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Hey everyone, I wanted to ask about teaching leash manners to a poodle puppy. My girl Penny is still very young, almost 13 weeks, so I realize my expectations are probably too high but I'm sure there's room for improvement in the way I'm teaching her. If anyone has tips or suggestions, that would be awesome. Also feel free to share your own progress or stories about teaching leash manners!
Currently I take Penny on two short walks a day for 10 minutes, plus routine potty breaks. I keep the idea of potty breaks and walks separate - if I intend on walking after a potty break, I'll bring her back inside for a minute or two then go back out again. Walks have been very hot and cold so far... If she's fresh from a long nap, she honestly walks SO well. She'll trot politely beside me or explore within the 6ft leash, while frequently making eye contact because I'm constantly praising "good walk!" every few steps. In these times she'll barely pull, and if she does, she responds well to correction. Unfortunately for both of us, she only walks this like 10% of the time maybe?
Much more frequently, walks don't go very well. Once we're out and she realizes we're walking, she gets very jumpy and jazzed. She'll start leaping in front of me with this super excited eye contact, which is honestly SO cute, but not exactly good walking behaviour! So I'll correct with an 'ah-ah' until she calms, then we try to walk a few steps. She almost always rushes to the end of the leash and clotheslines herself. Fortunately she wears a good harness, but it still can't feel good. Every time she does this, or if she starts pulling in one direction, I stop dead and say 'ah-ah' or just a firm 'ah'. She'll look at me, the line goes slack, then I'll take ONE step forward and the process repeats. She'll rush the leash or pull, I stop, she stops, and the circus show continues.
On her worst walks she goes bananas. She'll start biting the leash and trying to play tug, leap around me constantly, or rear up and ricochet off me using her front paws. It's awful and honestly a bit embarrassing, but I know she's just an over excited puppy. My solution is to force her into a sit and say 'calm' and 'easy' in a gentle tone while petting her until she loses the crazy look in her eye. Unfortunately this only works like half the time, and if she keeps going nuts, I'm forced to pick her up and carry her home. She's so activated that it seems no amount of correction will help.
It's frustrating because she has the capacity to walk beautifully on leash, I just need to figure out how to tell her I want that behaviour all the time, not just when she feels like it.
The little stinker in question:
Currently I take Penny on two short walks a day for 10 minutes, plus routine potty breaks. I keep the idea of potty breaks and walks separate - if I intend on walking after a potty break, I'll bring her back inside for a minute or two then go back out again. Walks have been very hot and cold so far... If she's fresh from a long nap, she honestly walks SO well. She'll trot politely beside me or explore within the 6ft leash, while frequently making eye contact because I'm constantly praising "good walk!" every few steps. In these times she'll barely pull, and if she does, she responds well to correction. Unfortunately for both of us, she only walks this like 10% of the time maybe?
Much more frequently, walks don't go very well. Once we're out and she realizes we're walking, she gets very jumpy and jazzed. She'll start leaping in front of me with this super excited eye contact, which is honestly SO cute, but not exactly good walking behaviour! So I'll correct with an 'ah-ah' until she calms, then we try to walk a few steps. She almost always rushes to the end of the leash and clotheslines herself. Fortunately she wears a good harness, but it still can't feel good. Every time she does this, or if she starts pulling in one direction, I stop dead and say 'ah-ah' or just a firm 'ah'. She'll look at me, the line goes slack, then I'll take ONE step forward and the process repeats. She'll rush the leash or pull, I stop, she stops, and the circus show continues.
On her worst walks she goes bananas. She'll start biting the leash and trying to play tug, leap around me constantly, or rear up and ricochet off me using her front paws. It's awful and honestly a bit embarrassing, but I know she's just an over excited puppy. My solution is to force her into a sit and say 'calm' and 'easy' in a gentle tone while petting her until she loses the crazy look in her eye. Unfortunately this only works like half the time, and if she keeps going nuts, I'm forced to pick her up and carry her home. She's so activated that it seems no amount of correction will help.
It's frustrating because she has the capacity to walk beautifully on leash, I just need to figure out how to tell her I want that behaviour all the time, not just when she feels like it.
The little stinker in question: