This 10-step plan is an essential training solution for all dogs - young and old!

Walking nicely is a life skill that when missing can significantly and negatively impact the human-canine relationship resulting in fewer walks, less exercise, and a decrease in social exposure for the dog.

The training games included in this program, will not only improve a dog's leash walking skills, leading to a dog that is a pleasure to take out; they should also lead to more walks, more exercise, more mental and physical enrichment, more social exposure, and even increase the bond shared between the pet dog guardian and their dog!

Definition of Walking Nicely on a Loose Leash & Our Goals

Our goal when teaching a dog to walk nicely on a loose leash is NOT that the dog walks in an obedience style heel-position; rather that the dog is able to walk with the guardian, and that both the guardian and their dog work towards the maintenance of a loose leash.

Follow each of the steps in this short course and you should soon have content clients whose dogs amaze them with their happy and reliable leash walking skills

Prerequisite Skills and Training Equipment.

You/your clients will need:

• Lots of tasty high-value treats.
• 2m Leash.
• Well-fitting non-restrictive harness.

More information is provided in the 10 Easy Steps to Walking Nicely on a Loose Leash E-Workbook and further along in your Professional Toolkit.

Training Skills:

• No previous training skills are required.
• Please advance at a rate that is appropriate for the dog (and any humans) that you are working with.
• Please use the Train-Test-Train Method.
• For maximum success, please train the skills in the order presented.

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION

Can we guarantee that dogs who undertake the 10 Steps to Walking Nicely on a Loose Leash will always walk nicely and never pull?

No, we cannot guarantee 100% that a dog will always walk nicely!

Neither we nor you should ever guarantee that a dog will always respond in a certain way.

Dogs are NOT Machines

Please note that, although via systematic training and lots of positive reinforcement, you will undoubtedly improve your human clients' and their dogs' leash walking skills, we cannot and should not ever guarantee that a dog will demonstrate 100% compliance to any cue. This is an unrealistic expectation.

We must remember that behavior is a function of the environment. Dogs are not machines; they are sentient beings who have their own thoughts and emotions. Just like humans, dogs have the ability to make their own decisions, and those decisions might not always align with our desires.  Sometimes a dog might not respond to a cue; sometimes there might be a delay in the response.

Perhaps…

• Something in the environment is impacting the dog’s ability to respond.
• The dog does not consider it safe to respond at that particular time.
• The dog is aware of something that you/the guardian haven’t noticed.
• The dog didn’t hear you/the guardian. 
• There is something very interesting in the environment that requires the dog’s immediate attention and/or investigation.
• The behavior isn't trained as well as you thought.
• You/the guardian are simply asking too much of the dog in this environment, at this stage in their learning and development.

What can we guarantee?

We guarantee that you would be more likely to walk nicely if the skill had been taught systematically; in a fun way; and that all your correct responses were appropriately reinforced.

We can also guarantee that if you/the pet dog guardian diligently work through all the training games that are included in this program and all the criteria included in each game; use appropriate rewards; only increase the level of difficulty when the dog has accomplished the current step, and do not skip any of the training steps even if the dog is progressing well…. Then, by the end of this short course, the pet dog guardian and their dog should be well on the road to enjoyable shared walks!

The goal of the 10 Steps to Walking Nicely on a Loose Leash is not just that of training nice leash walking skills but also that all the training games should be lots of fun for both the pet dog guardian and their dog. 

We do not just wish to improve the skills of pet dog guardians and their dogs; we also want to increase the bond that they share, while enjoying additional mental and physical enrichment together!