Using Leashes or Not

     

     This is an ideology that I developed and follow and I think it is important. Of course everyone is free to do as they choose but I also think that everyone should at least think of this before they make their decision. I keep my articles short and simple, but sometimes it is beneficial to have more information to base your decisions upon. That is also why I always prefer giving lessons vs taking an animal for in house training. Alright, my theory on leashes. I really do not use leashes and I can control 5 or 6 or 13 dogs lose at once. It doesn't mean u have to, but you should be able to control one with that much less of a problem. The very important thing here is what is called in-printing.

In psychology and ethology, imprinting is any kind of phase-sensitive learning (learning occurring at a particular age or a particular life stage) that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior.

     Imprinting is important and it can be done easier with a young puppy than an older dog, but it can be accomplished in all life stages. 

    When a puppy wolf is born (this btw apply to all animals except people, for some weird reason unknown to me) the mom or dad wolf never chase after their young. The babies are genetically imprinted to follow their parents in order to seek safety, food, shelter, and love. Their basic and most important needs for survival. They play games where the mom will play hide and seek and the babies have to cry and look for her. This builds their want to keep an eye on their mom or later on a pack leader. The mom never "makes" the pup to follow and she never pulls him behind her on a rope nor she restricts him from running off, he is free to do so if he wants to get eaten by someone. (watch my video above) They never are this dumb tho, unless we mess them up. So now picture what humans do. They do exactly the opposite, interesting, don't u think? I never could understand why. People put a collar and a leash on as one of the first things we do, perhaps it gives us a false sense of security or leadership or dominance, I don't know. What happens is we build up anxiety in our dogs since they are puppies, we actually imprint them with the fact that they want to get away and we don't let them so they want it more and more, just like ice cream you can see but never reach. Kinda drives you mad overtime huh? Then one day the leash snaps or the door opens and the dog goes nuts running away for the first time free in his life. Same for horses. Then we start buying different crutches/gadgets and think that is what will solve the mental issue we created. No, it will not, it might mask it somewhat but it will not go away unless we start having a different approach. Now, I am not saying you shouldn't own a leash, if you go to the vet or an airport or whatever, sure, snap a leash on, no biggie, but if you can't take your dog out without one, that's not good. 

     So what I recommend you do with your pup instead of putting him on a leash and pull him around right from the start is Start playing hide and seek with him, make it progressively more complicated. Every time he finds you, make a big deal about it and give him a hot dog. Do Not Ever chase after your dog, you can never catch him and once you do it, unless you are very good at training, he will figure out that he can get away if he wants to. Run the other way and call him, make it more fun then whatever is on the other side, as a matter of fact, you should always be more fun then everything else. Figure out your ways how to play this game. Go for a bike ride and make sure you change your direction often enough so it doesn't look like you are chasing your dog tho ;) Take out your ATV or a horse or simply hide around the corner or a tree while you're walking. Remember Recall is the one and only most important thing to teach your dog and it is IMHO the responsibility of each dog owner. It is, of course, more complex then this short article, at some point you will have to introduce some sort of correction and so on, but this is good basic info to have.
     If you get a puppy from me, he or she will be used to following his leader, keep up with it and you will not have problems.