Help! My teenage dog is pulling on-lead!

Let’s be honest: teenage dogs can be a nightmare to walk. You dream of relaxed walks with your dog trotting calmly by your side. But instead you’re dragged towards every single dog, person and tiny bit of rubbish your dog sees. You spend the whole walk desperately trying to get your dog’s attention but it’s like they don’t care that you exist. They’re only aware you’re on the walk with them because you’re a weight on the end of their lead stopping them from having fun.

And not only is your teenage dog not interested in you at all on walks. They’re now BIGGER and they’ve got more energy. So when they pull it’s much more difficult to hold them back. This might not be a huge issue with toy breeds. But if you’ve got a large breed dog, or just a very muscly dog, you’re probably very worried about injuring your arm or getting pulled over. While all this is understandably very stressful, it’s also completely normal for teenage dogs. So don’t worry, neither you nor your dog are failing…

Why your teenage dog pulls towards everything

It’s not your teenage dog’s fault they can’t focus on you on walks. They’re not intentionally being stubborn and they don’t hate you. During adolescence your dog’s brain goes through massive changes to prepare them for adulthood. But these changes mean that they find everything way more distracting than when they were a puppy. And they struggle to control their impulses when they see something exciting. They literally can’t logically think that jumping at that dog walking past isn’t the best choice - they just hurl themselves with no thought.

All this makes teaching loose-lead walking to teenage dog’s pretty difficult. Walking calmly and ignoring everything around you is a hard thing to do when your mind’s racing and you’re surrounded by exciting distractions. Unfortunately, like with a lot of training with teenage dogs, you’re gonna have to wait until your dog is out of adolescence before they’re able to walk calmly on-lead all the time. That doesn’t mean working on loose-lead walking with a teenage dog is a waste of time. As you focus on training, their behaviour will slowly improve. And if you make the effort now, it’ll all click once your dog is an adult and they’re able to control their impulses and they’ll be walking beautifully next to you.

Training your teenage dog to walk calmly on-lead

There are two very simple principles when teaching teenage dogs anything: make training EASY and make it FUN. But walking with a loose-lead past distractions is BORING and HARD - which is why most teenage dogs would rather pull you to where the fun is. It sounds counterintuitive but when you start working on loose-lead walking don’t train in the places your dog pulls most. I know they’re the places you're most desperate for your dog to walk calmly, but they’re also the places your dog will struggle to focus on you most. Instead focus on training in quieter places until your dog really understands how to walk with a loose-lead without distractions. Once they do, you’ll both be ready to start practising in more distracting places. If you’re worried that you might get injured if your dog pulls, just avoid walking in the places they pull most. It’s important you stay safe, and you deserve to have relaxing walks instead of stressing about being pulled over.

Making training fun is slightly harder with loose-lead walking. Some training, like recall, is easy to turn into a fun game. It’s not so easy to do this with loose-lead walking where we’re usually looking for calmness, not excitement. But there are some easy ways to make loose-lead walking much more rewarding for your dog without them getting over-excited (which often leads to pulling and jumping). Make sure you’re using treats that your dog thinks are super high-value. All dogs have their own preferences, but most dogs find meat and cheese the most exciting. If your dog loves wet foods like peanut butter, you can buy refillable squeezy tubes so you can use these foods as a reward on walks. If you have a super-sniffy dog, you can try putting their treat on the floor instead of giving it to them from your hand. This way they get to enjoy sniffing as part of their reward, which will also help them stay calm, and as a bonus this often stops the problem of dogs pulling forward as soon as they’ve eaten their treat.

Teenage dogs can be more anxious

For some dogs, they pull on-lead because the world is scary not because it’s exciting. Worried dogs might try to pull you away from things they’re scared of. But they might also lunge and bark at scary things. Unfortunately this is a common issue for teenage dogs. During adolescence dogs can go through fear periods when the world seems a lot scarier for a few weeks. This can make dogs, people and literally anything that your dog would normally be able to cope with turn into a terrifying monster. So if your dog’s pulling has got worse suddenly it could be that they’re going through a fear period.

If your dog seems more worried about certain things or the world in general, it’s best to walk them in quieter places for a while to help them relax. Some, but not all, dogs will come out of a fear period with as much confidence as they had before. But if your dog is constantly having to deal with things that scare them that fear could become more permanent. If you’re ever worried that your teenage dog might find specific things or the whole world scary, contact a qualified behaviourist. Fear is complex and helping an anxious dog feel less fearful isn’t something you should do alone.

Need more support with your teenage dog’s loose-lead walking?

You can get personalised support to teach your teenage dog to walk calmly on-lead and all the other skills they’ll need for your life together with the Your Teenage Rascal 1-2-1 adolescent dog training programme.

Written by Juniper Indigo, dog trainer in Tiverton and Exeter