Training A Puppy To Walk On The Leash

The last few mornings while I’ve been walking my dogs I’ve passed the same lady walking her puppy. By the looks of him I’d say he’s around 4-5 months old. Yesterday and the day before when I saw them they were in the fields but this morning we passed on the road. (When I say ‘road’ I actually mean a quiet dead-end lane). Each time we’ve met so far he’s been on an extending leash. This morning I saw them coming towards us in the distance and all the while the pup was walking ahead of the owner pulling at the leash.

When you’re training a puppy to walk on the leash in the very early days your sole aim is to get the pup happy to walk along with you; don’t be heavy handed and don’t worry too much about the fact it’ll zig-zag around all over the place. But after the first few days - maybe a week at most - it should be perfectly happy to be out and about with you and should be showing obvious enjoyment from its walks.

Once you’ve reached this stage you need to start educating it to the idea of walking calmly beside you. Allowing it to pull ahead all the time like the lady I saw was doing is a recipe for future shoulder-ache. It might not be a problem at the moment but fast forward twelve months to when you’ve got a virtually fully grown excitable adolescent dog and you’re going to seriously regret never having properly taught it to walk on the leash - even small dogs when fully grown can pull hard and a dog that’s constantly tugging you forward will at best spoil your enjoyment of taking it for a walk. At worst it could cause you serious injury; I’ve seen a woman pulled off her feet and dragged along the street by a powerful dog that had never been taught any manners on the leash.