Leash Biting!

[Sam, Risa and Archie]

Has anyone experienced this? Archie is 1 and he is a stubborn butt and so smart...no matter which route I take to walk back to the house he knows I'm headed home and his gets stubborn so he bits onto the leash and pulls on it and wants to play as we are walking. He also does it when theres another dog and I don't let him immediately go up to the dog or even if the dog is dragged away by their owner....Archie gets stubborn and bratty and starts to bite the leash.

I have tried everything! Is this simply just a puppy behavior that will eventually fade or do I need to do something training wise to get him to stop biting onto the leash as we walk?

[Deb's Yarrow and Schatzi]

Yep.  Yarrow does it too.  I have taken to carrying a baggie of bits of cooked chicken (HIGH VALUE in Treatsville).   Then, when I say, 'Drop it' and she lets the leash go out of her mouth I say, "Yes! Good girl!" and give her a piece of the chicken. It's not an overnight cure, but she's getting it. 

Actually first I taught her, "Look at me" so when she has the leash in her mouth I first get her attention with the "Look at me" command.  Once I have eye contact attention (just like a kid!) I say, "Drop it".  

I bake several chicken breasts or thighs at once, let them cool, cut into treat size bits and then fast freeze them on a cookie sheet about 20 minutes per sheet.  Them I throw them into a freezer bag and grab a handful each day for the leash training.  Long response but I thought it important to be specific about what's helping with my leash biter/puller.  Hope that'll help.  Be prepared to go through a lot of chicken at first.

[Sam, Risa and Archie]

This is great and I will try this....again.  I did this in the past with his favorite treats, but Archie is so smart that whenever I didn't have his treats he would get stubborn and bite because he was looking for them and didn't see it. 

[Lucy & Ellie]

Just a side question - so you feed Yarrow the chicken bits while they are still frozen, right?  I mean, I guess they would thaw a little bit just being out of the freezer... but do you give them time to thaw first or are they pretty frozen?

[Deb's Yarrow and Schatzi]

I throw some into a small plastic bag and leave them out to thaw just a few minutes before we go.  If I forget to thaw them, she doesn't seem to mind.

[Stephanie and Ragley]

Ragley does this occasionally still. To her credit, though, we have been doing puppy class with high reward treat training (hebrew nationals) and I'm pretty sure her entire leash probably smells and tastes like hot dog by this point lol I'd probably want to chew on it too if I was her! I just use a "leave it" command when she starts

[Sam, Risa and Archie]

hes wrestles with the leash and barks and growls. it gets annoying, but i will have to try all these methods.

[Deb's Yarrow and Schatzi]

I really think they're just wanting to engage us in play, but there is a very large lab on my street who the owners have just given up on.  She's no longer a puppy and they just let her run with her leash in her mouth because they can't control her anyway.  Seeing this big galoot charging around, completely out of their control is motivation enough for me to get a handle on it before Yarrow gets any bigger.  There are two little children on my street who have inherited their father's fear of dogs and I want them to eventually feel safe around Yarrow.  (Their father is a crazy adventure writer for National Geographic.  He does all sort of dangerous things - but he's afraid of dogs - go figure!)

[Shannon and Otis]

Are the hebrew nationals ok for the dog? I am starting puppy class and that would be a great thing to use! My pup LOVES the true bites but I want to get a high value treat for the class. You don't have to cook the hebrew nationals either, right? 

[Stephanie and Ragley]

I used them all class and we never had any issues. They work great as a high-reward treat. I just figured the hebrew nationals might be even slightest bit healthier than the generic hot dogs hah

[Malenie Piscetelli]

Lucy does that too and she is 3 month old.

[new doodle mama]

Buy a cheap leash, because it is going to get ruined. Stop the walk when acting bratty and when calm start walking again. All the fun stops when you don't behave. It took a while for Lola with me, but my husband could bit get with the program, so she was worse with him.

[new doodle mama]

*not get with the program