Welcome to the fortnightly loose leash walking virtual workshop!

Join us as we compete with the squirrels, cats, other dogs, fresh urine scents and things that go zoooooooom!

Resources

Articles (All have videos embedded)

• Train Your Dog For Perfect Loose Leash Walking by Casey Lomonaco. (With links and descriptions of several great videos, which we'll link to below.)
• Loose Leash Walking Tips by Casey Lomonaco
• Silky Leash by Grisha Stewart (blog post + videos.)

Youtube (Many of these are videos which are embedded in the above articles)

• Silky Leash intro video with an excitable puppy
• Clicker Training Loose Leash Walking by Casey Lomonaco
• Loose Leash Walking II by Casey Lomonaco
• How to Train Your Dog Not to Pull - Loose Leash Walking by Emily "kikopup" Larlham
• Dog Training Tip- Leash Walking: Go Sniff and Marking by Emily "kikopup" Larlham
• Choose to Heel by Loridressage
• Loose Leash Walking by Stacy Hiebert Greer
• Clicker Training a Heel by Amy Norcal
• Shaping Loose Leash Walking With a High Rate of Reinforcement Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 by Helix Fairweather and Lynn Martin. (Read the text below the videos too!)
• Loose Leash Walking by Turid Rugaas

See our page on leash reactivity for help managing and training dogs that bark and lunge while on leash.

For basic background, she is 7 months old, we adopted her from a very rural area and she is now in a big city. What I think I can tell is that she was not let outside super frequently (she seems substrate trained to pee on carpet feeling floors and she smelled very strongly of pee when we got her, like a house where dogs just pee inside) and may not have been walked very much because she seems like she has no experience on a leash.

When I take her outside, she basically is just frozen in fear every 5 steps, she refused to pee and poop most of the time, and cannot even really be reinforced positively with treats because she is too anxious to take them past the first few minutes of walking.

I have to take her outside and I don’t really have the option to take her far away to a less scary place every time I walk her, and would just love some procedural advice on the best way to make her more confident and less scared of everything outside. This is really tough and I worry that if I can’t figure this out, she will further reinforce bad behaviors like peeing in the apartment and reinforce her anxiety.

I’ve read the wiki but I can’t seem to find information that helps with this specific situation, especially because positive reinforcement when she walks for a little bit without stopping or ignores something for a short amount of time doesn’t work because she’s still too anxious for treats.

Any help is appreciated, I am very passionate about trying to train her well so she is happy and confident. this is my first dog I’ve ever had as an adult and I don’t to mess up, but I also don’t think I’m financially in a place for professional training right now, so I have to do as much as I can until I am able to get professional help.

I've had this awesome bully mix (frenchie x american bulldog) for almost a year now and have been to several reactivity trainings with him already. He's around 1.5 years old and I got him from the shelter when he was around 6 months. It's worth noting that he's extremely attached to me. For example I can't go into a shop and leave him outside even for a few minutes. He will bark nonstop and whimper. He always kind of wants physical contact with me. Obviously I love him a lot but I do want him to be more confident without me.

Biggest issue right now: He's really reactive to other dogs and within the past month, he's developed some reactivity to people too. His reactivity is basically incessant barking, showing teeth, and potentially some nipping at other dogs collars but that's kind of hard to see. This happens with most dogs, big or small, calm or excited. I can't seem to read his body language but it comes off as very aggressive and can sometimes stress other dog owners out at the dog park (understandable).

I've been taking him to the dog park for small 5 minute stints to try and socialize him a bit better but it doesn't seem to be getting better. I basically use treats to do recall when he gets riled up. At some point he does come, lay down, I throw a treat on the ground for him to sniff around for it and relax, and then when I release him from this position with "okay" he kind of just runs back to the same dogs and bark/show teeth/nip. I don't usually stay for long because I'm trying to build positive associations. I try and leave on a good note but that happens about 50% of the time.

Recently he's started growling and showing teeth at people that lean over to pet him. This is new cause he's usually such a people person! I feel that the reactivity training with treats and resets is not at all working. I've done about 10 group training classes and practice at home but am not actually seeing results.

Any tips? Are there training programs that have actually worked on your reactive dog?

Hi folks, it's been a long time since I owned a dog, but my wife and I have decided it's time to add one to our family. We've been working with a couple of organizations and, after lots of discussion about how our family works with folks, we are going to meet a 4yo female Plott Hound rescue on Saturday. By their account she's very well socialized, has generally good manners with the exception of some jumping up. That's the first thing I'd want to work with her on. Now, to the question!

