How to teach your dog to walk calmly on lead

We all dream of those lovely, relaxing walks with our dogs where they walk calmly next to us. But if you’ve tried training your dog to walk calmly on lead you’ll have found it’s harder than it looks. That’s because those exciting walks come with lots of distractions for your dog. There’s so many things to see, hear and smell and it’s really hard for them to focus on walking with you when there's so much other stuff happening.

Unfortunately there’s no quick fixes when training loose-lead walking. Teaching your dog to walk calmly on lead everywhere takes time and effort. But there are some small changes that can improve your dog’s lead walking and make your training more effective. Your dog won’t suddenly be walking calmly but you’ll be one step closer to those relaxing walks you dream of.

Rewarding your dog for looking at you is an easy way to teach them to walk calmly on lead

What actually is loose-lead walking?

For most people the reason they want to teach their dog to walk calmly on lead is so they stop pulling. It’s not fun to be dragged down the road by a dog - and your dog’s not having a good time either. One common way to teach a dog to not pull is to teach a ‘heel’. This requires your dog to walk next to one of your legs at exactly the same pace as you. Dogs aren’t allowed to stop and sniff - their favourite part of the walk. Yes this solves the problem of pulling, but it’s not great for your dog’s wellbeing.

Loose-lead walking is much more relaxed. It doesn’t matter where your dog walks, how fast they walk or if they sniff as long as their lead is loose. It turns the walk from a boring route march to a relaxing stroll. This might not seem like a huge change, but it’ll make a huge difference to your dog. Smell is your dog’s most important sense and it’s how they learn about the world. Giving them time to stop and sniff makes their walks so much more enjoyable for them. It has benefits for you too. Sniffing helps calm your dog so they’ll be much more relaxed on walks. And it’ll tire out their brain much more than walking to heel - so they’ll actually come home and sleep.

If you let your dog stop and sniff while walking they’ll be much happier and more relaxed

Reward your dog for checking-in with you

One of the easiest ways to teach your dog to walk with a loose lead is to reward them every time they look at you. This teaches them to focus on you and will naturally stop them pulling. It’s just not physically possible for your dog to look at you and pull. You’re not aiming for your dog to be looking at you for the whole walk, we want them to be able to stop and sniff. You just want your dog to be checking back in with you regularly. When you first train this you might expect your dog to be looking up at you every few steps so they learn what you want. But once they learn how to walk with loose lead you probably only want them to check-in every 1-2 minutes.

Another benefit of rewarding check-ins is that you don’t have to bother with teaching your dog not to pull. One common way to teach your dog to walk with a loose lead is to stop when they pull. This is because if your dog pulls and it gets them where they want to go then the pulling gets rewarded and happens more. But this is ridiculously frustrating for you and your dog. And often ends up with you only walking one or two steps before you have to stop again.

Choose the right places to train

One common mistake people make when training loose-lead walking is they start training in busy places. Your dog will struggle to focus on you if there are too many distractions so they won’t learn anything. If you start teaching them to walk with a loose lead in your home and garden they’ll learn much quicker. And then when they understand what you want you can start to practise on walks.

Parks can be a lovely place to walk your dog - but they’re full of distractions that make training difficult

You won’t want to train for the whole walk. Training loose-lead walking is tiring for both you and your dog and neither of you will be able to practise for long. Instead train for no more than a few minutes at a time when your dog is most focused on you. One time I don’t recommend training is at the start of the walk. Yes, I know people say ‘start as you mean to go on’. But most dogs are most distracted at the beginning of a walk. They’re taking in all the smells, especially when they’re in a new place. And often they’re desperate for the toilet and focused on finding the right spot to relieve themselves.

The right equipment makes a huge difference

Often when people are struggling with training loose-lead walking it’s because they’ve got the wrong equipment. There is no tool which will teach your dog to walk calmly on lead and most that claim they will stop your dog pulling do so by hurting your dog or literally choking them. But the right kit can make your training much easier. You might think you need to train your dog on a short lead because that will help them stay closer. But that’s going to make training loose-lead walking harder. The shorter the lead, the less room your dog has so they’re going to hit the end of their lead more often. Walking them on a longer lead (1.5-2m) will give them more space to move freely, stop and sniff while still keeping their lead loose.

I’d always recommend buying a well-fitting harness to train loose-lead walking. Harnesses won’t teach your dog to pull or stop them pulling. A good harness can make pulling more comfortable for your dog but that’s a good thing. If your dog pulls on a collar they could seriously injure their neck and we don’t want them to hurt themselves. But that’s not the only reason I prefer to walk dogs in harnesses. We need to be as consistent as possible when training to help our dogs learn quickly. But that’s pretty difficult when we’re only training in a few places. A harness allows you to teach your dog when you’re training and when you’re not. You can clip your dog on the back of their harness when you’re just on a normal walk. And then when you’ve got time to train you can clip them on the collar or the front of their harness. You get to be consistent with your training without having to train constantly.

Written by Juniper Indigo, dog trainer in Tiverton and Exeter