This is more about just the position of your dog during your walk. This is impulse control, team work, engagement, mental stimulation, mindset and a great time for you to work on your relationship with your dog!

Dogs are not good at generalizing behaviors. We need to show them the behavior of leash walking is the same even when the environment changes.

Don’t be afraid to stop and reset 🫶🏼

You won’t have to do these direction changes forever. There are just the training wheels helping your dog understand what you are looking for. Luna got dropped off for her program pulling through a prong collar, she is walking on a figure 8 loop here. She didn’t understand leash pressure one bit or have any engagement skills. This will be an ongoing skill that she will have to continue to develop.

This took me 4 minutes to do. It only took 4 minutes out of a 30 minute walk. That’s nothing. I’m still walking and still moving with her, but this small moment is what gave us the ability to have a relaxing and beautiful walk together. It allowed her to go from an overworking and overexcited brain to a calm and quiet one.

Anytime your dog is checked out, it’s our job to help them tune back into what we are doing. We are a team in this.