Walk on my left side

[Artic Fox]

Hi,

I'm hoping some one can help me out with some 'walking the dog' advice. I have a 5 month old puppy. When we walk I'm trying to train him to stay on my left side. Right now he goes from left to right and I always wind up tangled in the leash, then doing a complete spin around to become un-tangled. It happens quite often and I see people looking at me lol - it must look like I'm doing some kind of a dance! ^..^
( this must sound so silly, but this is the best way I can desbribe it)

Thanks in advance

Dale and Nemo

[NordicWhispers]

not silly at all...  I do a lot of about turns while they are young so that they get the idea that I'm unpredictable and the need to watch me to see what I will do next.   Sometime we never get more than 2 or 3 steps before we are going the opposite direction.

[Geno]

Keep the lead short. Also you can hold a treat in your right hand but hold on you left side. When you both make it several steps, give him the treat and praise him. You can go longer and longer and eventaully get rid of the treat. You can hold the treat out in front of you for right turns and more towards your left waist for left turns. He'll get it eventaully. If he starts pulling in front of you, turn and go the other way.

Geno

[MzLiz]

I used to have this problem because when I first started walking my two I used the flexi-leashs.  The would circle around things, me, each other.  I'm surprised I never fell.  I finally went to regular leashes using the classic stance with the loop over the right wrist, holding about halfway down the leash in the left hand, with them on the left.  By holding the leash that way I forced them to stay on the left (since they didn't have much lead on the leash.)  Using that method I was also able to train them to walk at my pace.  If they pulled ahead, a got them back with a short tug of the leash.

[Blizard's Mom]

I agree - short leash and a regular one no flexi!  Every time Nemo drifts to the right gently tug the leash to the left and say left - Blizzard & Yeti walk on a split leash and this works as a great command to keep them both over on the grass (I walk opposite of traffic flow in my neighborhood as we have no sidewalks). Don't feel bad - I still do ^..^ dances occasionally!

[Yukon]

I tend to use a treat bag (hooked on my waist) when I teach this. 

What I do is hold the leash in my right hand, and a treat in my left hand.  The first couple of steps I use the treat to lure the puppy to walk in the position that I want him on my left side.  I take a step or two, and when the puppy is in the right spot, I give the puppy another treat in the correct spot (I use my left leg pant seam as a positional cue).  I keep repeating that, always rewarding the puppy on the left side, and the left side only, until it becomes second nature for the puppy to want to come and sit or stand in heel position. (When I am teaching this, I also make an effort to have the puppy in heel position every single time I treat the puppy, not just when I'm training walking -- every little bit helps to reinforce the value of that position.) In order to make sure the puppy actually learns it (and isn't JUST following the cookie), after the first couple of treats, I keep the treat in my left hand, but I keep my hand up and in front of my middle (think belly button), and only reach it down to treat when the puppy is in position.

 Keep a very high rate of reward at first (use tiny cookies that are soft and easy to eat) -- as in a cookie every step -- and slowly bring it down as your puppy learns it (cookie every couple of steps, cookie every 5 feet, cookie every 15 feet, cookie every block, etc).  Keep the rewards variable, not constant, so your puppy keeps interest, and if you start to lose him, up the rate of reward.

Once puppy has mastered walking on the left side, you can do the same exact thing with the puppy walking only on the right side (if you want the puppy to be able to heel on both sides).

I have never used a flexi-lead, personally.  And I still use a 4 foot leash for Yukon (I'm short, so it works) -- athough, I think it is good to transition to a six foot lead once the puppy is getting the hang of it so you have enough slack and it is harder for the puppy to pull.