Loose lead walking is a key skill when it comes to working with on-lead reactivity. It will help your dog to be calmer on their walks, more responsive to you and create a more comfortable experience for you both.
Teaching your dog to walk calmly beside you is often one of the most desired behaviors when it comes to dog training.
This is great because the lead can be a big distraction for some dogs who might find its movement exciting and other dogs who need careful introduction to unfamiliar equipment, so they don’t become frightened.
When your dog is ready to go for walks closer to other dogs, choose your location and the dogs you walk with wisely.
Once you have taught your dog the position you would like them to walk in, you can start to develop their skills further.
Teaching your puppy to walk nicely on a loose lead is really useful, whether you live in a busy city environment, or the rural countryside
When it comes to building behavior one aspect which has a huge impact but is often overlooked is reward placement. Where and how you reward your dog will impact the final behavior you build.
For example, if you are teaching your dog to run to their bed and lie down, you might choose to reward your dog on their bed. This will help to build value for being on the mat and serve to build calmness and keep your dog in position for duration, particularly if you give multiple rewards one after the other.
Alternatively, you might choose to reward your dog away from the bed after getting into position. This has the benefit of setting your dog up for another repetition, but also results in energizing your dog, which can cause them to move more quickly into position.
There is no right or wrong way - both are perfectly valid and will teach your dog the behavior but the detail of how the finished behavior looks will be shaped by the choices you make.
Another example of reward placement shaping behavior is loose lead walking. Where you choose to reward your dog will affect how close to you, they walk, whether they are in front or behind and if they stay to your side or cut across in front of you as you move.
It is also possible to mark your dog for a behavior in one location but reward them in a different place. For example, when building up recall, you might as first mark when your dog turns to look at you, but then offer the reward by your side to further build the behavior. If you repeat this several times, your dog will start to move towards you as they check in, because the placement of reward drives the behavior of moving closer to you.
Improving your awareness of reward placement will massively help you when it comes to teaching your dog new behaviors
