As a dog trainer, I’ve helped countless dogs of all ages learn to walk nicely on leash with rewards based training. Regardless of whether it’s a young puppy or an adult dog that’s been pulling for years, the training principles that I use stay the same.

Leash Training Tips: Setting Your Dog Up for Successful Walks
Recently, I had the chance to sit down with Kelly Fahey for an interview about leash training and other related skills for her (free!) yearly Puppy Blueprint virtual conference. After my interview aired, Kelly kindly let me share it on my Youtube channel. I feel that we really covered the key principles for successful leash training.
I believe the conversation will really change how you think about and how you approach leash training with your dog, so I encourage you to watch the full interview here.
There are 3 main takeaways from this interview about leash training that I’d like to share:
Leash Training Takeaway 1: Dogs Aren’t “Being Bad” When They Pull On Leash
As frustrating as it can be when our arm is pulled off on dog walks, it’s important to remember that it’s not that your dog is being bad. Dogs pull on leash for a variety of reasons such as:
- The leash is too short, so they have to pull to access anything interesting (such as smells).
- Dogs naturally walk differently than we do. They tend to move quickly, stop to sniff, then move quickly again. Humans instead walk at a more steady, consistent pace.
- Smells are reinforcing, and reinforced behaviours (such as pulling to a smell) are more likely to get repeated.
- They’re not receiving adequate exercise for their breed and have too much pent up energy.
- We put them in a situation above their skill level (see next takeaway)
Leash Training Takeaway 2: Train FOR the Situation, Not IN the Situation
If there’s a strong mismatch between the dogs skill set and the situations they’re put in, walks will be miserable. I often joke that many dog guardians expect “university level” leash skills when they’ve never even put their dog through “kindergarten”.
No wonder everyone is frustrated!
Proper rewards based dog training means setting up training so that the dog can successfully offer the desired behaviour, rewarding that to encourage the dog to repeat it, then gradually increasing the difficulty of the training situation.
I encourage you to watch this tutorial to see this takeaway in action:
Leash Training Takeaway 3: Treats Need to Be Used Correctly
I find there are 2 huge misconceptions about using dog treats for training:
- That using treats is “bribery”. This isn’t true if the treats are being used correctly. If we use/show the treat to elicit a certain behaviour, that’s bribery. If instead we use them correctly by asking for the desired behaviour first, then giving the treat afterwards as a reward, that’s proper training. Asking our dog to walk nicely on leash is a really difficult request. You expect a paycheck for going to work, right? Dogs deserve rewards for their hard work too!
- That treats are “magic”. When people first start training with positive reinforcement, they will often try to use treats as substitutes for corrections. For example: Perhaps when someone previously tried walking their dog downtown on a busy sidewalk, they used corrections for training. Whenever the dog would pull towards something of interest, they’d pop the leash as a correction to dissuade the dog from pulling again. When that person decides to instead try treat training, they often will still bring the dog to the same training environment (the busy downtown sidewalk). The only change they make to their training is trying to use the treats as “magical bribes” to make the dog act in the desired way (walking without leash tension). This will fail, but doesn’t mean that the treats failed. They were simply used incorrectly.
Rewards based training absolutely works, even for difficult skills or against very exciting distractions, but only if used correctly.
I’m personally a visual learner. I need to see things demonstrated! If you’re the same, you can watch my video tutorials featuring clients dogs that are learning leash skills on camera here.
If you want faster leash training results, I also have a six week, step-by-step leash training guide that breaks down what to teach your dog, and more importantly, when to teach it, for the perfect dog walks. Everything is explained in text, photos, and video format. I’ll link that here.

Happy training, I’ll see you next time!
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