We’ve spoken about training your puppy quite indepth now, and you can catch up by reading earlier posts, but there are always ways in which you can maintain this one important factor in all training; making yourself the leader of your pack…
A dog will never do what the leader doesn’t want it to, and a dog will always follow a leader and look to the leader for direction in times of anxiety. This is why you dog owners need a little training sometimes; particularly when it comes to walking the dog.
Walking the dog is not nearly as easy as putting your dog on its lead and walking out the front door. On no! There are steps to take even before you start to collect the lead and open the door. If you have followed the advice in the previous posts on training etc then you stand a pretty good chance of having your puppy well on the way to subservience already; you are probably well and truly the boss, and if that is so then we needn’t do much here.
However, your dog can continue to push boundaries in the early days so this is what you do. When you decide to go for a walk tell your dog. Your dog must be calm before you even put on the lead and it must be standing at your side or behind you before you leave the house. As silly as it may sound, your dog must not step foot outside the door first; this simply says that he is leading the hunt.
Once you have asserted your position in the front the true battle begins in the continous affirmation of your position. You must never get angry and pull your dog here. What you need to do is stand still if the dog runs ahead of you. Wait for it to stop. Walk backwards until the dog comes in line again and then set off by leading again. You need to make sure your dog doesn’t know where it’s going and that only you can possibly lead the way.
Tags: dog owners, dog training, Dogs