Tag: leash training

The Puzzle Week – Part 17: Puppy Leash Skills (ancillary skills for your puppy)

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In the first puppy leash skills post, you saw two unedited clips of what the automatic leash pressure method looks like in practice. This post is all about drilling deeper.

One of the laws of automatic leash pressure is that you never get to pull on the leash or reel your puppy in. However, sometimes, you’ll find yourself in a situation where you need a puppy straining at the end of their leash to get out of the way. Maybe there’s a kid with an ice cream cone about to stumble over your puppy, or maybe they got off the sidewalk and are trying to cross a busy road. This brings us to our ancillary skills. These skills have a single purpose: they will allow you to move your puppy without jeopardizing the golden rule of never pulling on the leash and never reeling puppies in.

Ancillary skill #1: follow a treat magnet

Teach your puppy – independent of leash training – to follow a treat you hold in front of their nose for at least a few steps. Take the treat between thumb and index finger, present it in front of the puppy’s nose and steer them in whichever direction you want them to go by having them follow the treat. Here’s an example of applications in real-world LLW contexts.

In the video below, Puzzle wants to eat something on the ground that I don’t want her to eat (looks like eggs someone broke). I use a treat magnet to get her to keep going – and the leash stays loose.

Here, I don’t have a video helper, so I just walk up and down with the camera set up at a distance. Puzzle thinks it’s weird that we are turning around to walk back to the camera. She sits down. I wait a few seconds, but she doesn’t look like she’s planning on getting up anytime soon. Treat magnet (in combination with a little treat toss) for the win! I reactivate her with food and we keep going. (Sorry about the blurry video!)

Ancillary skill #2: be comfortable being picked up!

If things are scary and your puppy wants to take off running rather than continuing their loose leash stroll or you realize you are late for a Zoom meeting and have to get back home ASAP, there’s a simple solution: pick them up and carry them. Puppies who learn that they are always safe when you carry them will even learn to seek you out (rather than bolt) when they get scared. Practice picking up your puppy at home and in other low-stress environments to build positive associations!

Not exactly a LLW context, but I’m using the puppy pick-up skill here at a small convenience store (left picture) and at a pharmacy (right picture): I want to take Puzzle places to get her used to the world, but I don’t want her to walk inside these businesses since she isn’t yet housebroken. Picking her up is the best of both worlds!

As a rule of thumb, I tend to use ancillary skills 1 and 3 if the puppy is merely distracted, and ancillary skill 2 if they are scared or if I am in a hurry. That’s because walking voluntarily gives a dog more agency than being carried – and agency is a good thing!

The best way to carry your puppy is either in a comfy bag or supporting their butt and back legs with your arm/hand.

Ancillary skill #3: call them over!

Sometimes, you don’t have treats, feel like the distraction is too low to warrant the use of treats or your Saint Bernard puppy is getting too heavy to be picked up. Being able to call or otherwise entice them to come to you is perfect for these moments: again, it will allow you to move your puppy without tightening the leash or reeling them in. Just like picking up your puppy, this is something you’ll want to practice in a low-distraction environment, outside of the context of leash walking. For me, it tends to just happen naturally as I interact with a puppy throughout the day: I end up building both an informal recall (In my case, “Pupupup!” as well as a kissy noise), and teach them that me squatting down or doing playful piano fingers on the ground is a cue to approach me. When I need it in the real world of LLW, the behavior will be ready!

Here’s a brief example of using a kissy noise, squatting down and the beginning of piano fingers to get Puzzle out of the way of the stranger and their kid:

I won’t necessarily treat when using ancillary skill #3. Just get the puppy where you need them to be and then keep going!

Now that you’ve got a good idea of ancillary skills, there’s one more crucial element missing: you need a way to measure the pressure your puppy is putting on the leash in order to guarantee consistency. How much pressure will cue you to stop? It should always be the same amount, independent of your state of mind, where you are walking or how lazy or high-energy your puppy is feeling. We’ll look at how to develop a simple measuring system in my next post!

