Teaching a dog 'let’s go' is a great cue. When you are out walking your dog and you want to move on, change direction or move your dog away from something, an effective and properly conditioned 'let’s go' cue will ensure your dog will reliably break its attention from something else and move along with you. No need to pull, tug or shout at your dog to get them to continue walking with you. Pulling and tugging your dog using the leash is ineffective, unpleasant and can create leash aggression.
If you have a leash reactive dog then the ‘let’s go’ cue is a great management tool to avoid conflict. When you are out walking your dog and you anticipate your dog is about to react to a situation and possibly escalate into a troublesome behavior you can use the ‘let’s go’ cue and cross the road or change directions to avoid the potential problem.
The ‘let’s go’ cue works well if you need to move your dog away from a problem and put them into a controlled ‘sit.‘ This teaches your dog an alternative behavior when confronted with a problem or a situation your dog responds to badly.
Rather than manage leash reactivity you can completely change the behavior. For this you will need the help of a professional dog trainer and behavior analyst, dog behavior counselor. A professional dog behavior counselor will teach you over several lessons how to counter condition, unlearn the reactive behavior and replace this behavior with a more pleasing behavior.
While you are working on and changing your dog’s leash behavior problems you should continue to use the management protocols described above. If your dog has serious leash aggression problems then you will need to manage their environment to prevent them from becoming leash aggressive while you exercise them. Every time your dog displays this behavior problem, the behavior is reinforced and therefore becomes stronger.
Watch the short video called ‘let’s go’ on the DogSmith.com home page and ‘Take back the leash!’ . Contact your local DogSmith who can help you make your dog walks a more pleasant experience for both you and your dog
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