Loose Leash Walking

[nicole89]

Thanks for the replies

i think its definitely my fault. i stopped with clicker and treats, almost by accident cause i didn't buy her treats for a couple of weeks and got lazy and fell out of routine. Also when i was feeding her treats on the walks id come back with red fingers from her chomping them out of my hand so hard ( she wasnt starving either) so that may have turned me off also so i switched to just "good girl" and thought the walk was self rewarding.

Anyway i guess I'm going back with clicker n treats. i better get myself a treat pouch for my waist.

[hankdog]

You can get training gloves, try lick sticks or teach her to catch a tossed treat. My hands used to get pretty trashed and I copped a tooth once and it got very infected.

If you're careful you can pick a word and condition it like a clicker and that leaves your hands free. I use the word "done" because it's Something I don't often say.

Edited October 14, 2013 by hankdog

[raineth]

Nicole it also might help if you set up a session just in the house to teach her to take treats gently.

You put a treat in your hand and close your fist around it. Let her mug your hand, but keep it closed until she licks at your hand (rather than chewing on it); the moment she licks open your fist and let her have the treat.

Repeat until she reliably licks your hand to get the treat. Licking is good because they can't chomp down on you if their tongue is in the way.

I do find however if you're using food in a time of stress for the dog that they may still take a treat roughly in that situation. But overall, the above trick has worked well for me :)

Hankdog's suggestion of throwing the treat is also a really good one. I tend to throw more treats than give them from my hand on walks and in clicker training in general as it seems to make it a bit more exciting for them and has the benefit of being able to reset them too.