The other day I had the opportunity to work with a very nice couple in their 70’s. Due to bad knees they moved from a two story house to a ground floor two bedroom apartment. They also decided to get a yellow Lab puppy named Hooligan. Sometimes professionally I have to do things that I don’t like to, and this was one of those times. I had to tell them that unless they could get help with Hooligan they many want to try to find him a new home. He is great pup at just 7 months but they cannot physically handle them. They cannot walk him and because of this he is chewing everything in sight and just goes crazy in the house. The little pup Hooligan was at 8 weeks is a distant memory. He is young and strong, they need him to walk on a loose leash and that takes work. With 10% of his strength before being triggered by a distraction, he would have no problem knocking or pulling them down. Training at 12-16 weeks could have prevented this. This is a very common issue I run across. With large and small breeds alike.
Small breeds offer a different challenge, without learning to walk on a lead sharing the space of the handler they get underfoot and can trip people causing injury. We have all heard of the small dog that after getting stepped on became skittish or aggressive. All dogs need to learn at a very early age to yield to human feet. That means you should make a habit of pushing them out of the way with you feet without saying a world while they are little.
Too many dog owners don’t even think about walking their dog on a leash until they need to go to the groomer or vet. These situations can be overwhelming for many dogs, it is much worse if its the first time they are wearing a leash. They will pull, you will pull back, they will be choking and that is the association they make with the leash and the destination.
When people do introduce a dog to the leash the give the dog too much freedom and pay too much attention to where the dog is. Walk slow, keep your feet low to the ground and keep them in their “lane”. The older and bigger the dog is the harder it is to do this in a calm, relaxed manner. If you add physical limitations to that it goes from hard to dangerous.
This all falls under the heading of “don’t allow behavior now when they are small that you will not enjoy later”.
People always ask two questions “we just got a rescue, how long should we wait before training” and “we just got a puppy, how old should he be before we begin training”. My answers are “right away” and 12 to 14 weeks. I am not a fan of starting with the group classes because the dog will spend the classes focused on the other dogs, not you. We want to develop a dog that responds to you, not one that listens”. You will not always have the time and opportunity to give the dog a command or even know what the best one is for the situation. You need a do who is watching you all the time and take his cues from you using only eye contact and body language.
If your dog is always on a tight leash then you only have a physical connection, a loose leash is a mental connection that will be there ever when the leash is off.
To read more on this subject check out this great article on Psychology Today.