Meet Pete and Charlie
Overview:
Pete is an experienced dog owner who needed help with Charlie pulling on lead. Charlie is a two year old Yellow Labrador who in all other aspects is well trained and a super character - but as a 25kg dog with lots of energy, lead pulling was reaching a pain point, literally in the case of Pete’s daughter Cat who developed a sore shoulder.
Top Tip
One of my favourite games to build loose lead walking is Magic Hand. To learn this game, start standing still with your dog in a stand in front of you. With your palm uppermost and a few small pieces of food in your hand, drop one piece of food at a time on your dog’s nose. At first the food will probably bounce off their nose onto the floor - that doesn’t matter, let them eat the piece of food and try again. The point of the game is that they are looking at your hand and in time they will learn to catch.
Once they can catch start walking with them in the traditional heel position by your side and practice until they can catch the food while moving - you now have a dog walking beautifully by your side whilst ignoring distractions, perfect!
Health: No known problems and movement looked flowing and normal.
Recommendations: I suggested Pete join my All Stars class which he attended for six weeks. During the classes Pete learnt games to help Charlie concentrate on him and having fun together, rather than Charlie rushing ahead thinking exciting things only happened in the off-lead section of the walk.
Pete and Charlie learnt boundary games to build calmness before the walk even starts. I then recommended ‘conversation starters’. These are really easy games like nose touch, two paws on or middle which you ask your dog to do before putting the lead on, before and after going through the front door, and occasionally during the walk. The purpose of these games is to make sure your dog’s brain is with you and helps you to get an understanding of your dog’s ability to listen to you and respond to cues in that moment.
I also taught a selection of games to help Charlie disengage from all the exciting things happening in the environment and to engage with Pete instead AND for Charlie to value that engagement with Pete more than the distractions he’d previously valued (like other dogs or lovely smelly sniffs).
Ongoing: Pete and Charlie are continuing to practice playing the games at home and out and about on their walks. They would both be very welcome to come back and learn even more skills at any time in the future.
Feedback: Pete and Charlie loved the classes and were absolutely bowled over by how much they learnt. Pete tells me Charlie has responded really well and now walks nicely both on and off-lead.