Training Two Dogs to Stop Pulling on the Leash Together

In this Omaha dog training session we worked with Koda, a one-year-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever, and Rosebud, a ten-year-old Labrador Retriever, who needed help to stop pulling on the leash when going for a walk.

After I arrived I sat down to chat with Koda and Rosebud’s guardians about their main dog behavior concerns. Their primary concern was getting the dogs to stop pulling on the leash when going for walks. One of the kids made a great observation that the dogs were feeding off of each other’s energy and they were much calmer when they went for walks separate from each other. To help the dogs learn how to go for walks together successfully I introduced the martingale collar and our structured walk exercise, which you can see below.

As you can see in the video, at first it will take some time to go for a long walk. The initial goal is to help the dogs stay calm when they are on the leash and walk nicely next to their guardians. Once they learn how to walk next to each other calmly the guardians can take them for longer and longer walks. Another tip is that once the dogs learn how to stop pulling on the leash the guardians can give the dogs more space on the leash to smell and sniff the ground.

By the end of the session the dogs were walking calmly for all of the family members when going up and down the driveway. The dogs were also learning our focus exercise to help them focus on their guardians and cancel out other distractions. We wrapped up this dog behavior session with Koda and Rosebud’s Roadmap to Success video, which you can watch below.