Teaching your dog a “whiplash” turnaround is extremely useful as a leash skill. Particularly when we are working through a variety of different behaviours from loose leash skills to leash reactivity. Our leash is like our telephone line between us and our dog. It’s our primary communication tool. We never want to jerk or pull on our dog’s leash as tension like this can actually lead to more averse behaviours from our dog. Think of it as if someone pulled back on your arm suddenly everytime you saw something interesting or scary, you wouldn’t learn to move with the jerk, you would begin to pull back against resistance in anticipation of the jerk back. Thus, teaching our dog to pull or cause further stress and tension on the leash.
We do of course need our dog’s attention throughout the walk and we also need them to move away of certain triggers, like other dogs or people. This is where out whiplash turnarounds comes in!
Start by placing a treat in front of your dog at your feet. While theyre eating, walk to their tail. While standing behind your dog, wait for them to finish eating. Then call their name and as soon as their head turns back towards you, say “yes” and put some more treats on the ground at your feet. When they turn to get the treats, walk to their tail again, wait for them to finish the treats and call their name again to repeat.
Continue the pattern until your dog is
immediately whipping around. Your dog
may start to turn around before you say
their name. The treat is becoming a
context cue to recall to the handler.
Next, add in distractions. Once your dog is completely turning to you after eating, begin adding in “low level” distractions so that different things become context cues to turn back to handler.
Then start to bring it on your dog’s normal walk as a focus and engagement cue. Build it up to look a little something like the video below