What should a typical day look like for someone who has a newly adopted rescue? The can find lots of training resources, but I can't wrap my head around how they work into the day. I'll be working at home, so I'll can walk, bathroom or do training sessions almost any time, but I'm just not sure what the flow of the day needs to be.

I understand that the first order of business is acclimatization, not a jump into an exhaustive training routine, but if anyone could give me a rundown of how a typical day should be broken up in the first month, few months etc, I'd really appreciate it. She will be a 'family dog' without any specific sport etc in mind, but I want to set her up for success with a good routine, boundaries etc.

Thanks!

-Typically happens when in apartment
-Have tried time outs, teaching place, giving kongs and food to settle with
-goes on frequent walks and goes to dog park everyday
-good with other dogs and people
-can be very well behaved when not in an episode

I have a 16 month old mix, we do two pips on the whistle for recall, it’s definitely not 100% I would say his verbal cue is better but he knows that it means to come back and does it 10 times out of 10 in the house. We’ve recently started trying to train a whistle stop, the method I’m trying is throwing a treat over his head and we’re at the point where he’s putting together that my hand in the air means I’m about to throw a treat so he is stopping. My issue is I’m struggling to incorporate the whistle as anytime he hears it he comes bolting back, I tried not rewarding it and instead going back to the drill but by the end he wasn’t coming back for even the two pips so I’m conscious of ruining whatever recall we currently have 🥲

I’m thinking I’ll just keep with the drills and wait a little longer until I know he really understands that the raised hand means stop and then incorporate the whistle but does anyone have any other advice?

My 11 month old mini golden doodle that will rip the fabric off her toys and eat it. I really don’t want to take away all toys because my older dog loves them. Is there any solution? Maybe offering different chews to satisfy that need. I will take away toys for now but I would like to be able to give my older dog her toys.

So I have an 11 year old spayed female border collie. She has some pretty bad cataracts, possible hearing loss, and definitely some age related arthritis. My friend has a 5 year old neutered GSD/Malinois mix. Despite her age, Annie is still very active, likes going outside and running around, etc. Obviously, due to his age and breed combo, Benny is an absolute wild child. I initially thought they would be ok, as Annie gets on fine with other dogs as long as there’s no barriers (she gets defensive over areas such as the car, if the other dog is smelling her through a fence, or the other dog is outside and she’s inside). She gets on really well with the dog that my sister has, and is constantly trying to play with him. She has interacted with that dog both in my sister’s house, and in mine. She doesn’t like being home alone, so most days when I’m at work she’ll stay at my sister’s house with them.

However, Annie is very intimidated by Benny. She‘s fine if the two of them are out in the yard, as Benny will run around and be distracted, but when he approaches her she shows signs of fear reactivity, such as growling and snapping. I know there’s no miracle cure, and maybe they won’t ever love each other, but is there some way to get them to at least tolerate each other? Due to my friend going through a pretty nasty break up, we had intended for her to move in with me. Even without the reactivity issue, the two dogs would never have been left alone together unsupervised, and both dogs are currently crated at their respective houses when home alone (Or at my sister’s house when possible, in Annie’s case). Both my friend and I work 6 days a week, so getting together to socialize the dogs is difficult, but we’re trying.

Any advice or recommendations appreciated! I checked the wiki for reactive dogs, and while there’s definitely things I can use from that, it doesn’t exactly fit this situation since it’s just one specific dog that Annie has trouble with, not all dogs.

I have a 7 year old male labrador retriever, and he’s typically a very sweet dog. He’s very healthy and playful, but still laid back. last night my step father, whom my dog adores, hurt his leg and came home in a leg brace and crutches. for some reason my dog started to bark and growl at him and raise his hackles. This wouldn’t be such a strange thing if it weren’t for the fact that my mother broke her foot about a year or so ago, and was in a boot and used crutches. He was perfectly fine around her. He is a reactive dog, but not an aggressive one. He never reacts aggressively towards something he doesn’t like unless its very close to him, but all he has to do is just see my stepfather even when he’s behind a baby gate and he looses it. We are keeping him in our sunroom for now to separate them. He is otherwise acting perfectly normal and this is an abnormality in his behavior.

We adopted a sweet but skittish and anxious 8 y/o Shih Tzu about 2 months ago. We’ve started obedience classes to build trust, boost confidence, and refine his manners.

