adventure.

My own dogs are trained right from day one that any such tension on the lead prevents the journey from continuing even for a millisecond and that a loose lead keeps them moving forward. But it took me many years and a few dogs to really perfect the ability to do this; to be able to train a pup from day one on a collar with leash and get near perfection of no pulling. I’m not talking about using aversive methods here (I don’t like them, see no need for them and at the end of the day I want a great trusting relationship with my dog, not one where the dog is too scared to move for fear of pain if in the wrong place). So there’s no yanking on the lead or grabbing the collar, I don’t need to walk a thousand different directions to get my dog’s attention; I don’t have to call my dogs back to me (or pull them in as nice a way as I possibly could). But the learning of nice loose leash dog walking #looseleash is a subject for another day.

What I want to talk about here is perhaps as a trainer of people training their dogs we’ve been looking at this the wrong way?

Why aren’t we teaching people to have a tight lead #tightlead but be relaxed?