A man sitting on the floor wearing a navy polo shirt and olive green pants, holding a brown and white spaniel puppy against a plain light gray background.

How to Stop Your Dog Pulling on the Lead

Most people lose the walk before they have even left the house. It comes down to what happens before you reach the door, and what you do the moment the lead goes tight.

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Calm walking at a glance

Pulling on the lead

There is no magic device that instantly fixes lead pulling. Your dog has to choose to walk beside you because they trust your direction.

Book in home training

Where the walk is lost

Before you have even left the house

Energy to leave at

Around twenty out of a hundred. A dog dragging you out is already at eighty

The core technique

Stop, start, change direction. In silence, no words, no correction

Pre walk warm up

Four to five calm minutes before the door opens

How long it takes

A few minutes at first, under five within a week or two

The walk has three parts and most people only work on one

  • A small black and tan dachshund wearing a light pink harness, sitting on a speckled cream floor in an indoor setting with a person's legs visible in the background.

    Before you leave

    Picture your dog's energy on a scale of nought to one hundred, where nought is asleep and one hundred is frantic. If your dog is already above twenty by the time you reach the door, it is not coming back down, because it is moving from no stimulus straight into stimulus.

    A dog dragging you out the door is already at eighty or more, and you will not calm that down outside.

  • Structured walking and free time

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  • When pulling starts

    {"type"=>"root", "children"=>[{"type"=>"paragraph", "children"=>[{"type"=>"text", "value"=>"Stop without warning. Start again. Change direction, always turning in front of your dog rather than being pulled around behind them. Done in silence, no words, no correction of any kind. Your dog cannot predict what is coming next, so it has to start watching you."}]}]}

Winning the walk before you leave the house

Introduce the section here.

Four things that keep the pulling going

If a walk is not going well, postponing it beats forcing it. Pulling does not fix itself through repetition alone. It fixes when the same structure gets applied consistently.

  • Yanking the lead

    A sharp check suppresses the behaviour in the moment and does nothing about the cause. Around other dogs it also builds a negative association with the other dog, because the discomfort arrives at exactly the moment they appear.

  • Holding the lead tight

    Tension in your hand travels straight down the lead into your dog. A tight grip sends the wrong message and teaches your dog to pull against pressure. Loosen your hold and let your calm travel down instead.

  • Pushing through

    If your dog cannot cope with what is around it, a strong smell or another dog nearby, walk away and reset rather than pushing through. They are not ready for that distraction yet. Short sessions that finish on a win beat long ones that end in a struggle.

  • A man crouching in a studio while holding a Dalmatian puppy. The man is wearing a dark navy polo shirt and blue jeans, and the puppy is white with black spots.

    Expecting it in week one

    Most owners are comparing themselves to working dogs. A security dog walking to heel all day is handled by someone who works with dogs professionally, every day. Your dog is a family member, not on the clock.

What to expect

For puppies. Do not expect minutes of perfect heel position walking. What you are doing now is laying the groundwork. Short, consistent sessions beat one long walk where everyone gets frustrated.

For adult dogs. Look for small wins day by day rather than a fast fix. Pulling is often a sign of a wider pattern in how decisions get made in your house, and not just a lead problem.

Some owners see a real difference within a couple of weeks of consistent stop, start, change direction. A dog with months or years of practice pulling usually takes longer to unlearn it. Start structured stretches at around twenty seconds and build over weeks until your dog can hold ten to twenty minutes when you need it.

Image with collapsed rows

Introduce the section here.

Is it normal for a puppy to pull on the lead?

Common, and not a sign anything has gone wrong. Most puppies pull the first few times a lead is attached because they have had no practice with one yet. Short, structured sessions from eight weeks build the habit early, before pulling becomes the default.

How long does loose lead training take?

It depends on the dog and how long pulling has been the pattern. Some owners see a real difference within a couple of weeks of consistent stop, start, change direction. A dog with months or years of practice pulling usually takes longer to unlearn it.

Will a front clip harness stop the pulling on its own?

No. It makes pulling less rewarding and easier to manage while you teach the actual skill, and the harness alone will not teach your dog to walk calmly beside you.

My dog goes off at other dogs on the lead. Where do I start?

