Best Way to Train Your Dog to Hold the Leash

With your dog on leash, ask him to sit. Hold the leash folded, so that it is taut, not tight, and stand near your dog, no more than one step away. Swing your flat, open hand, palm facing your dog, toward your dog’s nose, stopping two inches in front of it, saying “Sta-a-y.” Stand. Don’t sit or crouch. If you get small­er, your dog will break faster. Now wait. Your dog will break. Count on it.

Some of my clients shrug their shoulders when their dogs break. They look at me and say, “See!

That’s not terrifically productive. Instead, put your dog exactly where he started, as if there were an X taped on the floor, tell him “Sit,” tell him “Stay’ count three chimpanzees and tell him Okay” Let him approach for his praise, and try only once more during this session.

Suppose your dog breaks in one chimpanzee? Then correct him as above, returning him to the same spot, and try again. In less than ten minutes, you should be able to get one or two short “Sit/stays.” Bravo to you both. Practice again tomorrow.

If you work on “Sit/stay” after your dog’s adventure walk, he will be ten times easier to train than if you try this static command when your dog is bursting with energy and bouncing off the ceiling. Teaching quiet commands when your dog is tired is not cheating; it’s brilliant dog training, if i must say so myself. After your dog understands what you want, practice by using “Stay” when you need it, on leash, please.

Some people think that if a little is good, a lot is better. Not me. I prefer not to push an untrained dog to work for more than a few min­utes at a time. Worked for too long, the quality of the dog’s work and his ability to concentrate will both diminish.

When i have a private lesson with a dog and his master, that les­son lasts considerably more than ten minutes. But, indoors or out, the work is broken up into five- and ten-minute segments. Sometimes the dog is just allowed to sniff and walk along on a loose lead.

Sometimes my dog Dexter comes along on the lesson, to work and play with my client’s dog. In this case, the dogs work together, then play, then work, then play. This keeps the lesson lively and pre­vents the dog who is learning new things from becoming stressed or burned out.

In time, of course, as your dog’s work improves and as he matures, he will be able to concentrate and work for longer periods of time.