Leash Training
Leash training 101
Tips for success!
- If your puppy is NOT fully vaccinated you will need to start leash training or work inside your house or backyard.
- Work on this DAILY
- Work for short periods of time – 5 minutes
- You will need a leash (6 foot is perfect) clipped onto their collar, clicker and treats
- Training will go best if the puppy is not full. If you are going to work in the morning feed them half their breakfast so they will still be motivated by food.
- At first, try to train in an area where there are few distractions like people or other pets.
- Use a harness especially when starting out. Corgis’ necks are about the same size as their heads so they easily slip out of a collar.
Fitting your puppy with a harness
It is very easy for your puppy to escape their collar since their head is about the same size as their head.
We acclimate our puppies to a harness while they are with us. We use inexpensive Voyager brand harnesses that we order from Amazon since your puppy will quickly outgrow them.
These harnesses are easy to put on and get off of a squirming puppy too. Our goal here is for your puppy to become accustom to the pressure and feel of a harness as babies so they will not hate it as an adult.
Even if you are not leash training your puppy at this point, it is a great idea for them to get used to the fell of a harness now.
How to Leash Train
- Start by sitting the puppy at your feed and wait for him or her to mand (sit and look at you). At the moment that they mand, click the clicker to mark the point in time when they performed the desired action then give a treat.
- Slowly take a step with your left leg – this should signal the puppy that you are starting to walk. The puppy should be walking right beside you on your left side. Once you have taken a few steps with the puppy in the correct position, stop walking. The puppy should stop and sit and look at you. This may not be perfect at this point so you may have to reward to stopping or stopping and manding. You need to reward so when they do something right you willclick the clicker to mark the point when they performed the desired action and give them a treat.
- Continue working on this until the puppy gets at least one piece of the trio (walking with you, manding when stopping and looking at you down). Remember to click to mark the point of the desired action and treat.
- NOTE: If you are planning on showing your dog, you will not have him mand when you stop.
- When you 5 minutes are up let them sleep. It will help them make the connections of what they did right in the exercise.
- Continue again the next day or as long as it takes until they get the trio of steps down. They had this trio down before they left my care so it should not take long then to get the steps down with you.
- Once you have the basics down, increase the number of steps that you take before stopping, clicking and treating.
Problems that may arise
Let the leash slip through your fingers and speed up your pace so that they do not “Hit” the end of the leash.
You may also be able to do the “Puppy Call” to get them to come back to you. When they come back, Click and Treat.
Stop and wait for them to move to your left side then Click & Treat. You may need to back up and just focus on getting them to walk on your left side at this point. Remember to Click when they move to the correct position and Treat.
Walking in a circle counterclockwise so that the puppy is on the inside of the circle can also help.
