Tips to Stop a Former LA Street Dog From Pulling on the Leash

For this Los Angeles dog training session we taught 1 year-old Min Pin Snoop to stop pulling on the leash or jumping on the furniture.

Being a former street dog, Snoop had a few bad behaviors that had been very frustrating for the guardians to deal with; stealing food, jumping on counters, urinating in odd places, pulling on the leash, etc. The guardians were close to the end of their rope by the time I arrived for the session.

We spent the first hour going over all his issues with me explaining the why’s so the guardians could understand where he was coming from. Often people take it personally when a dog misbehaves, but dogs don’t act out to upset us. As a dog behavior expert, I have found that these are almost always a case of the dog not knowing how the humans want them to behave. That was certainly the case here. As the session progressed, Snoop caught on quickly, once he understood what we wanted from him.

After sharing tips to stop Snoop from having accidents in the house, nonverbal ways to disagree, how to get the kids to help with the dog, petting with a purpose and the importance of daily exercise, we headed outside to do some loose leash training.

Dogs have an opposition reflex meaning they are programed to pull any time there is resistance on the leash. To stop the dog from pulling on the leash, I handed my phone to the guardian so I could demonstrate. Upping this little guy’s exercise should help quite a bit.

It was great to see how quickly Snoop caught on. This is one smart pooch. In retrospect, I think most of his behavior problems were due to not knowing how to behave due to being an LA street dog. Once we showed him what we wanted, he was on it like white on rice.

Adding extra walks or brining in a dog walker may be just the ticket the guardians need to get this little bundle of energy to start listening better. Well that and establishing a healthy leader follower dynamic though positive dog training.

I also made sure to point out that punishment based interactions can easily backfire, causing the dog to develop more serious issues or provoking a response to the kids. Id the adults dominate the dog, its not unusual for the dog to see kids as having less status and interacting in a similar way with them. Dogs are mirrors of sorts, so sometimes they reflect what we shine at them.

I wanted to go over a number of additional exercises like teaching Snoop how to drop, leave it, fetch and stay, but we ran out of time so hopefully the embedded videos I added to this write up will help the guardians.

The only issue I was concerned about was his dog reactivity. This is a common issue for street dogs who have to fight off other dogs fro territory or resources like food. If the guardians continue having issues with that behavior, they may need to set up a follow up session so we can work on that issues on its own.

The guardians had to end the session earlier than I planned due to a scheduled meeting so I shot a rather long Roadmap to success video so they can remember all the dog behavior tips and suggestions I shared in this in home dog training session.