How Do I Leash Train My Puppy?

[vegemite_toast]

My pup is now 11.5 weeks old, so I am afraid that I am probably a little late in starting to leash train her, but better now than to leave it even later as I would like to have her trained by the time she has finished her vaccinations and I can take her out for actual walks.

I have bought a martingale collar and a light weight leash to start off. Today I have put both on my puppy and allowing her to just walk around the house and outside to get used to them. Yes, I am fully supervising her while she has the gear on.

But where to I do from here?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice, help, warnings etc.

[Buster_09]

You can start training your dog whenever you want to start training your dog, however, it is advisable to train them as young as possible, they learn easier because they have the same intellectual capacity as an adult dog. I haven't use a martingale collar or any type of training collar yet, at the moment I am using a flat collar and a heavy duty rope lead (1.3m long).

Start in the back/ front yard or even inside the house (just short walks until he gets use to lead walking (probably best to do it outside because you got more room)), you need to train your dog not to lead (you are the pack leader). At the start until he gets use to the idea of you leading, do not use any commands or treats, just eye contact only. When he takes off stand there like a tree and wait for him to stop and look at you, after he looks at you start walking the other way, if he goes left go right (vice versa), speed up when he slows down and slow down when he speeds up. Depending on the temperament of your dog you might need to stand there for a long time, if you don't want to wait for him to look at you don't bother stopping just go the other way. Do this a few times until he gets use to it, now use yummy treats, when you walk with him call out his name (just once) and when he looks at you give him a treat (remember he's not looking at you he is actually looking if you are going to give him a treat) . If you give your dog treats every 1-3 paces extend it to 3-4 paces and so on. Now that you have lured him using treats, you can start using commands now. The basic commands that you should use are "heel, sit, let’s go" and once again keep using your treats, all these are conducted in conjunction with you acting as a tree when he takes off or if he goes the other way etc. By this stage you should now be able to walk around the neighbourhood with ease. Don't forget to praise him with treats or by patting your dog and telling him "good boy".

If you want to use punishments, what I did with Buster was when he takes off I slingshot him back to my left side to the direction of our travel, as I pull the lead I use the command "heel" followed by "sit" (I only give him sit when his right side is hugging my left side), after he is sitting nicely I just stand there for a while until I am happy that he understands.

It doesn't take long for a dog to realise that if he can't move there is a problem so the dog will look for that problem so he can rectify it.

If you want anymore advice without going to a proper dog school or seeing a dog trainer it's best to just surf the web for answers. Surfing the web is more fun, try and teach yourself instead of a teacher will teach you. Be aware of the answers out there, there are so many different ways of doing things, try and find one that best suits you and your dog.

Good Luck!