How to deal with some bad doggy behavior: playing tug with the leash while on a walk!

Leopold has always been a sweet guy, but when he was younger he would occasionally have outbursts of energy during a walk—he would go bananas. As part of his outburst, he would often grab his leash and start to play tug with it. These instances were incredibly frustrating. And embarrassing. I tried lots of ways to get Leopold to stop playing tug with the leash, but nothing I did worked. The behavior was always rewarded with what Leopold considered play because I couldn’t just let the leash go.

I looked for solutions online and came across a suggestion that worked wonders. The suggestion was to walk your dog with multiple leashes. Brilliant! I started walking Leopold with two, sometimes three, leashes. This way when he started to play tug with one of the leashes, I could drop the one he was tugging, thereby not taking part in the game and not encouraging the behavior. Leo would become bored as soon as he realized I wasn’t playing tug with him and he would drop the leash that was in his mouth and go for another leash that I was holding. I would then pick up the one he dropped and drop the one he just grabbed. It was a bit of a juggle at times, but it worked. Over then next month or so of walks, Leopold would give up trying to play tug with me faster and faster until he didn’t even initiate tug anymore. Woo-hoo!

We still play tug in the house sometimes and he loves to play tug with other dogs, but I’m very happy to say that it’s been a very long time since Leopold has tried to play tug with his leash while on a walk!

Putting your dog on a "belt" can be helpful when you need your hands free.

A couple weekends ago Chris, Leopold, Halo and I were at the SPCA Walk for the Animals running the Chesapeake Taste booth. We had a great time, and Leo and Halo had a blast meeting lots of new people and dogs! While Chris and I were setting up and taking down our booth, we needed our hands free but had no where to put the dogs; we did an old trick that I learned when Leopold was a puppy. What were we doing? We were making what Chris and I have termed “dog belts”. We fed the leash through the leash handle, making a loop, and then slipped the loop around our waist like a belt. This way our dogs couldn’t run off, but we could have our hands free. Someone from a nearby booth said that it was clever trick and they would pass on the trick to a friend who had a dog. This made me think that “dog belts” might be a nice thing to do a quick post on!

As I said above, “dog belts” are something I learned when Leopold was a puppy. I read about it somewhere and found that a “Leopold belt” was a great way to keep him close to me so that I could better keep an eye on him to keep him out of trouble or correct a bad behavior when it happened (you can’t correct a behavior that you’re not there to see!). Eventually Leopold learned what he should and should not chew on and play with. I continued to occasionally keep him on a “belt” though, because before he learned that he shouldn’t go to the bathroom in the house at all, he learned that he shouldn’t go to the bathroom in the house when I was around. He would sometimes slip around a corner and do his business out of sight because he knew that I scolded him every time he did it when I was there to see. Clever dog. So if he was in a room where he would be able to slip out of sight, even for a second, I put him on his leash and put the leash around my waist. This was a good way to make sure he couldn’t slip around a corner but still allowed me to have my hands free to do whatever it was I was doing.
Making a “dog belt” has continued to be a useful trick for situations in the house (we made “Halo belts” quite often after Halo moved in with us) and out.