Best Way to Stop Your Dog from Pulling

There are two ways to stop a dog from pulling. Both work. However, one is incredibly easier than the other.

When your dog pulls on his leash, you can pull back. Just like most humans, when you pull a dog, he’ll put everything he’s got into pulling the other way. If your dog weighs more than fifteen or twenty pounds, this is hard work. You won’t like it. Not only that, when I do it, it makes me feel mean. Occasionally, well-meaning, nosy people even tell me I am mean for pulling my dog.

When your dog pulls on his leash, you can accomplish what you want by using the dog’s force instead of your own. Holding the leash in your right hand, extend that arm forward and ever so slightly to the right. As you do this, because what you are doing is subtle, the doe will begin to go in the direction of the pressure. It’s so slight, he won’t fight it. He hardly knows it’s there. Keep the pressure steady, bringing your dog in a lovely, wide circle, around, around until he circles behind you. Swap the leash behind your back into your left hand, and there he is, as if by magic, at your left side in the heel position. He will look very surprised, not having the faintest idea how he got there. Praise him warmly and continue your walk. When he pulls again—and he will—circle him again and praise him for appearing so neatly at your side.

Some dogs, even big ones, are so gentle and light on their feet, you won’t have much of a problem. Other dogs—chunky, big-chested, muscular dogs, dogs so strong they could move mountains and would love to, thank you—tend to pull. Thick-bodied, thick­headed dogs tend to be forgetful, too, or at least single-minded. Even if well trained, when they get a particularly good scent or are on the way to the park they forget the training, they forget your poor arm, they just go. That single-mindedness is exactly what is needed to get a task done—win a weight pull, for example—but on a walk on leash, it can be a handicap (for you). Using the above method and holding tight with both hands to your sense of humor will keep you on good terms with even the most cement-headed dog, and the move is graceful, too. No one watching you in action will ever tell you you’re being mean.

Suppose you find that no matter how many times you cause your dog to circle around behind you and end up, at least momen­tarily, at your left side, he continues to forget himself and pull again? That may be nature’s way of telling you that this particular dog needs to learn to heel. Some dogs need the structure of heeling, especially on the way out. Most will learn not to pull, even without the “Heel” command, on the way back.