|
|
|
What is an "Invisible Leash"? No, I'm not talking about Invisible Fencing! This is not an electric collar that your dog wears to keep him in your yard. :-) I'm sure that on occasion you've seen people walking with their dog without a leash. The dog is walking nicely beside his person, he's got a bounce to his step, his tail is wagging, his tongue is lolling, and he keeps looking up at his person with a big grin and a loving look in his eyes. Both the dog and owner are in a wonderful mood and are enjoying each other's company without having to rely on a leash to prevent the dog from running away. It's as if there is an invisible leash linking the two of them together. If the owner makes a right turn, the dog turns too. If he stops, so will his dog. Whatever the person does, the dog stays with him and looks like he's absolutely thrilled just to be with him. So how can I achieve that "Invisible Leash" type of bond with my dog? The best way to get that bond is to start with the imprinting and bonding exercises with a very young puppy. Get the puppy to want to be with you and expand on that bond to get your dog to enjoy your company. You have to be more interesting to the puppy than anything else around, so always working with a new puppy in quiet areas without a lot of activity and distraction. You will eventually begin to add distractions to your training, but for the initial work, you need to be the best thing around. If your puppy is bonded to you and enjoys being with you, half of your training is already done! The next part is to be as much fun as possible and keep the puppy interested in you. If you do the typical, old fashioned obedience training, where you tell your dog to heel and then proceed to do drills over and over again, it's boooorrrrrring! Your puppy needs activity to keep him in tune with you, not repetition and jerks on the leash to make him zone out and want to find something more interesting to do. Invisible Leash exercises: Take your puppy outside in the yard, or in an area large enough that you can walk back and forth a little bit. Bring a few treats, a squeaky toy, or his favorite chew toy. Walk a few steps away from the puppy and encourage him with your voice to follow you. "Puppy, Puppy, Puppy!" Clap you hands or snap your fingers as you're walking. Then when the puppy starts following you, change direction quickly and go in a totally different area, while still encouraging the puppy with happy talking and hand motions and squeaking the toy to get his attention. When the puppy is with you and looking at you, feed him an occasional treat, or allow him to bite on his chew toy while you hold it, or pet him a little bit as praise for doing a good job. Be careful though! The only time he should get this praise is when he's really in tune with you, not when he's losing interest or wandering off. The rest of the time you should be encouraging him to stay with you, but don't praise him if he's not paying attention to you. While you're working on this exercise, don't worry about correcting the puppy to much for 'improper' behavior like a little bit of jumping or mouthing. The idea is to get the pup to want to be with you and if you are constantly correcting him for expressing his natural puppy exuberance the only way he knows how, you'll also diminish his desire to be near you. So for this exercise, we will allow a little bit of jumping and boisterous play. Keep the exercise short and fun and do it many times a day! If your puppy starts to lose focus on you, you've done to much. End the exercise while your puppy is still enjoying it and staying with you. You shouldn't push the puppy to the point that he's getting bored and starts wandering off. End the exercise on a fun and positive note. Expand on this exercise until you get to the point that whenever you're walking around the house, working in the yard, or doing anything you can encourage your pup to stick with you. He won't necessarily be in a perfect 'heel' position, but he will be close to you and following your every move. :-) When your puppy gets a little bit older and shows more independence it's natural for him to want to do more exploring and wander further from you. Two things that people naturally do when that happens are to call, "Hunter, come! Come on Hunter, Come! Come here Hunter!" but the more they use the "come" command the less effective it will be, and the more they repeat the command, the more the puppy realizes that since he's out of your reach, you can't enforce it. You may then think that the only way to keep him close to you is to put a leash on him and hold him there, but that's not necessarily the best thing to do. Try using a stepline instead of a leash. It gives your puppy the feeling that you aren't holding him in place with a leash, but allows you the ability to bring him in to you when he decides to disobey or tries to run away from you. :-) - Debbie Knatz |
|
PLEASE NOTE:
|