How to Train Your Older Dog to Walk on a Leash

Hello Nikita, First, whenever you feed him, set the leash next to his food. When he gets used to the leash being near him, then when you feed him, feed him one piece of food at a time from your hand while you hold the leash next to him in your other hand. When he can handle that, then reach toward him with the leash, but don't try to clip it on, and feed him a treat each time that you reach toward him. Repeat this until he can relax during that also. When he can handle that, then clip the leash to him, give him a treat, and un-clip it again. Practice this until he will let you clip the leash to him without reacting fearfully. Expect this to take at least a couple of weeks. After Jimmy can handle having the leash clipped to him, then create a short leash out something that is one to two feet long. When you are there to supervise him, clip the short leash to him and let him walk around with it attached to him. Play games with him and give him pieces of his food for following you around and paying attention to you. This will help with some of the other, future training and it will take his mind off of the leash being attached to him. When you are done spending time with him, then take the leash off of him again. You want him to associate the leash with attention from you, fun, and rewards, so that he will look forward to the leash being attached. When he can handle the short leash, then clip his regular six-foot leash to him, and practice the same thing with the longer leash, until he no longer minds that leash also. When he can handle the longer leash, then follow him around in the yard and hold onto the end of his leash. Every once in a while give a gentle tug on the leash and then quickly give him a treat while you praise him. You want to teach him to look at you or come toward you when he feels pressure from the leash. If he expects a reward whenever he feels the tug, he should start looking at you instead of panicking. As he improves, you can gradually wait until he takes a step toward you before you give him the treat. With practice, you can add more and more steps before you give the treat, teaching him to follow you. Go slow and make sure that he is comfortable with the current amount of leash pressure with the treats before you make things more difficult. Once you can take him with you places on the leash, then whenever he sees a person or a dog, before he has a change to react poorly, praise him, do a little fun dance, and give him a treat. This is to get him excited and to make him feel happy about the presence of other people and dogs. You want him to expect the appearance of others to be fun and not scary. To teach basic obedience commands, go to the training section of www.wagwalking.com/training and read the individual articles written for how to teach each of the commands that you want to teach him. Since Jimmy is so fearful, look for methods that involve using treats at first, to help him like the training sessions too. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Hello Kaitlyn, First, start by putting a regular collar on each dog and let him wear that for a week until he gets used to having something around his neck. Give them treats while you are putting the collars on. You might need real meat treats like chicken meat. When they are comfortable wearing collars, then when you are at home, attach a two to three foot check cord to each dog's collar while they are in a safely enclosed area and cannot run off if they get spooked. A check cord is a type of leash that is designed for hunting dogs to wear during outdoor training. It does not have a handle, is usually rolled instead of flat webbing, and is made out of a material that slides through the grass easily. Look for a brand like Sportdog or Mendota, you can also create your own out of thin climbing accessory rope. Have each dog wear the leash until he learns to ignore it. Expect the dogs to freak out for the first two days that they have the leashes on. Puppies take time to get used to leashes. It will take an adult at least as long as it does a puppy. They need to learn through experience that the leash is not going to hurt them. While Bella and Bijou are wearing the leash check cords and have calmed down enough, do something really fun with them in the enclosed area without grabbing onto the leash. That could be training exercises with treats, a game like fetch, or giving them each a fun toy. Anything that they love, that they can do while in that enclosed area while wearing the check cords. The purpose of the fun thing is to distract them from the leashes and to make the experience more pleasant so that they will calm down faster. Also only keep the leashes on them while you are around to supervise for safety reasons. Clear your schedule and spend the day with them reading and hanging out where you can see them. When they are used to the leashes dragging behind them, then pick up the handles of the leashes and follow each dog around wherever he wants to go. Have one person work with each dog or do them one at a time. Don't try to handle both yourself. When they are used to you following them while holding onto their leashes, then follow them like before but occasionally give a quick tug on the leash and then give a wonderful reward right after. Practice this until each dog begins to look at you when you tug in anticipation of a reward. Release the tension on the leash again right after you tug. When they will look at you, then occasionally give a tug, but keep the leash tight until the dog turns his head toward you or takes a step toward you. Practice this until both dogs will step toward you when you make the leash tight. From there you can add more steps, rewarding each dog every time that he walks toward you a bit more, until you have dogs who will follow you on a leash while you give him treats. When they can follow you on leash, then you can gradually give them less treats overtime, until you no longer need the treats. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Hello Elaine, It is never too late to leash train Sophie. I recommend that you simply get her used to the leash first by following the "Acclimatize" method in this article bellow: https://wagwalking.com/training/walk-on-a-leash Once Sophie is used to the leash, then you can teach her to walk nicely on the leash by using one of the methods found in this article bellow: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-large-dog-to-not-pull Best of luck training and enjoy your travels with her, Caitlin Crittenden