Firstly, Different trainers condition and use leash pressure in different ways. Some compulsion trainers will condition the leash pressure to become a conditioned punisher that will stop a dog doing something or make them less likely to do it in the future. While a lot of trainers like myself specifically condition leash pressure to become a cue like a recall trained with positive reinforcement, to mean, come back and stay with the owner. But because most dogs without any initial training find being touched by the leash when they pull aversive, the trainer first has to use counter conditioning to change the dog’s emotional response to the feeling of the pressure to be a positive one, before then conditioning it to be a cue to return to owner. The difference in this training means that when the dog does hit the end of the leash or the owner shortens the leash, the leash pressure will not act as a conditioned punisher making whatever the dog was doing less likely to happen. So with positive reinforcement training, the trainer will then have to reinforce the behavior they DO want the dog to do, otherwise they will get a dog constantly hitting the end of the leash for treats. So to do this while training the leash pressure exercise you will see the trainer, marking and reinforcing for the dog staying next to them as the behavior they do want the dog to do around distractions. Things are not intrinsically reinforcing or punishing. You can turn food and petting into a punisher and something like putting on a leash and harness or even pulling on one into a reinforcer. Over time and in different situations the values change and a punisher can change into a reinforcer and vise versa. So the trainers and owners need to be good at reading their dogs body language and taking note of their dogs behavior rather than just assuming something is a punisher or a reinforcer. Over time a dog could regress to start to find the leash pressure aversive and so more conditioning would be necessary. In the same way a dog might start to not enjoy being groomed the steps need to be broken up and worked on where the dog is having a positive emotional response during the session. The leash pressure game full tutorial- kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n7F3a5x4u7WumYE.html

The best trainer in all of KZfaq. I’m getting a puppy this Friday and I’ve been binge watching all your puppy videos 😂

Hey kikopup! I'm a long-time follower and member of kikopup and I'm currently in a crunch. I have a leash reactive dog (serious puller) that I have been working with for several months. Our turning point was the leash-pressure game! Now with R+ and your training support, he is walking LL quite beautifully. Our number one challenge now is that after I reward him (treat) for walking LL he immediately takes off forward and slightly pulling again. How can I work to help him with this one last piece?! (I tried to look for a video of yours on this but came up with nothing) Thank you Emily!

For anyone reading this: I know that dog training can be difficult sometimes, but you're doing great. Keep up the good work, and your dog (and your own sanity) will thank you for it! ❤️

Your first video on leash pressure helped me SO much with my dog! He's turning 4 in a couple of weeks and he's turned out for the most part fantastic! A lot of it thanks to your videos.

Wonderful training video and explanation, Emily

thanks for this, i'd been woefully inconsistent with this for my husky (who's actually handling it decently despite the inconsistency), but seeing this again is a reminder that i should be more consistent with it AND that i should show this to my partner so we can be on the same page about our dog's training

Mia was so cute during these training clips! thanks for explaining +R options for leash pressure training :)

Our high energy standard poodle puppy (11m) has been a lot more challenging on leash pulling than our other 2, older and smaller, dogs. It's been a gradual process but she's improving.

I’m getting a puppy in a month so I can finally watch your videos for a real dog instead of a hypothetical dog 🙃

