Walk to What You Want
Basic Manners · 15 steps · by @allison
Your Dog will learn to walk toward something they want on a loose leash, from forty feet away, with nothing said and nothing in your hand.
Most loose-leash training pays the dog from your hand. This plan does the opposite: the reward is arriving. Sniffing the post, reaching the gate, getting to the person. That matters because pulling is not a bad habit the dog picked up, it is a behaviour that works. The leash tightens, you walk forward anyway, the dog gets where they were going. This plan keeps the destination and changes what earns it.
**The layout.** Distances in this plan are measured from YOU to the target, not from Your Dog. Stand at the distance the step names, with Your Dog beside you and the leash slack, both of you facing the target. Hold the leash at a fixed length and do not feed it out or reel it in during a rep, or you end up measuring your own hands.
**How a rep works.** Stand still for a moment, both of you facing the target, then walk to it at a normal pace. Feed Your Dog a treat or two at your side on the way in if it helps them hold the slack line. When you arrive, Your Dog gets ten to fifteen seconds of the real thing: sniff it, greet them, be there. The treats are for the walk. The target is the payment.
**There is no cue word in this plan, on purpose.** Your Dog is not being asked to perform something on request. They are learning what happens when the two of you set out toward something good: a slack leash means we keep going, and we arrive. The situation is the cue. Standing still, facing a visible target, then starting to walk is the whole signal, and it is one that will be there on every real walk for the rest of Your Dog's life whether you remember a word or not. If you would rather say something, say it. It just is not doing the work.
**If the leash goes tight, you stop walking. You do not walk backwards and you do not turn away.** Stand still until the leash softens on its own, then carry on to the target. Your Dog still gets there. Mark that rep a Fail anyway, because the honest score is what tells the app this distance is too long right now.
That is the whole design. The lesson lives in the moment-to-moment (slack leash means we keep moving, tight leash means the world pauses), not in taking the destination away.
**The reset between reps matters as much as the reps.** When the sniff is done, scatter three or four treats on the ground facing away from the target, or lure Your Dog off it at your side. While their nose is down, walk back to your starting spot. A just-sniffed post is temporarily cheap, and that is the few seconds you need. The walk back is never scored.
**Three reps per target, then leave.** Sets are short on purpose. The value drains, the resets get harder, and the fourth rep is where the pulling comes back.
For the walks to and from your training spot, a front-clip harness is worth using. That is management rather than training: it reduces what pulling earns while the real lesson is being built.
Training steps
Seven feet, and they have already sniffed it
Setup: Something mildly interesting Your Dog has just finished sniffing. You are standing about seven feet from it with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash, both facing it.
Let Your Dog sniff the target properly first, until they are done with it. Then walk back seven feet, stand still for a moment, and walk in again. A just-sniffed target is temporarily cheap, which is exactly what makes this rung easy. Seven feet is just past your leash, so a slack line already means something.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Seven feet, something low-key
Setup: You are standing about seven feet from a mildly interesting target with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash, both facing it. Distance is measured from you.
Same low-key target, but this time you have not let Your Dog at it first. Stand still for a moment, then walk in at a normal pace and let them have it for ten to fifteen seconds. Feed a treat or two at your side on the way if it helps.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Ten feet from the target
Setup: You are standing about ten feet from the target with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash, both facing it. Distance is measured from you.
Now the good one, the thing Your Dog really wants, and a little further out. A better target makes a similar distance considerably harder. Stand still for a moment, then walk in at a normal pace, feeding a treat at your side if it helps. If the leash tightens, stand still until it softens, finish the walk in, and score the rep a Fail.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Ten feet, a different target
Setup: You are standing about ten feet from a SECOND target Your Dog wants, one you have not used yet, with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash.
Same distance, new thing to walk to. Swapping the target before you add distance stops Your Dog learning one post rather than one game, and it gives the first target time to become interesting again.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Fifteen feet from the target
Setup: You are standing about fifteen feet from the target with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash, both facing it.
A halfway rung between ten and twenty feet. Walk in at a normal pace and let Your Dog have the target on arrival.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Twenty feet from the target
Setup: You are standing about twenty feet from the target with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash, both facing it.
Twenty feet is long enough that Your Dog has to hold the slack leash rather than just get lucky. Start fading the treats on the approach here: one on the way in rather than two or three. If you are stopping more than once in a set, mark the fails honestly and let the app shorten the distance.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Twenty feet, a different target
Setup: You are standing about twenty feet from a target you have not worked toward at this distance, with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash.
The same check as before, now at a distance that costs something. If this one is much harder than the first target at twenty feet, that is useful information rather than a problem: it means the previous rungs taught a post rather than a game, and the app will walk you back down.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Twenty feet, nothing in your hand
Setup: You are standing about twenty feet from the target with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash, both facing it, and no treats in your hand or your pocket.
Same twenty feet, but put the treats away before you start. Nothing at your side on the approach, nothing at the target. The only thing paying Your Dog for that slack leash is getting there. If it falls apart, that is worth knowing rather than papering over, and the app will take you back to where food was still helping.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Thirty feet from the target
Setup: You are standing about thirty feet from the target with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash, both facing it.
Longer approaches give Your Dog more time to build up, so start from a genuine standstill rather than already moving. Still no food on the way in.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Forty feet from the target
Setup: You are standing about forty feet from the target with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash, both facing it.
Walk the full distance in with nothing in your hand. This is a long way to hold a slack leash toward something good, so expect it to take a few sets. Arrival still pays every single time, including on the reps where you had to stand still partway.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
A livelier target, ten feet away
Setup: You are standing about ten feet from a target Your Dog finds MORE exciting than the ones you have been using, with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash.
Swap in something Your Dog wants more: the park gate, a favourite person, the car. Then come right back in to ten feet, because a better target makes the same distance much harder.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
A livelier target, twenty feet away
Setup: You are standing about twenty feet from the more exciting target, with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash.
A better target makes everything harder, so put a treat or two back on the approach if you need them. If Your Dog is already straining on the spot before you have taken a single step, the target is too good for this distance yet. Mark the reps honestly and let the app bring you closer.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
A target Your Dog picks
Setup: You are out on an ordinary walk when Your Dog notices something they want to get to, about twenty feet off.
This is the plan doing its real job. The moment Your Dog locks onto something, stop, let them settle beside you on a slack leash, then walk in. You did not choose the target and you did not set the distance, which is exactly what makes it a proof.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
The same game in a new place
Setup: You are standing about twenty feet from a target in a place you have not trained this in, with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash.
A different street, a different park, a friend's yard. New ground on its own is a big change, so keep the distance modest and the target ordinary rather than thrilling.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Forty feet to the livelier target
Setup: You are standing about forty feet from the more exciting target, with Your Dog beside you on a slack leash, both facing it.
The whole plan in one rep: a long approach to something Your Dog really wants, nothing said and nothing in your hand, with the leash swinging loose the entire way. Let them have a good long go at it when they arrive.
Success: Your Dog reaches the target and the leash never tightens.
Advance on: 2 of 3 successes
Your Dog can now walk forty feet to something they want without tightening the leash, with nothing said and no food involved.
The place this pays off is the ordinary walk. Every sniff spot, every hydrant, every greeting is a chance to run one rep: stop, pause, walk in on a slack leash, let them have it. You are no longer competing with the environment for Your Dog's attention, you are handing it to them for walking nicely.
If the leash starts tightening again somewhere new, that is not the plan coming undone. It is a new place with a new target, so run the proof steps there and let the app find the distance.