How to Train Your German Shepherd Puppy Not to Pull on the Leash

I started Guardian Therapy Dogs, a nonprofit organization committed to providing a k-9 guardian to survivors of rape, a few years back and I learned a great deal about training German Shepherd puppies. We chose to use pure-bred, female German Shepherds due to their intelligence, nurturing characteristics and motherly protective instincts.

 

We’ve had quite a few German Shepherd puppies now. A few of my favorites were ZuZu, Anya and Sampson (the only male German Shepherd we’ve trained). These dogs have a special place in my heart and I try my best to stay in touch with the current owners to be able to reconnect with the dogs.

During the first few months of training, one of the toughest things I encountered was trying to take the puppy out on a walk without her pulling on leash and going wild. Of course you want your puppy to be well behaved and you want to be able to take them to social gatherings but it’s tough when they get rambunctious and try to pull you all over the place while on the leash. You have to remember that they are young and still learning. They are very impressionable so you must teach them at this age to listen and heal. Keep in mind that they are still puppies so it will take time for things to actually resonate with them so be patient.

Two methods that I found had the most positive effect were as follows:

Technique 1:
When ZuZu would start to pull on the leash, I would stop dead in my tracks. I would stand as still as possible and not move forward with her. I would wait until she would finally stop pulling and then I would praise her and continue on our walk. I would repeat this method every time she began pulling again which really helped to reinforce the fact that I was not going to let her pull me around. She picked up on it pretty quickly and although she would test me some times, she eventually gave in to me and allowed me to control the walks.

Technique 2:

With Sampson it was a little bit different. Being that he is a male, he wanted to assert his dominance and tried to pull me all over the place. He was much stronger than the females and was more difficult to corral and stand my ground. For him, when he would start pulling on the leash to go his own way, I would quickly turn around and start walking in the opposite direction of where he was trying to go. After a little tug of war, he had no choice but to follow at that point and he would hurry over to me to keep up. This gave me a bit more momentum when trying to redirect his behavior and helped to counteract his strength. When he started to follow in the same direction I was headed, I would praise him and give him a treat so he knew his actions were good. Sampson really liked treats so that helped the process. Some of the females we trained were not motivated by treats so we would just use praise.

So there you have it! I know it’s tough and it takes practice, but you have to assert that you are in charge on the walk. If you let them pull you all over the place once then they will continue to do it over and over and it will instill in them that action when they are older. That’s when it becomes a lot more difficult to control them since they are very strong dogs. So, start early and make sure you have a good grasp on the concept. Like I said, they are puppies, so be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day. German Shepherds are very intelligent dogs so they will try to test you and let you know who’s boss. It’s your job to counteract this behavior and make it known that you are the one in charge by using praise to reinforce good behaviors.