What To Do If Your Dog Bites The Leash?
When walking the dog, some undesirable behaviors are common such as pulling the leash continuously or growling at other people or animals. It’s also possible that your puppy is one of those who bites the lead and doesn’t pay attention to other stimuli.
While this isn’t something he does continuously throughout the tour, it’s enough that this act is repeated every day for you to have to continually reset the guides. What can you do to keep the dog from biting the lead? While it may seem like an unattainable goal, getting a dog to stop this behavior isn’t all that difficult.
Why does a dog bite a leash?
The fact that a dog bites the lead can mean that he is overexcited. The time of the walk, instead of being the perfect situation to get to know and interact with the environment through their sense of smell, is used by many dogs so that they can de-stress and reduce boredom.
Before going for a walk, the dog must be calm. And this is not achieved only through commands such as “sit” or “quiet”, because the dog must learn self-control and understand that, with this state of excitement, he will not go out for a walk.
On the other hand, there are dogs that bite the leash when they want to break free and run away. If they are scared or see an unpleasant situation approaching, such as another dog coming towards them, they may try to bite the leash to avoid it if the tutor doesn’t understand their feelings and emotions.
When the dog bites the leash because of a state of agitation
Most dogs bite the leash when they leave the house because they’ve been bored for hours and need to release the stress they’ve built up. These situations must be worked from two different perspectives. We will show them below.
Work on smell and mental exercises
No doubt physical exercise tires the body, but mental activity can be even more exhausting. Dogs work their minds through their nose. Therefore, if you want your dog to go out focused and a little tired for a walk, he should first exercise at home.
Trying out different smelling games before going for a walk will make the walk much more comfortable for both the human and the dog. Furthermore, this will also make the dog spend more time sniffing in the street, concentrating on olfactory stimuli rather than biting the leash. This behavior will no longer be as motivating as the world to be discovered.
If your dog bites the lead, practice the walk
After practicing with the smell games, the dog must learn to leave the house. The established thought that the dog should be the last one out the door so he doesn’t think he’s the leader is something that has been disproved and dismissed by experts in canine psychology.
A dog should come out whenever he wants, before or after you. However, if you want to leave first, reward him for waiting inside the house until you call. The most important thing in this matter is that the puppy must control his impulses and his energy to want to go out quick and excited.
For this, we should only put on the leash , collar or breastplate when the animal is as calm as possible – according to its personality. If he’s agitated, you’ll have to wait a while for him to calm down. Previous olfactory games and basic commands like “NO” or “sit” can be very useful for this.
Avoid talking continuously during the tour.
When walking your pet, if you continually give commands, it will end up ignoring you in the end. You must learn to lead the dog with the lead. Small, smooth redirects will help your dog pay more attention when you need it.
On the contrary, if you scream or abruptly pull the lead, the dog won’t understand anything. He will enter a stress cycle, biting the leash further and engaging in other undesirable behaviors.
The goal is for the dog to show interest in the olfactory stimuli present around him when he leaves the house. No doubt, for that, you should let him sniff calmly and follow him to the place he needs to sniff.
If a dog does not sniff during the walk and continually walks beside you without paying attention to anything, it will be an unbalanced dog. However, that doesn’t mean you always need to go where the dog wants to go, because he must learn when he can and when he can’t. What you must never forget is that the tour is for him, not you.
If you want a dog that bites a leash to stop doing this, you must work out of that situation. Improve the animal’s self-control, self-esteem and relaxation. After that, you can correct it with a “NO” if the behavior repeats itself sporadically.
