(playful guitar music) - Hi, I'm Karen Kalunian, and today we're gonna talk about loose leash walking.

♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ (dog barks) Hi, everyone.

Today we're gonna talk about loose leash walking, try to say that one 10 times fast, with Heather Gutshall from Outbound Hounds.

I know a lot of you see me with this around my neck.

This is a slip lead.

This is something that I use daily when I'm moving animals in and out of kennels, if I visit a rescue and I'm gonna meet a new dog.

This is not something that you walk your dog on.

So sort of ignore my attire.

But Heather has a lot of gear that she's gonna sort of walk you through when you need to walk your own personal dog.

- Hi.

Okay, so if you don't have the time and patience to train, we recommend a front clip harness.

It doesn't trigger the opposition reflex by clipping it to the back.

You clip to the front kind of like this.

And that way when they pull, it kind of turns them.

- So this is the dog's chest, because we don't have a dog here, so we're trying to make it easy.

This would be under the dog's belly area and the legs would go through here.

- [Heather] Absolutely.

So these are great, like I said, if you're not going to train, but your dog is pulling and you wanna alleviate that.

- Pulling is such a problem for people.

- One of the biggest reasons clients come to me, yeah.

I also recommend using a long line if your dog is pulling, and you wanna give them some more space to really enjoy their walk, sniff, and all that.

You can get them all different price ranges.

But you just clip one that you're holding and then the other end to the dog.

- So this gives them a lot more space to sort of free roam, but you wanna also always caution people with long lines because of other things in the area, other dogs, people.

- Absolutely.

- Children, cats, whatever.

So long lines are great if you know that you have the space to walk.

- And the area.

- And the area.

- Absolutely.

- Correct.

And then you have a collar.

- Oh yes, we recommend these Martingale collars just across the board.

They can't really tighten past this, but they also are less likely to slip over their heads.

- Right, and people find sometimes, I know just from experience, that if a dog is new to you and it can be a little skittish, these are great because it does tighten.

And like she said, it can't pull over the dog's head.

Sometimes people will come in with a collar when they're doing an adoption, and the collar doesn't fit quite right, and the dog is nervous and they're taking it home, so something where it can always just tighten a little bit on the dog and they can't slip out.

So a Martingale is a great tool as well.

- Absolutely.

And if you're going to start with loose leash walking, this is very different from heel, heel should be on a command.

You wanna start in a calm environment before you take it on the road.

You're gonna have your dog next to you on whichever side you may be teaching them to heel on later, and you're going to take one step.

If the dog moves with you, you're gonna smile, soft face, give them a treat.

And then if they stay by your side, because they know you have the treat, which you're delivering at this point.

- At their level, right?

- If you have a short dog, you can use baby food on a long soup spoon or something and you're going down like this.

If they stay with you, as you're moving around in different directions, you're gonna continue to mark and reward that, soft face, really checking in with them, saying their name, maybe whistling, things like that.

And if they're staying at your side, it's really that constant feedback.

- That's right.

They need to know that they're doing the right thing that you're trying to show them.

- Right, right.

If they pull, you're gonna stop and wait for any sign of relaxation.

So that might just be they relax their body.

It might be that they look off into this direction, and you're gonna instantly treat that with a soft face.

So getting them used to the fact that if this loosh, lease, leash is loose, - See?

- I'm getting a treat.

- Say it fast.

- Oh yeah, oh yeah.

- So if people want more tips from you, obviously they can visit Outbound Hounds.

- ObHounds.com - ObHounds.com, and you can find about Martingale collars, long leads, harnesses, and all types of things for walking your dog successfully.

- Absolutely.

- [Karen] To watch more videos like this, visit RIPBS.org/animaltalk.

(dog barking) (no audio)