When I was learning to drive, the instructor beat “10
o’clock 2 o’clock” into my head - designating
where my hands should be on the steering wheel. Now they’re teaching 9 and 3. If
I had to take a driving lesson today I’d have a heck of a hard time learning 9
and 3.
Training dogs is similar. People have a
hard time mastering the basics of leash work and obedience training, after having done it differently for so many years. Old habits die hard, and if you’ve been doing
something a certain way for 20 or 30 years and one day you have to relearn it – it will take
a lot of patience, practice and conscious effort to
learn to do it a new way.
So here, in no particular order, are some of the “bad
habits” that many owners - and most new trainers - often struggle to break:
1)
Holding the leash wrong. The proper
way to hold a leash is to put your thumb through the loop and gather one loop
of slack. It should look like this:
2)
Holding your grip hand
too high. If you have the right
amount of slack gathered in the loop, your leash hand should be approximately
near your hipbone (on the same side of your body – left hipbone if you’re
holding the leash in your left hand, right side for right hand). If you don’t have a solid grip on the slack
as shown above, the dog will gradually take the slack from you, and your hand
will rise higher to compensate – that’s a no-no.
3)
Snapping your fingers at
the dog when asking for a “sit” or “down.”
Finger snapping is a sure sign of an amateur handler. Your body
language and tone of voice, along with clear, crisp consistently delivered
command words, and the following hand signals: sit is palm up, starting
parallel to the ground and rising 45 degrees. Down is either palm down toward
the ground or (my personal preference) point at the ground. Either is fine – I
prefer pointing because it comes in handy when teaching drop on recall. This is
a potentially lifesaving command that every well-trained dog should learn. You
can see it here at around 1:45 -
4) Tugging the leash in the wrong direction during a correction. To correct for a sit, or to re-sit a dog who got up too soon from a stay, you should tug straight up, not down or to the side.
5)
Correcting too hard or
too soft. Light pops on the leash
put drive in, one hard pop takes drive out. If you confuse the two, you send
the opposite message to the dog. (e.g. When doing a recall drill multiple short tugs (correct)
will get the dog to come, but one hard pull (incorrect) will shut him down.
Conversely, if you’re trying to correct leash lunging and you’re not correcting
hard enough you’re increasing drive instead of taking drive out).
6)
Playing “fake out” with
a dog during stay practice in phase 2 or 3. Don't play fake out (where the handler walks back and forth "reminding" the dog to stay). Instead, if
he gets up prematurely from a stay, rush back to him and give him an upward tug
on the leash when you arrive. If he voluntarily sat when he saw you approaching, he should still get the tug/correction (tug up to correct for sit - see #4 above). Same penalty for dogs who play
“creepy crawly” during a down stay. Dogs with high working intelligence are
notorious for this. It’s like they’re asking, “Is it ok if I crawl around as long as I'm still sort of in a "down?" Don't fall for it! If he leaves the
spot, crawling or not, he needs a leash correction which takes him back to the original spot.
7)
Verbally signaling turns
and stops. Sometimes this is almost an unconscious behavior, and the
sounds are very slight. Dogs have a highly developed sense of hearing - they can hear a twig snap from 100 yards away. So they
can certainly hear your little shooshing, clicking and other verbal signals –
and these little signals are cheating. A
well trained dog watches where the
handler is going – he turns when the handler turns, stops when the handler
stops, speeds up and slows down with the handler. Dog and handler function as a
team ONLY when the dog has learned to watch
the handler during leash work. If you cheat by making little noises, the dog is
listening to you instead of watching you. Why is this important? Because the
dog must learn to make the handler must the center of his focus. If the dog has been trained to
listen for turns he is free to look around for other dogs, rabbits and
squirrels and still keep pace with the handler. We don’t need a “heads-up heel”
(dog does not need to continually look up at your face). But we do need the dog to check in frequently by keeping an
eye on the handler’s leg. You will inadvertently train that out of a dog when you cheat by giving
him little verbal clicks and shushes during loose leash walking.
8)
Walking two untrained
dogs at the same time. Leash
train one dog at a time. When they are both perfectly trained, you can walk
both of them at the same time. Remember,
you can’t make corrective turns when you’re walking 2 or more dogs, so take
your time and do things in the right order.
This is particularly true if one of the dogs is leash reactive – in this
situation the reactive dog will often redirect at the other one you’re walking.
If they’re large dogs it will not be easy to break up a fight with both hands
occupied holding onto the leashes.
9)
Using the wrong types of
leashes. 6 foot leather is for
loose leash walking. 20 to 30 foot cotton is for recall drills (not nylon as it
is slippery when wet, tough to grip and can cut you or the dog). Leather
traffic leashes (about 14”) are handy for walking a dog through a crowd, or for
jogging with 2 dogs. Flexi-leads and
chain leashes should not be used.
10)
Attempting off leash
work in an unfenced area with a dog who has not yet been thoroughly
proofed. I am guilty of this one
myself. I will admit that I tend to push the envelope on this one. Trust me,
there are few things more embarrassing to a professional trainer than to have
their dog leave his side, take off after a Canadian Goose and dive into the lake after it. A trainer-friend in Florida had their dog
jump into the water after an alligator and disappear below the surface! He
happily emerged unscathed a minute later, but that was a close call. Proof the dog with every conceivable
distraction in a safely fenced area before trusting him off leash.
