The Secret to Teaching a Dog to be Calm on Leash

For this West LA dog training session we worked with French bulldog Bebe; sharing tips to train a dog to be calm on leash.

Bebe is a very excited dog and was wiggling her whole body to the Nth° when I arrived for the session. After letting her sniff me, I only engaged with her when she was calm. Each time she started to get excited, I withdrew my attention. It took several starts and stop, but this little triclk had a calming impact on Bebe. It was also an analog of the primary dog behavior tip I shared throughout the session. Starting when tyou get the behavior you want and stopping when the behavior stops or changes.

For dogs, all attention is rewarding. And anything a dog is doing right before, or as you give it attention, is what you are actually rewarding. This is how many people accidentally (and unintentionally) teach their dogs to jump up, bark, chew, get into the trash, etc.

To help the guardian reverse this process, I showed her how she can use the celebrate game to teach Bebe to offer desired behaviors instead. It will take the guardian a couple weeks to get into a habit of this dog training secret. But once she does, just about every time she pets Bebe, it will increase her confidence, help her practice basic obedience, teach her manners and help her practice listening to her human. Its the gfift that keeps on giving!

We also introduced a marker word and used hand targeting to help the guardian practice her timing. The marker is the most fundamental element of positive dog training. It’s the thing that helps bring clarity to the dog which can accelerate your dog training and make it easier. We would use this trick later in our efforts to teach Bebe to be calm on leash.

I made sure to cover dog consent and cut off signals. Learning to read our dogs when they don’t like something or disagree is really important if you have a dog that is reactive or has a behavior problem. Recognizing the instant the dog starts to feel uncomfortable gives you the ability to move the dog away or fix the problem before the dog feels the need to do so itself. This is especially the case if you have a high energy or crazy dog.

This was important for today’s session as Bebe has a dog reactivity issue. And since her guardian has been displaced from the Palisades fire and now lives in a 18 story apartment building, elevator rides have become an issue. I was originally called in to help stop Bebe’s reactivity to dogs in an elevator but she gets so excited for the leash, she was emotionally over her limit and unable to control herself without any dog present.

I recognized in order to help Bebe with her reactive behavior we first needed to stop dog excitement about getting leashed up. If you have a crazy dog when no other dogs are around, teaching them to be calm on leash first is crucial.

Anytime you’re trying to do some Dog behavior modification, it’s important we go with the dog’s pace and start small and work up to real world situations. Later in the session we took Bebe outside for a potty break and so I can get an idea of how reactive she was towards other dogs. That’s when I saw the crazy dog side of cute little Bebe.

Bebe was so aroused by the time that we got outside her building, she couldn’t listen to her guardian or myself. She wouldn’t take treats and she was hyper fixating on any dogs that she could see. I knew that until I showed her human how to train a dog to stay calm on a leash, trying to teach Bebe to not react to other dogs would not be successful.

After giving Bebe a chance to do some business and sharing a few walking tips, we headed back upstairs so that I could show her guardian how to train a dog to stay calm on a leash.

I went over a few creative exercise tips when we returned to the apartment. Teaching Bebe to use her nose can give the guardian all sorts of wonderful opportunities to exercise or inside the apartment. I went over cookie in the corner and suggested the guardian do a Google search for a few other scent games that she can play inside. These dont directly train a dog to stay calm for the leash, but draining energy can go a long ways towards helping a dog stop getting too excited.

How to Train a Dog to Stay Calm on Leash

I started out by talking about how the guardian starts the process of putting Bebe on a leash. Many people confuse and dogs keeping its mouth open because it’s aroused as the dog smiling. This is a simple mistake that can lead to having a crazy dog. Dogs often have an excited response when we pull out the leash or their harness because we only do that when we’re taking them for a walk.

When people see the dog breathing hard and opening their mouth, they see a smile and make a connection to the activity. This causes many people to excitedly ask their dog if they “want to go for a walkie walkie” over and over and over. This gets the dog more and more worked up which makes it harder for them to listen and could also amplify other emotions like BBS dog reactivity. Stopping talking to your dog excitedly is one of the first things you need to do if your goal is to stop getting too excited.

Staying calm and talking quietly is important when you are teaching your dog to be calm on leash. Of course there are other steps to train a dog to stay calm. To help the guardian remember them, I pulled out my phone and had her take a video of me as I went through this dog training tip.

If your dog gets over excited and you want to learn how to teach it to stay calm, you should definitely check out the free positive training video below.

It’s going to take time and a lot of practice before Bebe learns that her guardian picking up the leash does not automatically mean she’s going out for a walk. This may seem like a small thing, but its really important if your dog gets over excited.  To train a dog to stay calm on leash, you have to be ready to stop the process as soon as the dog shows excitement.

The absolute best way to practice this secret to teach dogs to be calm on leash is to practice when you don’t need to. In this case, practicing when the guardian does not plan on taking Bebe for a walk. This helps disassociate the dog from the activity and is one of the easiest things to do if your dog get over exicted for the leash or any other recurring activity.

I suggested that the guardian practice this tip to help dogs stay calm multiple times throughout the day. Ideally she would do this anytime she is walking near where the leash is kept. Making a micro training session part of her daily routine can make it easy for this to become a habit for the human and dramatically decrease a dog over excitement.

After the session the guardian shot me a text asking what she should do when she actually needs to take BB out for a walk. Obviously she can’t do this exercise to train a dog to stay calm on a leash every time she needs to take her dog out to do its business.

I suggested that the guardian limit BBs potty breaks two times when she’s at least likely to encounter other dogs in the elevator or outside. One of the primary elements of dog behavior modification is avoiding situations where the dog can practice the unwanted behavior.

At the end of the session, Bebe was pooped and her guardian was feeling a little overwhelmed. I pulled out my camera and set it up on the table so I could summarize all of the Dog behavior tips we covered in this in-home West LA Dogs session.