Me too Tessa...sort of. Lyric would come out to the end of his leash and
just before he caused any tension, I'd say, "uh-oh" and coax him back to my side playfully and reinforce. I always tried to keep the same length of the available slack. He got so he'd bounce backwards along side me like it was super funny. LOL. But this was after he was already pretty good walking on a loose leash, but would just forget sometimes.
Starting out though, as a puppy, I didn't do it that way. I started out with him being bare naked...no collar, no leash. If he chose to walk along side me, he'd be clicked and treated. If he chose to wander across the yard, so be it. I'd become more interesting and he'd then return. I made such a fuss when he'd walk along side me and keep the sessions very short.
Then I'd use the leash and do the same thing plus I'd also toss treats forward just a tad within the range of the leash, make turns, toss a treat, about turn, toss a treat and just try to keep tension out of the leash. And we went from there, increasing the duration and distractions.
I mixed things up quite a bit in how I "exercised" his brain because I find that animals (horses big time) easily become
very anticipatory quickly....which can cause some real hassles. For example...the stop-start method. I found that if I
only employ that method, some dogs learn early on to go to the end of the leash, stop, come back around and along side and start walking again automatically, as a matter of course....all as a behavior chain. So, I really push the variations to keep things from being too pattern-oriented. This video caught my eye because it's just one more variation to throw at the dog. A lot of trainers or owners would say that you should always do the same thing, to always have the same consequence for the same action. While that's true in a general way for me too, I also find problems with too much repitition and sometimes or in some cases with too strong of a pattern. Gotta surprise them a little bit to keep them humble.
I remember training my two green Arabian horses. One was such a ditz, so hyped up that we'd be practicing just WALKING in the arena. She had real difficulty walking. She'd do this little jig, like a pre-amble to getting started on a trot which I did
not ask for. This jigging always preceded the trot which preceded more intensity, prancy nonsense. (this was in her very early training/breaking just after only doing ground work) The little jig needed to be nipped in the bud because horses are the epitome of
give an inch, take a mile. So, I'd stop her and back up a few steps as in
...."You jig... you loose forward motion. We aren't going anywhere" Well, it didn't take long for her to jig, then stop, back up all on her own without by cuing her to stop and back up. It seemed that she learned that she could get to do this fun, fun thing, the little hopping jig thing as long as she stopped and backed up as part of the deal.
![Big Grin :D :D](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
It got very annoying, so I had to find some other creative ways to get around that. LOL.