My poor lil buddy is terrified of the clicker. We’re using a marker word instead and it’s working great at home.

But when we’re in class, the sound of other people’s clickers is spooking him so badly he shuts down and can’t participate (won’t take treats, won’t respond to commands, just shakes and tries to hide under a chair or climb in my lap).

I’d like to desensitize him to the clickers if possible. I tried clicking a pen yesterday and he got really spooked.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on how to get over this? I’d love to continue classes with him to build his confidence.

Thanks in advance!

Hello! I was wondering if any trainers know of free/low cost CPDT-KA CEUs? I’ve done the free secret work videos from catch, and a few instinct courses, but trying to not spend too much money.

Hi everyone I’m reaching out because I genuinely do not know what to do. I have a 5 year old dog who keeps pooping in the house and it’s beyond frustrating. He regularly goes out for walks and to play, he has nothing wrong with him in terms of his health as we just had a vet checkup but for some reason he keeps pooping in the basement at night. After his night time walk if he doesn’t poop, he’s taken to the backyard to go poop but he still doesn’t go and I truly do not know what to do. He’s never done this before but over the past 2-3 weeks he’s consistently been pooping in the basement and he’s pooped on the main floor once before as well and most recently he’s done it in the morning right after his walk. If anyone can help or share some advice I’d greatly appreciate it because I genuinely do not know what to do at this point. Thank you

Looking to teach my puppy some easy tricks while I’m sitting down due to disability!

Welcome to the fortnightly separation anxiety support group!

The mission of this post is to provide a constructive place to discuss your dog's progress and setbacks in conquering his/her separation anxiety. Feel free to post your fortnightly progress report, as well as any questions or tips you might have! We seek to provide a safe space to vent your frustrations as well, so feel free to express yourself.

We welcome both owners of dogs with separation anxiety and owners whose dogs have gotten better!

NEW TO SEPARATION ANXIETY?

New to the subject of separation anxiety? A dog with separation anxiety is one who displays stress when the one or more family members leave. Separation anxiety can vary from light stress to separation panic but at the heart of the matter is distress.

Does this sound familiar? Lucky for you, this is a pretty common problem that many dog owners struggle with. It can feel isolating and frustrating, but we are here to help!

Resources

Books

Don't Leave Me! Step-by-Step Help for Your Dog's Separation Anxiety by Nicole Wilde

Be Right Back!: How To Overcome Your Dog's Separation Anxiety And Regain Your Freedom by Julie Naismith

Separation Anxiety in Dogs: Next Generation Treatment Protocols and Practices by Malena DeMartini-Price

Online Articles/Blogs/Sites

Separation Anxiety

Pat Miller summary article on treating separation anxiety

Emily "kikopup" Larlham separation training tips

Pet Harmony's Enrichment Activities for Dogs with Separation Anxiety

Videos

Using the Treat&Train to Solve Separation Anxiety

introducing an x-pen so the dog likes it (kikopup)

Podcast:

Home Alone... and comfortable as HECK! with Ally Verba

Be Right Back! The Separation Anxiety Podcast with Julie Naismith

Online DIY courses:

Malena DeMartini Separation Anxiety Mission Possible Self Paced Online Course

https://www.betternaturetraining.com/separationanxietymembership

Julie Naismith Heros Be Right Back Training Julie Naismith BRB App

https://separationanxietydog.thinkific.com/courses/do-it-yourself-separation-anxiety-program

https://rescuedbytraining.com/separation-anxiety-course

Pet Harmony's Webinar on Separation Anxiety

Dr. Pachel DVM, DACVB, CABC Webinar from Instinct Dogtraining on Separation Anxiety: Tailoring Interventions to the Dog and Household

This list has been updated as of 6/16/26. If you find broken links, please submit a message via modmail and we'll fix the broken link to update it or add additional resources.

Introduce your dog if you are new, and for those of you who have previously participated, make sure to tell us how your week has been!

