Age and loose lead walking

[jami74]

How old were your puppies/dogs before they got okay at loose lead walking? I'm not talking about perfection, just generally okay to walk/trot along next to you for a walk.

Our puppy is about 16 weeks and doesn't actually walk anywhere, which is making trying to learn loose lead walking frustrating. We are making huge improvements and can do a few steps at a time now without leaping or grabbing the lead but it is very treat orientated and to prevent him darting of I'm having to ask for lots of sits.

[Riika]

If I get them at 8 weeks, they are okay at 10-12 weeks. If they were born here, they are pretty good at 8-12 weeks, depending how much time I work with them. 

[Riika]

Not perfect-they still pull when excited/distracted, don't stop or turn with me, balk sometimes, and get tangled up around me, but biting the leash, crazy lunging and not in the slightest focused on me, doesn't happen.

[brihop]

My pup is now 14 weeks and has started walking on the lead outside my property in the last couple of days. So far so good. I mean he will walk along which is an improvement on the flop down and don't move I used to get. He does pull but when I stop he stops to look why which I find is a great time to say "good boy" and walk on. He is easily distracted by oncoming people and does struggle to keep calm and I am working on how to get him to focus on the walk rather than everything around him.

Saying that though he is a 14 week puppy and I am very happy he will walk along at all.

Best of luck in your walking and keep at it. I am sure with patience it will all come good in the end.

Brian

[Baderpadordercollie]

It took ages for my dog when she was a pup because every time she heard a noise, any noise, she would stop and look around for at least 30 seconds before she would move on, no matter how much encouragement I gave her. Every bird chirp, every twig snap. And if a car drove by, oh lordy, that meant stopping and staring at the car, and then after it passed, continuing to stare for a full minute in the direction it went. But as soon as we turned around to go home, she would trit trot right back to the house and couldn't get in the door fast enough. After she got over that, she walked pretty nicely. Then she became a puppy teenager and threw all her training out the window. (Well, pretty much.) Now at 1 year old she's an adolescent and the leash stays loose most of the time, but I still continue to work on it. Always room for improvement. So that was our experience. I guess the point is, puppies go through phases, they may not be the same one week to the next, so definitely work on things but don't set your expectations very high and try not to be upset when they suddenly forget everything. Things won't even out for a while yet. 

[ShellyF]

Our pup is same age. I was able to walk him on the leash at about 9 weeks in an area that the vet said would be ok. We only did 5 mins, then 10 and so on. He’s ok to walk about 20 mins now. But, while he walked absolutely perfectly the first couple of weeks he got very leash bitey about 12 weeks on. He also went from perfect loose leash walking to darting around. He’s not a hard puller but totally distracted. Fortunately he will stop and sit and wait on command and if he gets to the end of his leash he doesn’t pull me along but it’s not as loose as I would like. 

I got helpful tips on this forum (see my post on leash biting) and things are improving. My pup is absolutely no problem on country trails on a flexi and he’s also ok on a regular leash down a quiet track but he’s not happy when cars go by and he really acts up when we head for home!