Leash manners are an important life skill for puppies! Prep them for real-world walks with this simple and motivating exercise!
The Puppy Academy student, Kona!
Nothing is more exciting than harnessing your puppy up, putting them on their leash, and hitting the neighborhood! Did your first ever walk attempt end in your puppy trying to walk YOU? Or did it seem like your puppy wanted to do everything else but walk with you? That may be because you missed out on a first step: introducing your puppy to walking on a leash!
Puppies often don’t understand why they are attached to a leash. All they want is to go, go, go! Learning how to walk on a leash without pulling is a major milestone for many puppies. For many new puppy owners, teaching your puppy to follow your lead can be challenging, but there are steps you can take to make the learning process effective, fun, and successful! It starts with engaging your puppy’s drive, working through distractions, communicating using leash guidance, and getting them accustomed to following your lead on a leash!
Introduction to “Let’s Go!”
Before your puppy is ready for “Heel” command training, start by introducing a Let's Go!" routine. We've found incorporating "Let's Go!" work sets up a puppy to be able to conquer those loose-leash walks faster and helps them transition into learning the "Heel" command even quicker! It will further reinforce the leash guidance technique we covered in our previous blog, “Puppy Training 101: How to Get Your Puppy Responding to Come!” and clear the lines of communication between you and your puppy.
“Let’s Go” is a very motivational command and far more relaxed and fluid as opposed to “Down” or even “Heel” (which we will cover in an upcoming blog!) as it is delivered in a fun and upbeat tone of voice and makes you far more engaging! This is particularly helpful in moments when your puppy’s curious energy drives them toward a distraction! Though it won’t stop your puppy’s drive to want to pull toward something new and exciting, it may help you refocus your puppy so you can move through distractions easier. Remember, it is natural for puppies to pull on their leash, that's what puppies do! "Let's Go!" will start to teach them how to follow your lead instead, for a much more calm and controlled walk you can both enjoy!
So what’s the difference between “Let’s Go!” and the “Come” command to get your puppy’s attention? The goal of “Let’s Go!” is to help motivate your puppy to follow through walking with you while distractions are present. Rather than asking your puppy to “Come” then moving away over and over, this is the command that you will use regularly while on walks. And another difference is “Let’s Go!” is fluid and should be used while you’re in motion. It emulates a real-life situation and utilizes leash guidance to get your puppy moving and following your lead.
How to Teach Your Puppy “Let’s Go!”
The Puppy Academy Student, Dr. Bailey!
Start indoors, and before teaching your puppy how to walk on a leash, first get your puppy moving with a fun warm-up routine of commands they are already familiar with that will motivate them to listen to you and work for their reward, food! You can do this with a simple refresher of their previously learned commands: Place, Down on Place, and Come! Start by luring or asking your puppy to go to their “Place”. Once there, say “Come” and move back a few steps from your puppy. At this point, you can either reward your puppy for coming to you or even incorporate a place pattern routine to another “Place” puppy bed or pet cot. Make it a bit more challenging and fun by having your puppy go into “Down” while on their place. Repeat this process a few times for up to two to three minutes, by this point your puppy will be ready to get to the more challenging walking on leash work!
Once your puppy is warmed up and ready to work, now you can dive into teaching your puppy “Let’s Go!” while walking on a leash! At first, begin leash training your puppy indoors where there are fewer distractions and walk a few steps with your puppy on their harness and leash. When your puppy begins to pull in the opposite direction, apply light leash pressure and switch the direction you’re walking toward. Remember that your leash guidance should be to the side of your puppy, instead of straight back, which will help guide them easily to change directions. At this point, to establish the command and guide them, say “Let’s Go!” in an upbeat tone. You can even pat your leg or whistle - whatever method you want to convey to your puppy that you want their attention!
The moment that your puppy changes direction towards you, release the leash pressure and provide them with slack right away. Mark the correct behavior with the word “Good” and reward them with food! Continue this process, walking a few steps in another direction and repeat. Throughout the training routine, if there are moments when your puppy establishes eye contact, mark that behavior with “Good” and occasionally give them some food rewards. Why? Establishing eye contact shows your puppy is engaged and looking for your leadership. This will be important when you move on to training the “Heel” command to your puppy later on!
This might all seem like you’re walking in circles, and that’s because you are in the beginning! Start this introduction to walking on a leash in your house, then move on outside to your yard, the sidewalk, eventually going for short walks down the block while practicing this routine. Practice with your puppy often, anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes every day until they start to respond and learn to maintain focus on you for direction.
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Important Tips to Remember
The entire goal of teaching your puppy “Let’s Go!” is to get your puppy to move away from a distraction and learn to stay focused on following you while walking on a leash. Once you’re outside, you’ll be competing for their attention against the neighbor outside gardening, other dogs walking by with their owners, leaves blowing in the wind, squirrels-- there are a lot of distractions for puppies! A highly motivating “Let’s Go!”, plus the right application of light leash pressure and change of direction will encourage your puppy to start taking your lead.
To help you narrow in on the key elements of introducing leash walking to your puppy, we rounded up these important tips:
When your puppy starts to pull, don’t let them get to where “they” want to go. Switch up directions right away!
Use a highly motivational and engaging pitch when you say “Let’s Go!” to your puppy to grab their attention.
Some puppies need extra encouragement. Use light pats on your leg or even whistle to get them to want to go in your direction.
Use leash guidance with light pressure down the side of your puppy instead of straight back to get them to turn in the right direction. Once they do, remember to release the pressure immediately to provide them with slack. This will help them start associating that no leash tension = good!
Start slow! Work with your puppy indoors until they start to take your lead then move on outside to your yard.
Practice, practice, practice! Repetition is vital for learning good leash walking manners and in the beginning weeks, you’ll want to practice every day for at least ten to fifteen minutes with your puppy!
Pretty soon, you and your puppy will be able to hit the town! We encourage you to continue practicing this routine in new locations to reinforce long-lasting good leash manners with your puppy, wherever you go! And be sure to keep following along with our Puppy Training 101 blog series! We’ll cover more leash walking training, including training your puppy advanced walking on a leash using the “Heel” command, plus more puppy obedience skills!
Check out these blogs related to puppy training and more!
Puppy Training 101: Teaching Your Puppy Place Command Routines!
Puppy Training 101: How to Get Your Puppy Responding to Come!