The Puzzle Week – Part 16: Puppy Leash Skills (overview)

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Apart from some fun CU work, I was excited about getting Puzzle’s assistance in videoing the steps for one other skill: loose leash walking!

Those of you who have taken my Out & About class know that I’m an opportunistic LLW teacher: depending on the dog, owner, goals and circumstances, I’ll apply one of several different LLW approaches. The method I’m going to share with you today is one I don’t generally talk about in my classes. Let’s call it the automatic leash pressure method.

I’ve only used this approach in some of my own puppies (and never in an adult dog). I just don’t have enough data to feel like it is something I want to teach to people who are paying me. If you give this a try with your puppy after reading my post, be sure to let me know how it’s working for you!

The force of habit

Our strongest behaviors are habitual ones: they are the ones we do unthinkingly, without involving the decision-making prefrontal cortex at all. Our body is so used to performing them that they are on autopilot. For example, when I’m driving and there’s a red light, my foot will automatically step on the break and slow down. I don’t have to consider my options and think about whether or not I want to stop. I don’t have to turn off the podcast I’m listening to in order to not be too distracted to make said decision. The behavior is on autopilot, no matter whether it’s rushour or I’m the only car on the road, and no matter whether I’m singing along with the radio, talking to the person in the passenger seat, or keeping an eye on my GPS. I’ll even step on the break if I’m driving in Thailand (i.e. on the left side of the road) rather than in one of the right-side-of-the-road countries I’m used to. Habits are habits because we’ve engaged in them lots of times in all kinds of contexts, and we have never not engaged in the habit: running red lights is not on an intermittent reinforcement schedule. I’ve stopped at red lights ever since I learned to drive, every single time.

A classical conditioning approach

This kind of habit is what I want to build in the automatic leash pressure approach. Unlike any of my other LLW methods, which rely on operant conditioning, this one is mainly about classical conditioning.

What do I mean by this? Well, in this context, stimulus A is always and without exception followed by stimulus B, independent of the puppy’s behavior. Stimulus A is the leash tightening. Stimulus B is stopping.

A ——-> B
Leash tightens ——-> Movement stops

When A happens, then B happens. No exceptions. Ever. Like gravity. You may not be able to rely on many things in this Covid-ridden, white supermacist world of looming climate catastrophy, but there is one thing that always holds true: when leahes tighten, all movement stops.

A puppy who grows up in a world of tight leashes stopping movement doesn’t question this fact of life: it has always been that way, and always will. The puppy will adjust to this world without question.

The theory

If you consistently stop any time the leash tightens even just a little bit, from the first time the puppy wears a leash onwards, you will end up with a puppy who unthinkingly gives in to leash pressure anytime they feel pressure on their collar for the rest of their life.

Ancillary skills

There are a few ancillary skills that are helpful for you, the human, to train (treat magnet; getting the puppy comfortable being picked up; calling the puppy over).

There’s also a specific way of measuring how much pressure is too much pressure (i.e. when you need to stop) that will help you be consistent.

I’ll share this in a subsequent post!

The videos below are just to give you a brief overview: yes, I stop a lot – but I it doesn’t slow me down significantly; it’s not an annoying way of walking a puppy. Also note that this is a really busy and difficult environment: if Puzzle didn’t constantly forget about leash pressure among all these people, there would be something wrong with her.

You’ll see me stop if she needs time to sniff behind me, move the leash to the other side if she wants to walk there, and use a treat magnet once to redirect her from eating something I don’t want her to eat. In the second video, I squat down and call her over to get her out of the way off some passers-by. This is really important: I will never pull on the leash to get her to move! It is Puzzle who needs to loosen the leash. I’ll help her if she needs help – but never by means of reeling her in.

Also pay attention to the different strategies Puzzle can use to loosen a tight leash. I don’t care what strategy she picks – weight shift back, turning towards me, sitting down … The moment the leash loosens, we’ll start walking again.

Btw, and the place she wants to go into in the second video? It’s a butcher shop. Lots of good smells!