FAQ: Small Dog Leash Reactivity (Front Clip Harness Version)
My cousin emailed me recently about her little chihuahua-sized dog who, when out on leash, lunges and barks and goes crazy about other dogs. I wrote her two emails, which I’m posting here.
The first thing to think about is what tool to use. For a small dog, safety is first. The ideal things to use are either a front-clip harness (I recommend the Easy Walk brand, you’ll need a small unless she’s closer to 15-20lbs, and then you’ll need a small/medium – that’s the actual in-between size before medium) or a teeny weeny prong collar. They have pros and cons, which I’ve outlined below. The other kind of tool is a toy she goes crazy about or treats. The treats should be tiny. I haven’t found treats small enough, so often I use something like “mini naturals” or “mini trainers” and then break them into even smaller pieces between my fingers. You can also mix them with her kibble; her kibble will pick up their scent so she’s more likely to eat it as a treat, but you don’t have to give her so many treats that it upsets her stomach!
Front clip harness
Pros: These are excellent at stopping your dog from pulling forward, and they run only a tiny risk of impacting the windpipe and virtually no risk of impacting it dangerously.
Cons: If your dog’s windpipe extends lower than usual (actually, their shoulders sit low on their neck), then when they pull they’ll cough (signs of impacting the windpipe). This means you need to lower the strap that goes across their chest to get it off the windpipe. However, if you lower it too much and she has a long back/short legs, it heightens significantly the risk of her squirming as she pulls forward and getting a leg through, and then walking out of it. If your dog has very short legs compared to their body, that’s a risk anyway. Finally, if you tug upward as they leap and the timing is just perfect, you can flip your dog. Not A Good Thing.
Prong collar:
Pros: Probably the safest thing you can put on a small dog. The prongs keep any pressure off their windpipe, so the risk of impacting it is nil. (If your dog coughs, simply adjust it sideways a quarter of an inch so those prongs aren’t sitting directly on their windpipe. I almost never see this happen, and usually the dog’s movement will keep the collar shifting around, so even if it happens momentarily, it’ll stop almost instantly.) As long as you don’t make the collar too big (it should NOT be able to slide on and off over their head), it’s nearly impossible for them to escape. It’s also really great for correcting naughty behaviors, and because dogs occasionally nip (touching teeth to each other rapidly, NOT trying to harm) if they’re super annoyed, the prongs simulate that nip and the dogs get it.
Cons: People will give you dirty looks. You can solve this by tying a little bandanna over the prong collar, or buying the kind that has cloth already over it, or you can ignore people. 😉 Prong collars are also kind of a pain to put on until you get the hang of it. (Practice doing and undoing it without it being on Pepper, and that’ll help a ton!) The biggest con is, ironically, that they feel it like a nip from another dog. If they’re super focused on a dog and feel it, you run the risk that they will get more aggressive in the moment, because they think the dog bit them from over there!
There are a few other tools you can use, but they’re either ineffective or risk damage (short or long term).
All of the above said, I personally would suggest a prong collar first. Get a little one (the prongs are slender and only about as long as your thumbnail), and try it on right there in the store. You might need someone to show you how to get it on and off without sliding it over her head. You also might need to take a bunch of prongs out to make it fit. I’ve slimmed them down so they only have two or three prongs instead of the ten they came with; that’s perfectly fine! You only need two for windpipe safety. 😉 The other reason to buy it in the store is if you think it might increase her aggression, you can take it back and exchange it for an Easy Walk (front clip) harness.
If you aren’t comfortable with a prong collar, since not everyone is, get an Easy Walk harness!
(Wondering how to use a prong collar? The next post has that info! This link will be active a week after this post, when it goes live.)
Once You Have Your Chosen Tool
In this case, Nicole chose a front-clip, Easy Walk Harness. Great choice! You want to make sure it’s sized and used properly. Here’s how:
For you visual learners out there, here are some tips to using it. I do talk through it, but a picture’s worth a thousand words!
Once you’re sized, practice it in the house to make sure she can’t step out of it. Walk forward, turn her quickly when the leash starts to straighten, walk again, repeat a few times. If the harness is gaping when you turn her, the likelihood she can step out of it rises. Same if she’s stepping over your leash, so it threads under or between her front legs before rising to your hand. (This means playing a balancing game between keeping a loose leash that has a little sway to it and not letting it be TOO loose. Once she gets the idea, though, you don’t have to worry about it so much.)
Next, we have additional stages. If she doesn’t know to check in with you when you say “Look” or her name, teach her while in the house. This doesn’t mean you have to do it for days; before you walk out the door, say her name or ask her to look/watch me/whatever comes automatically while you’re walking. When she looks at you, hand her a treat. Do it about five times, and then head out on your walk.
You should give her five more treats before you hit the end of a normal sized driveway! That’s treats in VERY quick succession. You’re also going to turn her whenever she hits the end of her leash. From your front door to your drive, it’s going to look something like this:
*open door
*Pepper dashes out
*you walk briskly backward
*she spins and comes trotting back
*you say her name and fumble for a treat
*she turns and dashes back out
*you walk back farther
*you drop all your treats
*she tries to eat them
*you fend her off and collect them back up
*she dashes out the door, yanking your hand so you re-drop all the treats
*you start cussing
*she pulls at the end of her leash, barking at a squirrel
*you call her name
*she ignores you, because squirrel
*you remember to back up, but she only keeps pulling, backing up as well
*you remember to loosen the leash by reaching forward
*she takes up the slack
*you curse my name
*you drag her back inside and close the door to breathe
*you open the door
*she rushes out
*you back up
*she’s pulled around to follow you but she turns back to the squirrel right away
*you keep backing up, all the way into the back room if you must
*squirrel out of sight, she finally becomes aware of your existence
*you say her name
*she looks at you and wags
*you give her a treat and think, “Yay! Fixed it!”