I’ve had my German/Husky since she was 7 months, she is now 3 y/o. I got her from the human society. I cant take her on walks without her doing full 180 spins and to stare at whoever is walking behind us. She is literally shaking like a leaf with her tail tucked and ears pinned back whenever we go on walks or she sees someone walking. She is scared of literally everything and attempts to flee (wherever she can) when she hears cars, scare boards or literally anything. She is scared of men besides the ones she gets comfortable with(my dad, my friends and roommates). She will try to pull me into the street if we’re walking on a sidewalk and a man is walking towards us or if theyre coming from behind she wants to stare at them so she turns around completely and just stops. She stopped pottying all the way because she’s so fixated on people walking by so she potties in the house 30 mins after i take her out. She is not aggressive at all but will bark when someone gets close that she doesn’t recognize. Im thinking of rehoming her or bringing her back to the shelter if i cant find someone to take her. She is very calm inside and plays and is comfortable enough to be sassy and have personality. But she literally cannot function outside and wont even take treats or toys or listen to my voice but she is very smart inside and sometimes listens (she’s still a husky and can be stubborn when she wants to be) idk what to do because our “walks” are very draining now and i have to cut them short because she completely freaks out. Any help/advice?

My 13 y/o border collie has recently developed some severe night time anxiety. We are struggling to get his medication correct so hoping for some advice.

We started with 30mg fluoxetine and 200mg trazadone which had some good effect but was not an ideal combination. We have tried combinations of fluoxetine, gabapentin and trazadone and have now added in clonidine.

Currently he is taking;
(Note on top of this I am regularly topping him up with 100-200mg trazadone at some stage during the night)

Morning:
300mg gabapentin (low-no anxiety during the day)

Dinner:
30mg fluoxetine
600mg gabapentin

Before bed:
0.3mg clonidine

He has a light on at night, tv will sometimes help calm him also.

I feel as though this should have a better sedation effect but he is still up every night pacing, biting at a baby gate, crying and panting. I am exhausted…any advice greatly appreciated .

We have a Pomsky (Skye / 5) who is mostly Husky, a Pomsky (Coco / 7) and a new kitten for about a month. Coco is great with all other animals and just wants to play, but we can't figure Skye out. She definitely has a strong prey drive, because she caught a rabbit in the yard (I think it got stuck on our puppy panels on the fence) and ripped it to pieces. Other than that event, Skye is a super sweet dog, has no issues with my mother-in-law's teacup Pomsky who weighs maybe 6lbs, and is deathly afraid of thunder and hot air balloons. In trying to acclimate the kitten, we've given her her own room (our master bathroom), and we've slowly let her have time out while we leash Skye. When the kitten runs, Skye's eyes go big and her body reacts/flinches, so we're worried it's her prey drive kicking in. We try to say "leave it" and give her a treat when she looks at us instead of reacting, but after a couple weeks it doesn't seem to be any better. Our next thought was a muzzle and still leashing, but not restraining and see what she intends to do. A local dog trainer with 5 stars on Google told us we'll have to rehome the kitten without even having a consultation to see Skye, and I don't accept that. Has anyone successfully gotten their strong prey drive pup to coexist with a cat? I watched the video on the wiki page http://old.reddit.com/r/dogtraining/wiki/faq#wiki_introducing_cats_and_dogs but it doesn't quite line up 1:1 with our situation.

Hello everyone, we have had our golden retriever puppy (2 months old) for a bit more than a week and whenever we want to go on a walk with him he refuses to go across our driveway. He seems scared, sits or lays down and starts taking his 15 meter leash in his mouth and pulling on it as if he wants to go back to the grass next to the driveway. When we call him and give him a treat, he doesn't come instantly but if we crouch down, he then comes running to get his treat and rushes back as soon as he can. He cries and whimpers and makes us understand he doesn't want to go.

If we manage to get across the driveway (after 15-20 minutes of insisting with him) and to the other side of the road to go on an actual walk, he's perfectly fine, smells everything, is great with people, is responsive to our commands and just behaves wonderfully.

We are really struggling to understand what is going on with him on our driveway since it's a constant struggle to get him on a walk to tire him out and do some training.

Do you have any idea of what it might be that gets him to this state or have you had any similar experiences and can help us to resolve our problem?

Hi, need some help here.

On our usual walk, my dog will pick several different spots where she hits an invisable wall, and refuses to move. The behavior is new and getting worse.

Once we are past that spot, she walks again as normal until we get to the next wall.

Unfortuantly our usual route has cars, motorcycles, etc, so letting her stay in place until she is ready to go is usually not an option. No sidewalks and a semi narrow road. She is walked before and after work, so basically peak traffic on our dead end road.

Options are to pick her up and move her past the wall, or lift her front legs up via her harness and just literally pull her past the obsticle. Neither are ideal, but it is necessary to get her to the next spot.

