The Fight Begins

One of the most common issues that dog owners have is an issue they don’t realize. Many owners will go through this struggle from the moment that they get their dog and they don’t do anything about it. This very common issue is putting a collar and leash on your dog. There are two steps that you can do to stop the struggle between you and your dog. By following these steps, you will end the fight that many times you will have with you dog and gain more control over your dog.

New Dog Owner The Fight Begins

One of my recent dog owners had rescued a new dog and even though he was very loving dog, he had very little control. Every day she would go to work and come home and want take the dog out to use the bathroom or even to travel to Dutchess County to visit friends. Every single time she had an issue putting the leash on her new dog. The moment she grabbed the leash to the moment she walked out with her dog it was a battle. She was not in the position to wrestle with a young dog. Wrestling with a young dog that weighs 60 pounds can be very tough for anyone. When she told me about the issue, I gave her the advice below which stopped the fight before it began.

Now before discussing any of the steps please keep in mind that you can do this with any leash and collar, whether it is a flat collar, prong collar, first saver, etc. The techniques and steps are the same no matter what you use. – Poughkeepsie Dog Trainer

CALL THEM TO YOU!

Many times owners will walk to the dog and as a leader that is a failure. Leaders do not go to others; others go to leaders. So if you want to gain more control over your dog you call them over to you and not the reverse. With this one step alone you are doing a couple of things. First, you are breaking the dog’s focus on something else. Second, you are having the dog focus on you which results in more control of the dog. When people have a fight with a dog is because the dog is excited or focused on something else. So to break this you asked them to do the same, in this case come to you.

HOOK THE LEASH TO THE COLLAR PRIOR

One of the main components is the leader’s preparation and that is done before the dog comes to you. This is very simple: hook the leash on to the collar before you even call the dog. By doing this you are converting two steps to one step. For example, instead of putting the collar on the dog and then trying to find the ring on the collar and hook the leash on to the collar you simply have it all done already and the leash is connected to the collar. So when your dog comes to you, you will simply put the collar on.

As with anything else, this will take some practice. You will also work on obedience and behavior. How is that? Well, the obedience part is the dog coming to your when call. Behavior comes in when the dog is next to you and not start wiggling around. Last is the practice of you doing all of the steps over and over without having to think about it.