*phantom-me laughs
*you walk toward the door
*she lunges toward it
*you back up quickly, spinning her around
*she turns
*you say her name
*she looks at you
*you give her a treat
*you wonder why you’re farther away from the door than when you started
*you start toward the door
*she lunges
*you back up and say her name
*she turns and looks at you
*a choir of angels sings
*you give her a treat
*you walk toward the door… and reach it, this time!
*she bolts out
*you back up and say her name
*she looks at you! Cue angels.
*you give her a treat
*you are able to STEP OUT THE DOOR.
*she lunges
*you back up into the house
*she goes with you! Looks at you! Gets a treat!
*you step out the door AGAIN! You even get to close the door!
*she lunges
*you back up into the door
*you rub your head and cuss
*she barks at the squirrel
*you fumble the door open and drag her back inside
*you yell her name
*phantom-me says, “Don’t yell, just say it nicely.”
*she looks at you
*you give her a treat.
*you go back out the door. Close the door. Walk several steps down the drive!
*phantom-me says, “SAY HER NAME AND GIVE HER A TREAT!”
*you say her name.
*she’s too busy staring at the squirrel to respond
*you back up, because now she’s about to be pulling on her leash
*Holy dog, she notices and follows!
*you say her name!
*she ignores you…
*you say her name again!
*she turns her butt to you to watch the squirrel
*you put a treat on her nose without giving it to her, then guide her face up to look at you when she notices. You say her name and give her the treat.
*you start walking
*she doesn’t pull
*you say her name
*she looks! Treat while you walk!
*you say her name again.
*she looks! Treat while you walk!
*you say her name again.
*she looks! Treat while you walk!
*you reach the end of the driveway!
*you say her name again.
*she completely ignores you to bark at the dog she just spotted.
*you back up all the way to the house before she even notices she’s getting pulled backward.
*you curse my name.
*she keeps barking.
*the dog goes out of sight.
*you curse my name.
*you say Pepper’s name.
*phantom-me reminds you to say it nicely.
*you say Pepper’s name nicely.
*she looks! Treat!
*you realize you’re at the door and it’s been ten minutes. You curse my name.
Repeat. 😉
Notice that “you’re” giving her treats long before any dog comes into view. She has to already remember to look at you before any distraction comes into view, which is why you start in the house, pre-squirrel, even. Then you keep it up as soon as you step outside, and then you keep it up down the street. When you’ve given her somewhere around twenty treats as fast as possible, then you can slow down a little bit. If you find you suddenly have to say her name two or three times before she looks up, you need to increase the number of treats again. (This will happen multiple times in a single walk, where you are able to decrease, but then must increase, the number of treats used.)
Now, the final touch: watch her ears. When a dog is only focused on one thing, to the exclusion of everything else, they pitch their ears forward. It usually creates wrinkles in their forehead, so it’s fairly easy to spot. When dogs are aware of their surroundings (including you, what you think of things, and whether or not you’re preparing to attack the approaching dog) and/or they want to be friendly, they relax their ears sideways. Every time Pepper’s ears pitch forward, say her name (or say “look” or “watch me” – whatever your command is) and reward her for looking back at you. If she doesn’t look at you, start walking backward swiftly so that she spins to face you. Then say her name and reward when she looks. Dogs frequently pitch their ears forward just before or the instant another dog is in sight; that’s when you want to get her attention on you and your treat, or turn her back if you need to. If you wait until she’s vocalizing, you’re too late.
If at any point you say her name and she doesn’t respond, stop moving forward! Either stand there and catch her attention with a treat on her nose until you can lead her face around to look at you, or back up as far as you have to.
If she decides she’s full and she doesn’t want any more treats (or she’s stressed or hyper-focused or…), don’t offer them for a little while. Still insist she looks at you when you ask, but reward with a quick pet and praise instead of a treat. (Don’t stop and lavish pets and praise, just give a quick touch and a “good girl!” and keep moving.) Offer a treat again in five minutes, and see if she’s thinking well enough to take it.
A couple of safety tips for turning her around:
You want to start with a slack leash. If it’s tightened, then reach toward her to create slack. If the leash is already straight/taut/tight, then she’s already bracing and instead of pivoting she’ll drag. We don’t want to do that to her little feet!
Move quickly. The slower you go, the more time she’ll have to brace, the more her feet will drag.
When you back up, lift UPWARD with your leash rather than pulling her backward. This will encourage her to hop when she’s pivoted (protecting her feet) and it’ll make sure the leash hasn’t gone under her front legs, and if the luck is bad and you turn her at the same moment she leaps for a dog, then that upward lift will help her keep her balance instead of flipping over. (That doesn’t happen often, but I tend to be very safety minded, especially with little dogs!)
If I were going to boil these long instructions down to something that seemed deceptively easy, they would say:
1. Practice turning her/pivoting her back to you while still in the house 3-5 times.
2. Practice having her look at you either when you say her name or when you give a command (“look” and “watch me” are the most common) 5 times while still in the house.
3. On your walk, the goal is to cue her to look at you instead of pulling or staring (ears forward).
4. If she starts pulling or staring and/or ignores her cue, back up to pivot her around to face you, then start again.
Doesn’t that seem so simple? ;-D
Jenna
