Our 16 week old puppy has a bad habit of grabbing her leash and chewing and playing tug with it at first on walks. She picked up this habit because she sometimes would grab onto pant legs to do the same and my wife thought the leash was a better choice so didn't correct this behavior. Now I just stop and tell her to leave it and she usually lets go and then I praise her alot. Soon she is more interested in sniffing the ground and gives up on the leash. Sometimes I get the feeling she grabs the leash and wants to walk me instead of the other way around so I don't tolerate it. Any suggestions would from others would be welcome.
Sounds like you have a good start on stopping/reducing the leash chewing. I still have issues with Kayla sparadically on this.
Two things I heard was trying putting something distasteful on the part of the leash she's grabbing. Things like bitter apple or hot sauce for example. My issue-I haven't yet discovered the item to discourage Kayla! She Seems to like the hot sauce-and I have left a leash it soaking in a bag for a while before using it.
Yeah I tried bitter apple with her on her favorite baseboard and carpet corner that she wanted to chew on. That didn't discourage her. I had to cover the carpet corner and keep her on a leash to discourage biting the baseboard. Now she has given up on that, but I have to keep a constant eye on her.
She is usually awake at 5:30AM in her crate. I let her out and feed her and then take her out for an hour walk and playtime with one of those yellow balls with the little spikes on it and a grip on a cord. She chases it down and today I got her to bring it back to me. I tried distracting her with it this morning, but she was so interested in tugging on the cord of the ball that I put it away until we got to the park. Funny thing is she is more interested in chewing on the plastic handle than the ball end. She is learning which end is better though. This hour of playtime wears her out so my wife has an easier time with her during the day. She is tired and sleeps alot between potty breaks.
Chatham was really bad for this too when he was a pup. At doggy day care when staff put a leash on another dog, Chatham insisted on "walking" them too. The staff got a kick out of it, but didn't make it easier to break him.
I taught him to out. Praised him when he did. And I didn't walk until the leash was out of his mouth, similar to the method some us for pulling.
He still puts the leash in his mouth when he is excited (he is a lab so he is mouthy anyway), but drops it quickly when I remind him.
1) train the dog to "out" (drop the leash on command)
2) sometimes, let her hold/tug on it! Once she learns to out, you can use the leash tugging as a reward, as long as she drops it when commanded. My dog used to jump on me when I got home and spin in circles. I trained her to "up" which means jump on my chest, and "spin" in right or left circles. Voila! Now she usually only does them on command, and I use them as rewards or fun games when she is behaving.
Every puppy I have had over the last 30 years had done the same thing. And ALL of them have outgrown it on their own. The only thing I do is use a nylon or cotton leash until they stop chewing on the leash. One well timed bite on a tight leather leash is all it takes to break it. But nylon and cotton require a lot of chewing to break. I have NEVER had a pup/dog break one of my leashes.
Besides, the way I look at it, if they are carrying the leash, they are NOT picking up every stick, rock, or piece of paper they come across!
Neither Dena or Keefer were leash chewers other than briefly as young puppies. I didn't do anything much to stop them, they grew out of it on their own.
Cassidy, on the other hand, was a TERRIBLE leash chewer, and we battled it for a long time. In fact, when we had to drop her off at the vet and leave her there for a few hours she would pull her leash into the kennel (they'd hand leashes on the outside of each kennel to keep track of what belonged to who), and chew it into little pieces. After the second time, they wrote in large letters on the front of her file <span style='font-size: 11pt'>DO NOT LEAVE LEASH ON KENNEL</span>.
Like Samuel with Kayla, we tried bitter apple and Tabasco, but that didn't slow her down for a second, I think she actually LIKED it, lol! At 16 weeks old I wouldn't worry about it too much, maybe just redirect to a toy.
Juli is getting better at leash chewing. Sometimes I wonder if the black color of the leash being the same color as the buggy whip with a rag on the end for prey drive work are too similar and she goes after the leash as a prey object. She sometimes does the head shaking routine when she gets it, then lets go when its "dead". I also carry her ball on a cord that we play fetch with at the park and give it to her as an alternative. She won't carry it all the way to the park though, but its a good distraction. So far she has not chewed through any leashes, now she is loosing her puppy teeth and teething. Sometimes I spend an hour holding her rawhide stick for her while she chews on it in the living room until she gets tired of it.
My pup Kuno has gone through the leash tug of war, and it is on and off. When he does it, it is more in a defiant way, like I don't want to be controlled or corrected. I think one reason might be going too long between walks sometimes. He will be 7 months old this weekend, and I'm hoping that he outgrows this soon.
I had a female Rottweiler years back who did this. We got a very light chain leash for her. Actually, I think my husband made it out of very lightweight chain from the hardware store because all the chain leashes at the pet store were too heavy for her at the time. She was probably about your pup's age.
It didn't take long for her to figure out that she didnt' like chain in her mouth. In no time, she was back to the regular leash and never tried to chew or bite it again.
You could also try bringing a ball or a tug or some kind of toy on your walks.. That way you can distract him off the leash and onto the toy.. play with him for a bit then let him carry it.
2 of my dogs LOVE having a ball in their mouths.. I let them carry it through out our walks.. and if I want to stop and play or train I kill two birds with one stone while on our outings..
Emma never was a leash chewer, still isn't, but she does like trying to bite the carpet, but getting better, I think she's sick of hearing "Emma, come girl, no no no!" lol
I'm pretty sure that my pup's leash chewing/pulling/tugging is a challenge issue. What's frustrating is that the leash/collar is typically the correction tool, but you can't give a pop when he has the leash in his mouth.
For starters, young pups don't challenge anyone. But they do act like obnoxious puppies.
Leash chewing/tugging is VERY common in young pups. They've got this thing attached to them, flopping around, easy to grap.. so they do.
Best fix I've found for it is to just have a toy handy and stuff that in the pup's mouth instead. When we take our pups for walks, it's almost always with a toy in their mouth to serve as a puppy pacifier. They can't chew on a leash or pant leg if they're chewing on a toy. If they drop the toy and start to go for the leash or pant leg, it's easy to redirect to the toy.
This fulfills the pup's natural desire to chew and carry something in an appropriate manner, while at the same time preventing them from building bad habits of chewing and grabbing things they shouldn't.
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