You say to your dog, “Are you ready for a walk?”

Immediately, your dog jumps up and runs to the door. As you approach, your dog runs around the whole space and circles you three times. He jumps up, scratching you with his paws and biting on your sleeves. You struggle to get the leash on as the dog jumps, runs, slams himself on the floor, tosses his head, and nibbles on your hand. Once the leash is on, you try to open the door, but he is jumping and scratching at the door, blocking the door from opening. You wrestle him far enough away from the door that you can crack it open. As soon as it opens, he bolts through, causing you to bang your knee on the door. As soon as you stop cursing, you hold the leash tight and say “No” in a deep voice. The same way you did countless times before. 

Now, outside, you are ready to start your walk. 

The leash is wrapped around your wrist, and as you begin to walk, your dog starts to pull hard on the leash. He digs in with his back legs and pulls. He goes back and forth, left to right, cuts behind you so that you have to spin to keep the leash from tangling you up. In between bolting around, he sniffs, seeks out, and eats anything on the sidewalk. A bus goes by, and he bolts away from the bus, almost pulling you over. You stay on your feet, but you feel that pull in your elbow, shoulder, and lower back. Your dog sees that you are not going back home, and continues pulling on the leash and eating from the sidewalk. When you walk by people, he either tries to jump on them and mouth them “playfully”, or he is afraid and tries to get away. It seems like his behavior towards people depends on the time of day. When he sees a dog, he completely ignores you and pulls hard, barks, and growls towards the dog. Sometimes, instead of pulling hard on the leash, he stops, lies down, and refuses to walk. That is when you decided you had enough and called me to help with your dog’s leash reactivity. You can deal with all the other things, but that reactive behavior is embarrassing, and you think your neighbors think he is a bad dog. 

I’ll tell you what you already know. Your dog has poor manners. If we focus on improving his manners, his behavior will improve when he sees dogs on the street. If your dog is rude, and you want to make a change, Contact Us. 

Better behavior is right around the corner. Thank you for reading, and Enjoy Your Dog!!!