How to maintain loose-leash walking after board and train

Your first neighborhood walks

Pick the dullest route you have: a quiet block, a cul-de-sac, the far end of a parking lot early in the morning. Walk for ten to twenty minutes. Pay your dog for being in position frequently at first, every few steps, and slow down to every few houses as it gets easier.

Build in permission to sniff. A release word (the trainer’s, if one was used) lets your dog go and smell a hedge on a loose leash, and is itself a reward. Walks that are all heel and no sniff are hard work for a dog and tend to produce more pulling later.

• Walk with a treat pouch on the side your dog walks
• Keep your leash hand relaxed at your hip, with a smile of slack
• Turn around and walk the other way if a trigger appears ahead
• End the walk before your dog is tired or over-excited

What to do the moment it slips

Stop. When the leash tightens, plant your feet and wait. Most dogs look back or step back within a few seconds; mark that, reward at your side and move on. If your dog keeps pulling, turn and walk the other way, rewarding when it catches up beside you.

If pulling starts every time at the same place, such as the corner by the dog park, that place is too hard for now. Train before you reach it and change your route for a week or two. Pulling that comes with barking or lunging at other dogs is a different issue; see our page on leash reactivity.

Building up to busy walks

Once your quiet route is easy, lengthen the walk before you make it busier. Then try a slightly busier street at a quiet time, then a main street, then a busy time. Go back a step whenever loose leash becomes the exception rather than the rule.

Tell the trainer at your follow-up which settings are still hard. They can usually suggest a specific exercise, such as pattern games for passing other dogs, that suits your dog.