The most important tip for starting a loose-leash walking journey with your puppy is to stay in the moment. Learn to connect to your puppy through the leash. Don’t let personal distractions get in the way of a stress-free walk. Put the phone away and focus on your puppy. This is the proper mindset.
Your puppy will follow whatever you do as the handler (the person holding the leash). How can you expect your puppy to be present if your mind is elsewhere? Mindfulness is critical when getting started with leash training your puppy. There is a great book called Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn that I highly recommend to learn mindfulness and staying in the moment. Your puppy will appreciate this a lot.
I learned this calmness while studying T’ai Chi in the 1990s, and it’s stuck with me. So, in 1997, I became a T’ai Chi instructor and taught over 500 classes through 2012. I also studied several forms of meditation and yoga, which teach proper deep breathing techniques and mindfulness. If you get a chance to learn and practice any of these disciplines, I highly recommend them to better understand the best demeanor for communicating with your puppy.
The puppy walk starts the second you decide to take the puppy outside. It begins when you grab the leash and collar or harness. Everything you say, do, and think from this point until the end of the walk will impact your puppy's behavior.
We get what we think about most often.
As I explain in the chapter The Loose Leash Walking Technique, if you begin the walk calmly, your puppy will likely be calm when you get outside the house. Therefore, you want to learn to embody calm confidence when leashing up your puppy and taking it for a walk.
However, if you’re anxious, nervous, or mentally distracted, your puppy may also embody this behavior and go outside hyper and anxious. Once you leash up your puppy and hold the loop of the leash to take it outside, you are energetically connected to your puppy. Be mindful that what you do and think impacts your puppy.
Creating stories in your head about what has previously happened on the walks or what could happen along the way will create problems. For example, imagine that you thought someone would run into you whenever you got in your car. This thought would paralyze your future driving experiences. The same can happen with your puppy walks.
Start each walk with a clear mind, and create a story for the walk that is only positive. For example, when I walk puppy students or my dog Dixie, I think about the outcome of the walk in terms of achievements. I create a story about the puppy not pulling, reacting, and behaving correctly. I am inducing calmness into the walk by NOT offering many commands to the puppy. I think about me stopping and the puppy sitting, and me walking and the puppy walking beside me in a relaxed manner.
You must first create the outcome you want in your mind and allow it to manifest. This may seem metaphysical or spiritual to some of you. However, these principles have designed my entire life and have allowed me to communicate and understand puppies easily. These are just suggestions. Remember this: We get what we think about most often.
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