How To Walk Your Labrador Puppy – Do It Right And Enjoy The Benefits

Labradors as a breed are very friendly dogs. Too friendly I would say. At an early age, if they are not looked after well enough, they will go away with any stranger. And you know why? That’s because to him, you are just another human. You haven’t established yourself as the leader in his eyes yet. This can lead to some embarrassing moments, so we want to fix this as soon as possible. So let’s see what we can do about it.

There’s a certain concept I’m trying to get you to be able to apply and that is “loose leash walking”.  It’s obvious, but what it means is being able to walk around with your dog at your side, without him pulling in any direction. To do be able to do this we need to use a correction and a lot of practice.

This is not achievable by just rewarding him when he obeys, so we need use a correction, or we’re getting nowhere. The correction is snapping the leash sideways or downwards. It’s very important that you never snap the leash upwards, or you will end up choking your puppy. You probably won’t kill him, but he will have a bad experience and start getting aggressive with good reason.

Some people think that snapping the leash is a bad thing to do to your dog and you might even get some people looking strange at you for doing it. The truth of the matter is that this is a very natural way for them to learn. And it doesn’t hurt at all. If you were to look at a bitch teaching the puppies what’s good and what’s wrong, you will probably be able to see that she corrects them by gently biting them behind or on the side of their neck.

So now that we got that out of the way, when do you snap the leash? Well, the position you’re trying to keep is at your left side – not behind, not in front of you, not on your feet and not on other people’s feet. When he isn’t holding that position, gently pull him on the right track and only snap the leash if he is too stubborn and pulls away or sits on the ground. This type of walking is also called heeling. When he is mature enough and he doesn’t run towards strangers without your permission anymore, you can lose the leash and have him walk by your side. Now that is a nice feeling, having your dog obey like that.

Remember, the fact that he likes meeting other people does not mean that is disregarding you. He needs to be socialized with other people as well as with other dogs. What you need to do is have him stop and come back to you just by voice command and it will all be fine.

This is the only dog food that I recommend you feed your Labrador puppy: