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Milo & Loose Lead Walking
My Labrador Milo, he is 35kg built to pull and to be honest, quite enjoys pulling. We have been working on loose lead walking from the day I brought him home. He has taught me many many things about dog training, especially loose lead walking. I need to be able to just have him walk next to me and know he isn’t going to pull me over. I followed what I now teach and within 2 months I was able to go out in public and was able to walk him without feeling he was going to pull me over. With continued work on this, I am now happy to take him anywhere, in any situation (within reason) and have the confidence to be able to handle/manage the situation (environment) where he will be able to loose lead walk with me.
Don’t get me wrong, he is still that 35kg pulling loving Labrador, so if something very exciting pops out (which it can and does!) he will still pull to get to it, however, now I am more prepared for this, and he has learnt when he’s on a lead, there is no point in continuing the pulling as he will not get to what ever popped out…
Milo at 3 months old on holiday in Cornwall
Snowdon
My greatest and proudest achievement with loose lead walking is I was able to walk Snowdon. Total of 9 miles, 975m (3,199 ft) up the mountain, able to enjoy the top (even though there was no views!) and then be able to walk down without being pulled or fall over!
Going up Snowdon I had no worries (not going to lie - a little bit of pulling me up would have help!) But for the majority Milo and Harvey both walked nicely attached to my walking belt. We had a favourite distraction of sheep to contend with, so Milo was a little distracted at first but then got into a lovely rhythm.
Walking back DOWN the mountain, now that was my fear… I really did not know how this was going to go and I didn’t really think about it until I was at the very very top - having my picture taken with Milo and Harvey at the trig point. My 1st obstacle was getting down from the trig point which were very steep steps. This went well. We then navigated our selves down, using the train line (this was out of action). We enjoyed a picnic lunch and then headed down the very steep mountain to the 1/2 way point. We went very slowly, slower than our normal pace, but all our hard work of loose lead walking paid off and we managed to walk all the way down Snowdon with no dramas.
I praised both Milo and Harvey massively, verbally and with their favourite treats - cocktail sausages. I really felt a massive achievement, I walked Snowdon but I also did it with my 2 boys - Milo and Harvey and we all survived and had a wonderful time!
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I know 100% that if I NEVER taught (and yes, you do teach your dog) to loose lead walk, I would never have been able to walk Snowdon - even going up would have been difficult let alone coming back down…
