Using a Harness to Walk Your Dog

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” A popular saying, and very true when trying to teach your dog something new. It seems to be especially true when trying to train a dog to walk on a leash.

The best thing, when training a dog, is to do it while they are young. Teaching a puppy will save you the frustration and strength that it would to train an adult dog. A good way to train your puppy to walk using a leash is with a dog harness.

A dog harness will give you control because it is placed around your dog’s torso. This will allow your puppy’s entire body to learn how to walk, instead of just moving the head. A harness allows you more control because you can pull back on your dog with little fear of hurting your dog.

Dog collars, if not put on correctly, can actually do more harm than good. When you are teaching a puppy to learn to walk with a leash you may have to pull and tug on the leash to get them to pay attention. Pulling hard on an ill-fitted collar can damage your dog’s throat.

It will take some effort on your part, but it is important to be consistent when training your dog. When teaching your dog to walk with a leash, keep walking at your pace. Your dog will naturally walk faster, so start your walk by going slowly.

Start out slow so your dog learns to walk with you instead of against you. They eventually will understand the need to slow their pace and keep the leash slack during the walks. When they do this you can walk a little faster to see how your dog does.

Remember to keep a strong grip on your leash when training. You will start out with a short leash and slowly give the dog more and more of your leash as he learns to keep slack in the leash. Eventually your dog will be able to use a longer leash.

Training a puppy can be a lot of work, but it is a lot easier than training an adult dog. If you do happen to have a dog that needs to be trained check out our previous article about training a dog not to pull against your leash. We also have another article with tips in there for adult dog owners, and reasons why a training collar could be a more appropriate choice than a full body harness.

Teaching a puppy will assist them in averting bad habits. A good way to train a puppy is to use a dog harness. Jim Witt is and an accomplished manufacturer of high quality dog harnesses and suggestsbrowsing to Country Brook Design.