Koda is 5 months old and is constantly trying to bite at his leash. He's been doing this since we got him at 8 weeks old and I truly thought he'd adjust and just accept that the leash is there to stay and isn't going anywhere. Apparently he has other ideas. He'll be ok with it for a little while, but then it's like he remembers "oh yeah! That thing is there!" and reaches back trying to bite it, then puts a paw up on it, which gets him tangled, which makes him mad, and then he starts spinning around because he doesn't like that he's tangled in it, so he gets more tangled, and then flips out and the zoomies start. How can I get him to learn to like the leash?
Hi Have you tried just to hold it or laying it on the floor and every time he shows any interest either by looking, sniffing etc. To C&T. Eventually you will get him desensitised to it. We did not have a problem with the leash, but harness big problem. Took us a while and now she is OK with it. Just a thought.
Use tasty treats, put one on his nose as soon as he thinks about biting his lead. Do a few commands, then give the treat. Repeat - many times if this has become a habit.
Harley hated being on lead and I thought she would grow out of it, but realised after reading lots of posts on here that that wasn't the case. I went back to basics and taught her as if she were a new pup. I started with lots of treats and can now do lots of lead walks with no problems (unless we see a cat). Sounds like that might be a good idea for you.
The other thing I'd do is to only have the lead on for a short time. When Molly was a puppy I'd drive to an off-lead area and just put the lead on for perhaps 30 seconds at first, then let her free, then put it on again etc. Over the weeks I lengthened the time on lead. I understand this is more difficult if you're not in the UK or not able to drive.
Sven, what is C&T? Sorry - I'm fairly new here. Thank you all for the suggestions. Of course today he was fine on our walk - it was just while we were coming back into the house that he started, so he just made a complete liar out of me! But it's definitely still an issue. I do let him off to run around and play (we live on a wooded lot so there are lots of trees and sticks for him to investigate) and as long as he's not in the middle of a zoomie session, I can get the leash back on him with no problem. It seems to be more when HE decides he doesn't want it any more. Well it's not his decision to make. I will continue keeping the leash on and letting him have free run time off of it. And will definitely keep treats available to put on his nose when he starts biting at it.
"Well it's not his decision to make." You sure about that? What I mean is that it is much easier to get a dog (or a person for that matter) to do something they want to do. Murphy (he is the guy in the avatar) would go completely bonkers with a leash when he was a pup, roll around, refuse to get up, just a real PITA. We were trying to get him used to the leash in our yard. It wasn't working. We fell back and regrouped and thought about it. When does a dog need to be on a leash? When they are not in their own yard. Sooooo, I would load him up and take him to our riverwalk downtown. When I put on the leash he could have cared less, he had places to go, things to see, people and dogs to meet!!! We are not big on this "treating" a dog to get them to respond. He gets treats alright but not for "performing". He is not a circus act, he is a member of our family. He is like most labs, he just wants to please and be loved all to pieces. I guess my suggestion is to take him somewhere that is totally new to him so he is excited about just exploring and not thinking about that leash. We use one of those harnesses that has a front snap on his chest. He is 100 lbs (45 kg) and extremely strong. He knows we can control him with that harness so he rarely pulls at all. He is a lot of fun to go walking with, especially around people. He is very good with everyone, no jumping or anything. If we stop to chat he will lay down after a couple of minutes just enjoying the moment. Have lots of patience, this is a long term relationship that you are working on. You are getting used to him and he is getting used to you, takes a while.
Kaesmom sorry should hace expanded. C&T = Click & Treat. You look/train for the behaviour once offered click then treat (if you don't have a clicker you can use a word like 'yes' or 'yip'. Just something short and cheerfull that marks the behaviour) So in this instance when he shows interest in the leash click and then treat. You then build up over time a higher expectation before you click and treat. Hope that helps
you have to train this first though...so that the dog knows that CLICK means a treat is coming very soon. The dog will then understand that when you click, it is the precise behaviour he is performing at the point of the click that you are rewarding.
Here's a link to some articles about clicker training: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/clicker-training-whats-it-all-about/ I would suggest, though, that in this case, clicker training isn't the most appropriate method. Clicker training is brilliant at training very precise behaviours, or for capturing something that happens very fleetingly, but I wouldn't use it here. You don't want to be capturing the puppy showing interest in the lead, you want to capture him ignoring it, and that's not really a precision thing. You could use a clicker for marking when the puppy looks away from the lead, if he's engaging with it when it's on the floor, which would work, but you really don't want to be clicking when he looks at it, etc - this is shaping greater engagement with it, not less. Technically, you could train a "bite the lead" cue, which would diminish the likelihood of the behaviour happening uncued, but that's not something most people would bother with, especially since your puppy will most likely grow out of this, anyway. I'd be more inclined just to make a fuss of him and play games when he ignores the lead, and remove that attention if he bites at it. Don't enter into a game of tug; if you're practicing in a safe area such as your garden, just drop the lead and walk away. He'll learn that biting the lead makes fun stuff stop. My puppy was a bit of a lead biter when younger, and still can be when she's over threshold (she's ten months now) but most of the time, she just trots alongside on it, no bother.
