Leash training - guided chaos or Go, Puppy, Go!

Once the puppy is comfortable with the concept of controlled wandering within a safe area, it's time to start "guiding" the pup's movement using the leash as a means to communicate.  My belief is that the leash should be 95% communication and 5% control, and as you, the human get better at communicating, you will need the leash less and less for control.

There is some irony about how I start using the leash to actually guide the puppy since it will seem more like chaos than control.  What I do is start the puppy in a safe area that is wider than what we have been working with before.  As the puppy is doing her usual wandering, I suddenly jiggle the leash a little (not pulling on it at all) and excitedly say, "Let's Go!"  at the same time I take two excited running steps, careful not to travel far enough to make the leash taut.  If the pup follows, running after me, I keep running a few more steps, then abruptly change direction back the way we came, again jiggling the leash and saying, "Let's Go!" I do this over again about two to four more times, zig zagging back and forth.  Then I end by saying "Stop" and stopping abruptly.  When the puppy comes to a stop I shower her with praise and attention.

If the pup doesn't follow at first after the two steps, I change direction back the way I came, again jiggling the leash and saying, "Let's Go!" and slapping the outside of my thigh (usually the side closest to the puppy, but I don't think it really matters).  Interestingly enough, I have never had a puppy NOT follow me when I do this.  They all usually change direction when I do as well.  This is fun for them, and the abrupt change from quiet to chaos to quiet seems to keep them engaged.

The problem I do run into is that some puppies will want to run through your legs or nip at your heels.  This is not an act of aggression, but behavior most likely bred into the puppy's ancestors in order to herd sheep and other animals.  Also, some puppies (like some people) are just klutzes and can't run side to side easily.  When I have situations like these, I first try to use a longer leash and stay further away from the puppy, changing direction before the puppy can catch up with me.  If I can't do this because the puppy is too big or too fast for me to stay apart from it, I enlist a helper who acts as the target, (who takes on the role of running back and forth) while I say, "Let's Go!" and jiggle and leash holding behind the puppy.  I keep enough pressure on the leash to keep the puppy away from my helper while still running in tandem back and forth.

This exercise may seem chaotic, but once the puppy gets used to the fact that the leash will signal a direction change, she seems to understand that even when you are not playing this game she should follow the shaking and general direction the leash is going.  I love this phase of leash training, but must admit it gets me winded sometimes.  But looking on the bright side, it helps me burn some excess calories so I get double benefit from working with my pup!