Walking with a brand new puppy on a leash can be a rather interesting experience for both you and the pup. It is a time of learning, experiencing, and discovery for the puppy, and a time of training and patience for you. This being said, it doesn’t mean that you need to be consistently choking the puppy with the collar or scolding him or her for walking poorly on the leash. It can be a fun bonding experience for you both where you can learn to walk together before adding more dogs to your walking group if you wish.
Not all puppies like wearing a collar and may fuss at first. Simply be patient with him or her and continue walking as much as you can. Eventually, the puppy will become distracted and will be much more interested in walking and all of the other things that he or she sees in the nearby environment than the nylon or collar strip around the neck.
Of course, you do need to make sure that the collar has been properly placed. It should be positioned up and under the chin, just underneath the ears. It is not a necklace, so it should not be worn too low on the dog’s neck. This will only decrease your control over the dog and increase his or her discomfort. If you’ve attached the collar properly, you shouldn’t have to do much pulling at all to convince the dog to go where you want. You should only use short gentle tugs when correcting a puppy’s behavior. Being too rough risks injury to the puppy’s neck.
Use a six foot leather leash on the puppy as you would with any of the adult dogs that you walk. Although you can allow the puppy to play and explore a little, you should be encouraging proper walking behaviors right from the very start. This means that the puppy should be discouraged from picking things up off the sidewalk or grass, lunging at people and animals, tugging forward on the leash, dragging behind, barking, eliminating, and other bad dog walking etiquette.
Remember, too, that puppies may be raring to go at the beginning of the walk, but their little legs do get tired after a while. It’s also very overwhelming to see so many new things all at once, and this can be an exhausting experience. If you find that the puppy is dropping back and not walking as quickly, it may reach the point that he or she will need to be carried the rest of the way, or for a little while before he or she rests and gets ready to give it another try.
As you train the puppy for good walking behavior, be sure to always remember to praise the puppy when he or she does something right and only when something was done successfully. This may seem obvious, but when puppies try something but fail, it is tempting to try to console the dog – a behavior that puppies easily misconstrue as another form of praise. This will only cause them to develop strange walking behaviors and lead them to ignore you later when you try to correct them for behaviors you’d previously consoled them for.
Puppies should be walked alone because it is safer and more pleasant for both you and the puppy. Try to keep things positive and upbeat and don’t forget to enjoy yourselves amongst all the training.
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