Just Going Out For A Walk With Your Dog


Having a dog that knows how to Heel demonstrates control and is useful under situations where he needs to stay close to you and pay attention to you. But for many of us, the main reason we take our dogs for a walk is for daily exercise where it does not really matter what he does, so long as he does not pull. Usually the dogs are somewhere ahead of us, checking out who has been there and just sort of following their noses.

For this type of a walk, it makes little sense to have him do a Heel since his main enjoyment is to use his nose and all you want is no pulling. The following is a simple, yet effective way to teach him to remain within the length of your leash without pulling:

Start the walk with "Let's go," and as soon as he gets to the end of the leash and starts to pull, stop and say "Easy." His reaction will be to turn toward you and come back a few steps. Start walking again with "Let's go," and when you begin to feel tension on the leash, stop with "Easy."

You may have to repeat this sequence a few times over the course of several sessions. If you do it consistently, he will quickly learn that pulling causes you to stop, which in turn will stop him from pulling.