Leash training your puppy is an essential part of obedience and discipline. Leash
training will get your puppy out of the house to learn socialization skills and how to behave in public. These are called Leash Manners. Here are three tips to help leash train your puppy. Listen to the podcast episode here.
Keep the walks short, about 5-10 minutes. Long walks for young puppies ages 8-24 weeks could result in them losing focus and energy, enabling them to check out and develop unwanted behaviors.
Focus on discipline and obedience while on the walks. Have your puppy go out in your driveway or sidewalk and sit. They must learn patience and be desensitized to distractions such as other dogs, people, and cars.
Finish the walk with a calming ritual on the puppy's bed when they come inside from the walk. This conditions them to develop the habit of exercise followed by relaxation. You can use a Kong, Lickimat, bully stick, or a deer antler to help them settle.
Leash training is where the puppy learns everything, and you should not check out yourself by using your cell phone, for example, or being distracted by something else while you're leash training a young puppy. Leash training is not necessarily taking the puppy for a walk.
I have a lot of clients who take their puppies for long walks, but there's no training involved. There's no mental stimulation. The puppy does what it wants. It zigzags left and right. It pulls out front; it goes in the grass all the time. It's picking things up in their mouth. This is not least training. This teaches the puppy that they can do whatever they want.
Listen to the podcast episode here
More tips can be found in my book Leash Training Your Puppy, available on Amazon in Kindle, paperback, and audiobook. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVGJ3DPQ