I absolutely have to ask this: Does this not reward the dog to pull? It's not like you're the only one in control of the 'tug' cue, in fact in this video the dog is a 100% in control of the 'tug' cue. So essentially the dog's action 'Tug on the leash' is rewarded with a treat. Their own action equals the 'cue', so they can 'cue' as often as they want to to get a treat. I've personally taught my dog an amazing recall. I usually call him when he's far away or not paying attention, as to 'proof' his recall. After a few weeks he would purposely walk very far away from me, 'pretend' to be sniffing a bush, or 'pretend' to turn his back to me, but I could tell by the way he occassionally looked at me that he was absolutely expecting me to recall him. Ofcourse I don't recall him in such moments often and usually only recall when he's legitimately distracted. The downside is that he now strays way too far from me and will sometimes refuse to follow me because he's pretending to be distracted so that I'll recall him. I can already predict what my dog would do if I followed the method in this video. After a while he'll know the 'trick' and will purposefully walk to the edge of the lead untill there's a tug and then immideately turn back for a treat and will then go right back doing the same thing over again. Tug, treat, tug, treat, etc. I've had this 'problem' quite often in +R and no one has really explained to me how to avoid this. I have a command for him to get off the bed after which he gets a treat. He listens beautifully, but now jumps on the bed all the time in anticipation of being told off and rewarded. I really hope you'll reply to this. No one has been able to explain. I'm sure not all dogs will do this, but my dog is really good at recognising action + consequence patterns. The only thing that helps is to 'cue' as randomly as possible so no associations are made. But even then, associations are made. We always cue for a reason, and that reason is nearly always the same. What has also helped is habit forming withouth using treats. So if I walk my dog on the long line for a few months and then off leash him again, his habit will be to stick close. I can also get him into the habit of not being on the bed, just by gently pushing him off whenever he gets on withouth a reward. Or even go as far as to block entrance to the bed. After a few weeks he'll have a habit of lying next to the bed.

Love it. Thabks.

I saw the title of this video and was immediately concerned. My mind is so ingrained with the idea that leash pressure is always used in an aversive context...too many terrible trainers out there, and i straight away went to the idea of harsher leash tugs/pops/corrections. I never thought of reinforcing the pressure of reaching the end of the leash as a signal to return to the handler! Honestly, it's such a good idea! Aversive and "balanced" trainers are always stating to use the leash, "it's a tool after all"...and here we are, the reward/positive trainers using the leash as a tool 😅 why use the leash as a corrector, when you can use it as a signal to come back!? The latter requires much less effort in the long run haha! Keep up the great work as always!

Thanks! Great video with fresh puppy 😊 it helps. Just weekend i saw video of someone who trained it in a not +r way and it looked so sad to me and i thought - aww now i want to see Emily does it as i believe it's right And here it is 🎉

Are there any podcasts you recommend for dog training? It would be nice to be able to audio learn some of this stuff

Thanks for including an explanation of the difference in training approaches. 👍 Can you add a link in the description to the second video you mentioned please? Dogs, like humans, do need to make mistakes at times for effective learning. But we have a responsibility to them to not let those mistakes cause them physical or psychological harm. That's in addition to not using physical or psychological harm in order to teach them.

Our pooch was a rescue from up North that Scavenged for the first year to survive. She pulls towards garbage a fair bit on walks and can be very stubborn. How much leash pressure is okay in getting her to move away? Thanks so much!!

This is a bit like Jay Jack's Red light Green light game. Haven't tried it yet - I tend to teach reinforcement zones and use neg reinf to finish it off but I'm going to give it a shot.

I'm quite interested to know how you feel about dogs that have never been on a leash and still follow and listen to their owners. Farm life I've experienced that, city life I have not and can't wrap my head around it

I like the explanation about how this isn't using the leash as punishment. It's just that the feeling is being conditioned to something positive.

You technically can do this with leash pressure that turns off which is not positive reinforcement. I get where you're coming from but it's really not that different than basic pressure and release work. I'm not talking about popping a collar painfully. I got to this with just a long line and turning and having my puppies happily change direction. But I also am not against a dog learning to turn consistent leash pressure off but giving in to it. I pair that with engagement work, long line direction changes, reward placement a step behind me as a place to what to be. So many ways to train. I like your stuff but realistically most people won't take this much time. Thanks for sharing

What about running? My dog struggles with pulling just in general, but I’ll allow him to pull more with a harness. I feel like if I teach him not to pull it would be difficult when I start running with him.

Clever tiger 59

Black elk 78

How do you recommend doing all of this with an excited 10 month old pup? He doesn’t find it too aversive, but I think my pup has a lot of bad habits that I’d like to train on, but he is easily the most excitable ball of fur who doesn’t care about treats or play when outside, the smells and walking is just too much fun for him. Inside the house he listens pretty okay, he listens like a soldier with treats indoors. Outdoors he is just… not there anymore.. :)

Gentle elk 11

Short designer 86

Strong boy 80