· By Minou Tpain
Author: Denise Partlow
Instagram: @modernk9 Carolinas
Now it’s time to incorporate a little bit of movement. For some dogs it’s possible to incorporate this with Part III.
Grab some high value treats! You’re also going to need a standard 6 foot leash. Choose a particular path-perhaps your driveway, a sidewalk, a few houses in one direction or a few houses in another direction. You are NOT going for a regular walk yet <-can’t stress that enough!
If you have practiced all the parts of this series with fidelity, then your dog should be giving you a different energy; a calmer energy than before.
As he stays focused on you, moves with you, stops with you, turns with you, mark and reward all throughout.
If he’s not focused on you at all, then when he gets to the end of the leash you need to stop, plant your feet on the ground (become a tree) and hold the tension on that leash so that equals the amount of tension he is applying. You do not want to pull harder and you do not want to release the tension by moving closer to your dog.
What you want is for your dog to figure out how to relieve the tension himself. Typically, as humans, we are the ones that loosen the tension by walking faster, instead our dogs need to figure out that in order to loosen that tension they must slow down, stop or back up. When he does, you will mark and reward that.
In the beginning, when you become a tree, you will really need to watch for any signal that shows that your dog is relieving the tension-This can be something as subtle as a head turn, sitting down, coming back toward you or just backing up a little bit. A lot of dogs do a simple neck turn in the very beginning-so you must really watch here.
We are not expecting him to return to the handler, that will eventually happen because you will be marking the behavior and he will head over to you to get that reward but for now, we’re just looking for any change that results in a loser leash.
Read More in the story highlight Loose Leash.
Tomorrow I will talk about how to add in more distance.
