Remember the song Walk the Dinosaur? You know the song by Was (Not Was) released in 1988. Maybe you don't. I was an 80's girl. Play 80's music for me and I feel right at home. But I digress. . .

Does walking your dog sometimes feel like walking the dinosaur? Some dogs quite naturally pick up nice leash manners without much effort. Consider yourself quite lucky if you get one of those! Because most of us don't get those dogs.

More often, we are likely to get the dog who does not feel the leash is necessary for them. Who likes to be restrained, after all?

We have been working on Zooka's leash manners since we picked him up from his breeder in July 2019 at nine weeks old. At this writing, he's 8.5 months old. We got lots of chances to practice as we made our three day drive home from North Carolina to Colorado. Fortunately, the breeder had already done some work to acclimate all of the puppies to a leash before we picked them up. (Most pups have never been introduced to a leash – or perhaps even a collar – by the time you pick up a puppy.)

We work with Zooka on a variety of length leashes. But we never use retractable leashes. (That is a whole other conversation that we don't have time for in this post.) For Zooka, we use eight foot, ten foot and twenty foot lines. I am sure at some point we probably used a six foot leash in there too, but we rarely ever use a six foot leash.

Regardless of what length of leash you use, you should have clear expectations for what behaviors you want (and don't want) when your dog is on leash. When we have students struggling with leash manners, in most cases, there really is not a clear enough expectation. And if there is, it has not been clearly communicated to the dog.

Whether Zooka is on an eight foot, ten foot or twenty foot line, his expectation is the same. We expect a loose leash. We expect him to be tuned in with us. With the person holding the leash. We expect some checking in. Checking in voluntarily. Not just when we ask for it.

We also expect that Zooka will do some exploring and sniffing. We WANT him to do that! But not at the expense of tuning us out. Those two things might seem contradictory but they are not. It takes some work to learn how to do both. But it's do-able and preferable, as far as we are concerned.

We expect Zooka to keep a loose leash, but he can walk ahead of us, behind us or even cross sides. We do NOT expect him to walk at our left side for an entire walk. Though there are times I do expect him to come to my side or even stay at my side for a short stretch.

Your expectations might depend on where you walk. Crowded areas? Sidewalks? Along busy streets? Past soccer games at the park? In (dog-friendly) stores? On hiking trails? On bike paths? In open fields? Clearly in more crowded places, you need your dog closer to you and under better control. In more wide open spaces without others around, your dog can have more freedom.

For Zooka, most of his walks are on trails on our property or out on hiking trails where there are not many other people around. So Zooka's walks are more often on a 20 foot line than on an eight foot leash. The eight foot leash is for areas where we need to keep him closer. The vet's office. The local dog-friendly stores. Etc.

As Zooka gets older and listens better, he gets some walk time off leash. Our goal with him is the same as it was for our previous dogs. Off leash control so that most of their walks can be off leash.

We still have the same expectations. Stay tuned in. Check in with me regularly without me having to ask for it. Listen when I ask you to do something. Have fun. Have fun WITH ME.

My dogs all learn that walks WITH ME are way more fun than walks without me. I want them to assume walks are always done as a team. Walks are a social activity between us. Sometimes with friends.

My dogs also learn that we do NOT greet other dogs on walks. We are on OUR walk. Those other dogs and their people are doing THEIR walk. We mind our own business. This is a hard one for Zooka, and he's still learning. He wants so badly to socialize with EVERYONE.

Again, I have clear expectations. If he does get to greet people, he has to be polite. People need to ask if they want to greet. Zooka needs to ask if he wants to greet. But mostly, we are doing our own thing.

His walks in his usual areas are great. He understands his expectations and does quite well with them.

His walks in other areas, such as local stores or parks, are more challenging at this stage. We just have not been getting out to them often enough that his manners are as solid in those areas. He is still very distracted by everything and everyone. He's getting better, but if we don't get out regularly to practice, it's easy for those things to backslide.

We still have lots of work to do before he's where I want him to be everywhere and anywhere. But we'll get there! I have lots of patience and clear expectations. So we will meet our goals. I am not worried. He's a very good boy. He will be a great young man.

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