How To Train Your Whippet To Walk On A Leash

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As a whippet lover, you may want to know how to train your whippet to walk on a leash without causing you or the dog strain or pain. Your whippet will be fine with standard leash training, and in this post, we will show you exactly how to do this.

You may have been outdoors with a whippet and may want to understand ways to leash your pet correctly. Whippets are quite easy dogs to leash train once you know how to do so. Whippets are small dogs that typically won’t pull on the leash, but learning your pet basic leash training is a great exercise for you and your pet.

If you have leashed dogs before, you may know how to modify the standard leash for maximum comfort or customise the muzzle harness and back harness.

The secret to leashing any dog is compliance and your relationship with the pet. Go for the technique that the dog finds most comfortable.

Most whippet owners use tricks that range from selecting a special leash to monitoring the dog’s behaviour during leashing. You can use a comfortable leash and distract the dog with treats to make your work easier.

The current guide will show you the ultimate solutions for any leashing problem. You may need to address the issue of a dog avoiding your leash, profuse barking, and movement, or anxiety. You can relax because the dog will be receptive once you understand its problem or preference is leashing.

Why Is It Important To Train Your Whippet To Walk On A Leash

So, your whippet will be friendly to you, but it may not be as familiar to other people. Your solution is to train it to walk on a leash. A leash makes your whippet disciplined and improves your experience when walking with your pet.

The comfort of your whippet will lead to your peace and happiness at home. You may want to know about leash training to keep the whippet restrained and enable you to conduct your regular duties.

When you go out to the shops or the market, you want your whippet on a leash because you cannot control all sources of its excitement, and don’t want to risk your pet running away.

Random children will try to excite your whippet in ways that may or may not align with your whippet’s habits and expectations. You will meet people that would love to lure your whippet into some foul play at the store.

Training your whippet makes it easier to command it out of an undesirable situation. If a stranger exposes a treat to your whippet, you want to direct your dog away from it. Without knowing about leash training, you will be at the mercy of such a stranger.

Knowing how to train your whippet to walk on a leash will also save you from embarrassment when the dog decides to take control in extreme events.

The dog may feel like initiating playtime in the middle of some other business or event. A leash will help avoid such problems by gaining more control over your dog.

You may also want to train your whippet to walk on the leash for the sake of your neighbours. You may find yourself in an upscale neighbourhood where an untrained dog is a rare occurrence.

When your neighbours encounter an unmanaged dog, they will be unable to do much if the dog is untrained and unresponsive to common commands. If you want your dog to move around a safe neighbourhood freely, train it on common commands.

Knowing about leash training will help make the dog sit whenever you want it to relax. Your dog will also appear gentle on a leash. You will often hear people command “sit!” at their dogs. You want your dog to obey your commands too.

In the case of an emergency, you want your dog to know how to crawl and sneak through spaces. Knowing about leash training may help enforce this behaviour, especially for a difficult dog to train.

If your dog is impatient, learning basic leash training will help you deal with this problem. An impatient whippet will move and jump in all directions unless you can put it on a leash. The leash is excellent if you don’t understand the dog’s impatience.

If your dog does not come over upon summoning it, a leash is excellent to direct it your way. Dogs that respond to leashes tend to enjoy the owner’s control, hence the need to know about leash training. It would help if you focused on the dog’s responsiveness and not force it to follow you around.

The other need for knowing about leash training is to avoid dog attacks. Whippets rarely attack people but don’t rely on strangers to keep your dog calm at all times. Some people will deliberately trigger your dog, and knowing about leash training will help keep the dog calm.

When To Start Training Your Whippet On A Leash

You can start leashing your whippet as a puppy of about six weeks. Any whippet that is older than six weeks can accept a leash. You may need to know about leash training at six weeks when it is young. The simple answer is, be gentle and more technical or professional with young whippets.

The way to train a young whippet on a leash is to use rewards and reinforcement. Rewards include treats or food and play. The rewards are part of reinforcements, and the other reinforcements may include petting and switching from a high tone of command to a gentler tone.

You can train a puppy whippet with a standard leash for maximum comfort or customize the muzzle harness and back harness. If your puppy is smaller than the average whippet puppy, get used to carrying it around without a leash. Small whippets are better off with training and commands to control them.

If your whippet is at least one year old, try any leashing for a day and understand its comfort. An uncomfortable whippet will move less on a leash or resort to chewing and shaking the leash. Be ready to change and purchase a new type of leash at the trial stage because you love the whippet.

If you have just obtained a whippet, you may want to rely on a leash as soon as you start to lose control of your dog. If it disappears and you have problems in finding r controlling it, leash it.

If you are changing your residence to a more densely populated area, it may be time to start leashing your whippet. You can research your new area’s playgrounds and dog parks to know how much leashing is necessary. Once you get used to the neighbourhood, you will make more flexible decisions and rely on stricter leashing.

Steps To Train Your Whippet To Walk Properly On A Leash

The steps to take in training your whippet to walk on the leash include regular walking, stopping, gestures and commands, avoiding pulling, and releasing the dog.

  1. The first level is normal walking, and it entails watching the leash’s looseness as you walk. The whippet should not pull most of the time, but this does not mean it shouldn’t pull at all. Once your whippet is pulling less and keeping the leash loose for most of the journey, you can now learn how to use the leash with sudden stops. You may generally walk for about fifty steps and make a sudden stop. Your whippet should learn to stop without getting alarmed or pulling the leas
  2. The next step is learning ways for leash training with gestures and commands. Use the words “stop,” “let’s go,” “move,” or any other terms in any language. It would be best if you were consistent with your words or commands.
  3. The next step is to minimize pulling by stopping any time the whippet pulls on the leash. Make sudden stops as early as possible, and without trying to be a bit late with the stoppages. When you make a sudden stop, the whippet realizes that it cannot go any further.
  4. The final step is teaching the dog to use its freedom without running away or overacting to a release. You should toss the leash and take a few steps back to monitor the reaction. Repeat all the steps as many times as it takes to train your whippet on a leash.

Other Considerations For Leashing

You should look at the leash material and read its labels to know if it is irritative to the dog. Leather and plastic leashes are the best and safest, but you can also find out about the other materials before using them for your whippet.

You may also consider your preferences and lifestyle to know how to leash a whippet without causing discomfort or inconveniencing yourself. If you only interact with your dog in talking evening walks, learn to use very long leashes because you may find it more fun.

Final Thoughts

You now understand how to train your whippet to walk on a leash, and you may want to ensure the dog has maximum freedom on the leash. Focus on your dog’s reaction and learn its personality to make leashing easier.

Hopefully, you learned something from this post and you’re now in good stead to train your whippet effectively to walk on a leash without pulling. Happy leashing!

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