Part One: The importance of training your dog
Posted by adminWe have all witnessed this scenario – an owner on one end of a leash with a wild, energetic dog pulling them around on the other end. If the truth be known, we have all laughed about that person who is having their arm disconnected from their shoulder by man’s best friend while on a “relaxing” walk. Then there is the dog that is practically doing flips attempting to remove its head from a collar.
Training your dog to walk on a leash is an important topic because having a well-behaved dog on a leash makes walking the dog a pleasure instead of a stressful chore. To successfully train a dog to a leash, the owner must know how to use the different types of collars available for dogs and research different training methods that will work for both owner and pet.
We have researched some of the most successful methods and effective equipment to assist the dog owner to train their dog. There will be too much information for one article, so it will be split into three parts. This first part will highlight the importance of training your dog. The second part will discuss the different types of collars for walking a dog, and the third will have suggestions on actually training your dog.
Teaching your dog to walk nicely on a leash is something that will take practice. A dog pulling against a leash is a common problem that needs to be corrected at an early age. It will get harder to correct as the dog gets older. If the dog pulls on the leash and is not corrected, the dog will believe that it is acceptable behavior. When the walk is continued when he is pulling, then he thinks this is a reward.
Taking a walk with your dog is supposed to be an enjoyable experience but sometimes is a tug of war between owner and dog that causes frustration on both ends of the leash. The remedy to this frustration is to find the right collar for you and your dog and then train the dog to walk calmly and orderly on a leash. Allowing your dog to pull you around is not only uncomfortable for you, but it can be dangerous for your dog.
When you start training your dog for a leash, you’ll find that walks are much more enjoyable for you and your pet. The activity level of the owner must also be included in the training. An owner who will be jogging with a dog does not need to train the dog differently that the owner who wants slow, relaxing walks.
Another behavior that needs to be addressed is a dog slipping out of a collar. When a dog learns that it can remove its head from a standard collar, it will do it over and over again. Especially those dogs that have a head that is smaller than its neck such as sight hounds, pugs and bulldogs. When a dog slips out of a standard collar, there is a serious safety risk to the dog and its owner who will have to chase the runaway pet. So alternative types of collars have been designed for this problem and the owner must research the various types of collars. Choke collars, Martingale collars or harnesses, may need to be used when walking your dog. The owner should make this decision based on their dog’s breed and temperament.
This first of a three-part series is concluded. The second and third parts will follow soon. The second part of the series will discuss the different types of collars that will assist owners in training their dogs to walk obediently on a leash.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Dog Collars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.