Dear Poncho,
I have taken my dog to the dog park numerous times and he is great with other dogs. However, if he passes other dogs while walking on a leash, he tries to bound after them and acts as if he is going to attack. Why is he so bad on a leash?
From,
Chief’s mom
Dear mom of Chief,
Yep, leashes can be a real pain in the neck. However, since you and Chief aren’t able to walk together hand-in-paw, it’s a helpful solution for keeping us inquisitive canines safe. They’re also a law in many places, so I recommend you consider the following training tips to help your buddy Chief enjoy himself, and less like the need to “attack”.
Here are the four tenets of my Mutt Model:
- Know Your Animal!
Dogs weren’t born knowing how to walk on leash, so we need some lessons before heading out into the big wide world. We also have limited impulse control which can make it tough – and quite frustrating – when we aren’t able to get to something or someone whenever we want to, or when we want to sniff and update our status at the nearest tree.
Think about it. Over time, with each and every on-leash adventure, when we’re not allowed to do what we want when we want in a manner that we want, we become more and more frustrated! (Kind of like when you humans are stuck in traffic and can’t get to where you want to get to!) This frustration builds and builds, and gets to the point where the mere sight of another dog triggers this “attack” reaction. Chief now associates other dogs with frustration. So there’s your “why?”.