“Tails From The Field” is a series of true stories from Chad Culp’s experience in the field of professional dog training. Some details, such as names and breeds, may have been changed for privacy protection.
Today’s story is about a case of a dog with EXTREME leash pulling. This was not just your typical case of a dog pulling on the leash because they want to walk faster. It was not even a case of extreme pulling due to reactivity. Those are everyday occurrences in my business. This case was odd enough to warrant a TFTF story because this dog was so well rehearsed at fighting against the leash that even the slightest amount of tension in the leash, I mean literally the teeny tiniest amount, would trigger a massive pull in the opposite direction. Seriously, he would throw every muscle in his body in the opposite direction of any and all leash pressure.
Note: This is called “opposition reflex” and, to an extent, it is a totally natural, instinctive, reflexive response to physical pressure. This is why all dogs need to be trained or “conditioned” to go with the leash pressure rather than pull against it. This dog had simply taken the concept to the max!
At first I thought I could just work him through it with the standard practice of combining rewards and direction changes along with some leash pops and/or pressure and release tactics. It quickly became apparent that I thought wrong and some creativity was going to be called for. So, here’s what I did:
In order to get him to heel, I decided to pull FORWARD on the leash every time he would try to pass my leg. Everytime I pulled forward, he would launch himself backwards as if his life depended on it. Clearly he didn’t want to heel, he wanted to run ahead of me, he had proven that already. However, his desire to fight the leash, fight authority and his commitment to do the opposite of what I wanted appeared to be more important than walking ahead of me. I pretended that I wanted to force him to go ahead of me and he reflexively launched himself perfectly back into heel position. This dog was so intensely stuck in a “no” mindset that, rather than argue with him, I just used reverse psychology and pretended like I wanted the opposite of what I really wanted.
Rather than condition him to yield to pressure, I used his natural instinct to resist it (opposition reflex) in order to get what I wanted. He would heel for a few steps and then the old habit would come back and he would start to forge ahead. I would pull FORWARD as if I wanted him to move forward faster and, of course, he would throttle himself backwards again, putting himself exactly where I actually wanted him, which was in the heel position.
Eventually, after 10-15 minutes into this strange dance, he started resisting the leash less and moved forward with the leash when I pulled. Perfect! At that moment I relaxed the leash and allowed him to go ahead of me. I wanted to capture and reward that instant of yielding to the leash. I didn’t use a treat as a reward, I simply let him walk ahead of me on a slack leash, that was the reward.
“But what about making him heel?”
Ah, great question! Here’s the thing; My goal at this point was not to train him to heel, my goal was to get him to yield to the leash or to reward any sign of cooperation. As soon as I got the slightest, teeny tiniest amount of cooperation with the leash I gave him the slack and the freedom to walk ahead. This one little micro move was actually a gigantic breakthrough.
Reverse psychology, it’s a thing. 😀
Moral of the Story: It’s super important to recognize a win when it happens, in some cases even the most minute win, and capture it with the most appropriate and instantly available reward. In this case, the reward was simply to let the dog walk ahead on a loose leash.
Obviously, this was not an example of completing this dog’s training, there was still much more work to be done. This was just an example of a breakthrough moment in what was an unusual case of extreme opposition reflex, reverse psychology and what might have otherwise been written off as a “stubborn” dog.
Over the years I have come to believe that most “stubborn” dogs are really not stubborn, they just have a very low tolerance for unclear communication. Once you start making sense to these dogs, it’s amazing how cooperative they become.
Chad Culp – Certified Dog Trainer, Canine Behavior Consultant, Owner of Thriving Canine.
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