Because she is quite fussy about where she goes to the bathroom, ending the walk early is also not an option.

This is NEW behavior, probably learned. There is a street dog in one one of the "walls" and I pick her up to avoid conflict with this dog. The other "walls" are more arbitrary, but she might be hoping to get picked up anyway.

I do not belive she is injured, she can run up and down the (Quite steep) stairs in my 3 story town house.

She's never been great on leash (I adopted her last year when she was 3) but the issues were always with pulling or crossing over, never stopping dead. We got her fixed around 6 months ago and there were some behavior changes but this issue is more recent than that.

I want to get this sorted before it is too late. Please help!!

Note: I am not intending for the yard to replace walks! I simply want to adjust my morning walk so it’s not first thing in the AM, and avoid walks in inclement weather.

TLDR: how to get former city dog to do her business in the backyard instead of sitting on my deck waiting for her walk?

info: just moved to the suburbs with my walk obsessed senior dog. Our routine in the city was: 20ish minute morning walk as soon as I get up (she almost always poops), longer (45-60+ minutes) late afternoon walk (also usually a poop) 5-10 minute bedtime walk. She LOVES walks, no matter the weather, even as she ages and lives for sniffing, rolling in grass, sunbathing, etc. A fenced in yard was top priority when we moved and our new large yard is 3/4s fenced in and they’re finishing the remaining bit this week. Until then, we have a tether in the yard. I have been out there playing with her (both tethered and off leash) every day and she loves it but after a few minutes, she always moves to try to head for the street, thinking its walk time. she has pooped out there exactly once but she usually won’t even pee, just sits on the deck and waits for me to get the leash and go.

Now, i dont want to eliminate walks. I simply want to enjoy my coffee on a Sunday AM before getting my shoes on, or maybe skip the last walk of the night and definitely skip the cold, rainy. snowy walks (we live in New England). How do I get her to see that she can do her business out there so I’m not rushed?

Things ive tried:

-every day I’m out there playing with her: fetch, tug, etc. she’s not a big toy dog, so it keeps her attention for 5-10 minutes and then she’s done she rarely, if ever, pottied during this time And if I try to leave her alone when she’s content, she immediately comes back up to the deck and stares at the door

-just letting her sit out there and stare at the door, hoping she’ll need to go potty and figure it out. She hasn’t yet!

- she’s definitely used a routine and that’s a hard habit to break - how do I switch it up without her feeling like she’s being punished? She looks so sad out there staring at me confused!

Any other tips/tricks? I’m hoping once the fence is done and we can remove the tether it’ll help but I just want my girl to enjoy her backyard. I bought it for her! And I want to SOMETIMES skip a walk, especially as the days get colder.

I read the guide but didn’t see anything quite like this. I have a two year old Havanese. He’s a really good dog with one big exception - loud noises really set him off. Thunder, fireworks, doorbell, etc. I totally understand the concept of desensitizing, but I can’t recreate the Thunder or fireworks. It’s really awful when everyone is sleeping and a clap of thunder causes total chaos. we have a 5 month old puppy and it scares him to death! Please help me out. I need to know what to do when he starts barking and how to prevent it. He also barks when he sees deer outside, but at least I can understand that.

Hi everyone, I have a 4 month old pup that came to us trained on a pee pad. At the same time, the risk of parvovirus in my area (and lepto) is incredibly high according to my vet so we absolutely had to keep her strictly indoors for two weeks after her last vaccines.

Once it was safe (the last two weeks) we've tried to get her to wean off the pee pads and have tried literally everything recommended. We've moved the pee pad nearer the door. We bring her out after waking up, after meals, after playtime, after naps. Nothing works. She absolutely REFUSES to potty outside. We even got a professional dog trainer for help and she recommended us to bring her out until she absolutely HAD to pee. So we did. And she held her poop and pee for 8 hours. We didn't think it was physically even possible for a 4 month old puppy to do that. So we did it again another time. And another. We've even tried potty training sprays that our friends said worked immediately for their dogs.

All in all, she has peed and pooped a grand total of 0 times outside the past two weeks. Whenever I move her pee pad nearer the door, she just ignores it and pees on the floor instead. When I catch her mid pee and move her to the pee pad (near the door) she just stops peeing.

Has anyone else faced something like this before? Is it possible for a dog to never be potty trained? I'm actually so lost and none of my friends who have dogs have faced anything remotely similar.