Teaching a dog to walk without pulling isn’t the easiest thing. The main reason why is because so many pet parents are taking their young dogs whom are full of energy and expecting them to walk at their human pace. This is very tough.
If you want your dog to walk with you at your pace, the best thing you can do is make sure they get to burn off some steam first. You’d be surprised how much more attentive and responsive they become when this happens.
My go-to steam burner with my dog V was putting on my rollerblades and letting him run as fast as he wanted. It was a little nerve racking at first, but it quickly became fun! One of the fears that I had was the thought of him starting to pull me off to the side. I found out though that as long as I kept my center of gravity, any attempts to pull off to the side didn't work and we’d continue to head in the same direction. Brakes are important of course!
They make bike attachments which allow you to hook your dog up to your seat. This is much safer than holding on to a leash with your handlebars. Many people find this to be the best option since more adults have bikes than rollerblades. But honestly, anything on wheels on a safe path works well. (Oddly enough, as I am writing this, my older neighbor just went by on his electric sit-down scooter with his two dogs jogging at his side.) There really are a ton of options!
After 10-15 minutes of running, (and even pulling you) you’ll see it’s much easier to teach your dog to walk at your pace. And that's right, I said "pulling you." Dogs are actually excellent discriminators and can figure out when pulling works/is allowed and when it doesn't work/isn't allowed.
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