Find your threshold distance, which is the distance at which your dog first notices another dog but does not yet react. It might be thirty metres, it might be ten. Hold there and work with stop, start, change direction. Do not move closer until your dog shows no reaction at the current distance.

A dog at a seven or eight on the energy scale cannot access the part of the brain that processes food reward, which is why treats at that moment tend to get ignored.

How much does it cost?

There are four levels and the current prices are all on the puppy school booking page, along with exactly what each one includes.

The four weeks of class are identical at every level. What you are choosing between is how much one to one time you get in your own home, how long you keep the online course, and how directly you can reach us afterwards. Most families land on the second level, which is where a session at home and the full course access switch on.

Do you come to my home, and how far do you go?

Yes. On Puppy School, home sessions start at Silver. On Private Puppy Training and Adult Dog Training and Behaviourism, every session is at your address. A trainer comes to you and works on your setup, your routine and the behaviour that is actually happening where you live, which is almost never the same as what happens in a training room.

We cover Sydney within roughly a forty five minute drive of the Harbour Bridge. That takes in the eastern suburbs, inner west, lower and upper north shore, northern beaches and south Sydney. Only the group class brings you to a venue.

Can I talk to someone before I commit to anything?

Yes, and we would rather you did. The meet and greet is fifteen minutes, free, and there is nothing to sign at the end of it.

Bring the questions you feel silly asking. Most of what people are worried about at eight weeks is completely normal and takes about ninety seconds to answer, and knowing that before you spend anything is worth more to us than a booking made by someone who is not sure.

Can I just do the four weeks of class, without the rest?

Yes. The entry level is the four weeks of class with community support and Public-level Ask Luke. It does not include the online course, and plenty of people start there.

Worth knowing what you are trading off. Class is one hour a week in a room. Everything that actually goes wrong happens at your front door, in your hallway and on your street, and that is what the session at home is for. If budget is the reason, start where you can and step up later rather than not starting.

What is included in the video support extension?

Some owners want support through our online video tutorial platform. There is a range of courses in there covering:

  • Solve Reactivity and Aggression
  • Master The Walk
  • Quit Jumping Up
  • Stop Separation Anxiety
  • Biting, Nipping and Chewing
  • Will Not Come Or Listen
  • Excessive Barking Be Gone
  • Fearful or Hyperactive Dogs
  • Toilet Training Troubles
  • New Puppy Nightmares

What is the ethos behind your dog training?

Developing a well behaved dog has 2 parts: dog psychology & dog training. We focus first on understanding your dog and getting them to choose to follow and listen to us. When dogs aren't making all the decisions, they calm down and relax, making them far more receptive to training. To do this, we don’t need to use force, fear or aggression. In fact the opposite. Whether dealing with barking, leash pulling, jumping, or aggression, these behaviours typically stem from dogs being too excited, reactive, and emotional. The key is getting them to turn to you and listen when it matters. Once they're calm and looking to you for guidance, you can effectively show them how to behave.
In short: before you train the dog, you need to win their mind.

Where we work on this

Lead work starts at your front door, so the session happens at your address. We cover Sydney within roughly a forty five minute drive of the Harbour Bridge.

  • Eastern Suburbs
  • Inner West
  • Lower North Shore
  • Upper North Shore
  • Northern Beaches
  • South Sydney
  • Sydney CBD
  • Inner South
  • St George

Related problems we work on

See also excessive barking, aggression and separation anxiety.

For dogs thirty two weeks and older this is handled through in home behaviour training. For puppies, lead work starts in week two of the puppy program.

How we train

  • No pain, no fear, no force

    No aggression either, on every case, without exception. We do not use prong collars, e-collars or choke chains, and we will not refer you to anyone who does.

  • A dog who chooses to listen

    What you end up with is a dog who checks in with you without being asked, settles when you sit down, and comes back when you call. Not because they have been bribed into it, and not because they are worried about what happens if they do not.

  • Who runs it

    Luke Buchanan, accredited through the Dog Trainer Academy, Red Cross certified in pet first aid and AFP background checked. Every trainer who works with a client dog holds the same before their first session.

  • We work where it happens

    Behaviour shows up in your hallway, at your front door and on your street, not in a training room. That is why the sessions are at your address rather than ours.

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