How to stop your dog from pulling... oh - and Tundra is a destroyer of bugs!

Today I want to talk about how to stop your dog from pulling on her leash. Its a frustrating problem most people have with new pets, and its one Im still struggling with myself.

Tundra learned a lot this weekend, two interesting things were:

1) How to hunt and kill bugs (This is more of a funny story than anything)

2) How to NOT pull on the leash (I know many people have problems with this - so let's address how to correct it)

I'll start with the first - mainly because its kinda funny ;)

We live out in the country side, so Tundra hasn't experienced a ton of "new environments". We are slowly getting her used to it by driving her into the country, but she seems to have a fascination with anything that moves - and moves quickly. Thankfully, this does not include cars - but it does include animals, bugs and anything else that runs, crawls or flies. Training her to catch them was rather simple, we just needed bait :) Anytime a bug would come into the house, instead of catching it ourselves - we simply let Tundra do the catching for us. She sees the creature run along the floor and within seconds theres a paw, a pull and some random chewing noises. What actually impressed me wasn't the fact she could catch bugs like spiders, ants and so forth - but flying critters like Moths. Im a bit afraid how its going to go in the summertime when hornets are active but Im sure she'll figure out which ones stings before too long.

Unfortunately - as I mentioned above she also likes to chase cats around the yard, which brings us up to our second point from above (and how to fix it). If your dog is pulling while on leash, the proper correction is a very hard pull WHILE the leash is tight followed by huge praise to the dog for "backing off" her target. This is very important. It may seem a bit harsh, because really - as hard as you can pull her (without waiving your arms - since the leash is tight it should be one swift motion to your chest) may cause her to really be fired back and it looks... unpleasant. It doesn't hurt her though and she knows chasing animals such as cats is not permitted. This also keeps her directly next to my leg when other people are walking by. I don't want my dog to "go" to every person she sees, it isn't polite and some people really dislike it.

So, again... the motion/situation is as follows.... Dog is pulling very tightly on the leash - trying to pull you. Dig your heels in, pull the leash directly up against your body very hard and very quickly (this obviously varies based on the size of the dog. Don't kill the poor thing if you have a poodle) :) We have a wolf-hybrid, so the strength has to be increased. Make sure you aren't heaving your arms to pull her, but more a fast-jerking motion. The dog will flip back towards you, THEN PRAISE HER very much - very excited!!! To make sure she knows you guys are still best pals and you're only explaining she has to listen. Also very important.... myself and our dog trainer (as well as good friend) did this 2 or 3 times and afterwards the cat could walk right past her (within her reach) and she wouldn't move. Very impressive.

Hope you all enjoyed our story! Look for more pictures and videos of our ever growing pup very soon!

Cheers!