Helping A Dog Overcome Their Fear Of A Leash And Collar

Sometimes one-to-one training and behavior sessions require a little more thoughtfulness and patience than others; sometimes they are for issues that, for the dog’s welfare, are very important to address.

I don’t usually record video during my training sessions, but because this dog has a problem that, whilst not uncommon (I have seen it 3 times now), is very easy to make a whole lot worse very quickly, I thought I’d record and share some thoughts in the hope that it will help other trainers, dogs, and handlers.

What caused this fear?

Stan is a Whippet; he is only 10 months old and is a happy, lively, friendly little dog. However, following an accident on a walk, he became very frightened of his collar and lead, to the point where he would tremble and try to escape whenever either the lead or the collar came into view. If he was caught and the collar and lead were put on, he would freeze with fear. Obviously, this is a big problem for more than one reason: According to the Road Traffic Act 1988, a dog must be on a lead when on a designated highway and dogs must wear an id tag when on walks in public. This really needs to be on their collar, and of course, for the safety of the dog and other path/road users, dogs need to be on the lead regularly when on walks.

If we tried to use food to lure Stan towards the collar or lead, we were completely unsuccessful. Stan would turn his head disengaging from us, start yawning, lip licking, and would creep away from us – as far as he could get and still be in the room. So luring was no use to us.

Where to start

We decided to work on counter conditioning, asking nothing from Stan at all, but when the collar was in view, we fed him cheese. We didn’t ask him to come close to the collar, not look at it, nothing at all. But when the collar was in view, we fed Stan. So we are taking a fear eliciting stimulus (the collar or lead) and repeatedly pairing it with food in order to change Stan’s response to the stimulus.

This kind of training takes an infinite amount of time and patience. Luckily, Stan’s owner totally understood this and was 100% committed.

Alongside this, we trained Stan to place his chin on his owner’s hand, so that once he was happy to be around the collar, we could invite him to wear it. This meant that Stan had control over his environment; he had a choice on whether to wear the collar or not. Choice is extremely empowering for anyone that is fearful. With this training, it took 2 weeks for Stan to be happy wearing a collar – pretty quick I thought.

We then did the same thing with his lead. Here is a video clip of the counter-conditioning process that we did. I produce the lead from my bag, Stan is fed. The lead is removed and the food stops.

The sequence of events here is important, lead then food, not food then lead. If we get the food ready first, the food becomes the predictor of the scary lead, and we don’t want that!

Watch for body language indicators

In order to attach the lead to Stan, we also worked on desensitization skills. We need Stan to be happy with his collar being held, for the lead to be closer in his owner’s hand, for the lead to be clipped onto his collar – lots of work still to do. This video shows how we started work. You can see the point at which the training becomes too much for Stan to cope with; it’s very clear. He is happy for us to touch and hold the collar, also happy for his handler to have the lead in her hand. However, as the trigger on the lead clip is moved at the 1:07 time mark, Stan disengages from us; note the change in his ear carriage, spot the stiffen, head turn, he sits, nose flicks with tongue, lifts his paw, stands up and moves away. This is followed by more head-turning and lip-licking. He couldn’t be more clear right? So we stop.

We now have valuable information. Now that know what Stan’s threshold is, the point at which more training and desensitization is needed, we can make a plan.

Going at the dog's pace

This is exactly what we have done. We are working on a combination of all of the cues that tell Stan that a lead is going to be clipped onto the collar: taking the collar into our hands, picking up the lead, holding the lead, moving the lead clip. We are mixing these up, working on various combinations. We continue to work on the chin target and add duration. Our aims are for Stan to enjoy the lead being local to him, for Stan to learn that he has a choice over whether we clip the lead onto his collar or not, and to communicate with us by resting his chin on the hand when he is ready for the lead to be clipped onto his collar.

I don’t believe this will be achieved overnight, but I am confident that we will be able to accomplish these goals with Stan. Stan’s owner understands what we are doing and is patient. This training is crucially important because not wearing a collar and lead is not a safe option for Stan.

Desensitisation and counter-conditioning are valuable skills to use with fearful dogs and great care must be taken when using these tools in order to make sure that we don’t push dogs beyond their limits, making their fears worse. Luring is not necessarily appropriate since the drive for food can, momentarily, overcome the fear; however, as soon as the food is eaten, the dog can quickly go over threshold and panic.

Keep these things in mind

When working with dogs that have fears, we need to be sensitive to their body language and communication, be observant and respond to changes in their demeanor, be thoughtful of the steps that will be required, and break them down into tiny achievable steps, be flexible in our approach and be ready to stop or change our plan quickly. Keep training sessions short, vary the time of day and place that you train in order to prevent the training from becoming a cue of the fearful stimulus, mix up your desensitization training with other fun training like tricks and obedience (again to prevent training from becoming a trigger for the fearful stimulus) and try to end on a high note.

Positive reinforcement trainers like those that are part of the Victoria Stilwell Positively Dog Training Network will be able to help with this sort of training and to give you advice if you feel you need support with your dog.

Happy Training!