In this course, you will be learning about tools that will help increase your success with your dog's training as well as introducing off leash training. These tools can help with adding distance to your already learned commands and help make your training experience easier. The tools that we recommend are:

Long Leash

We use long leashes in our training as a safety net for adding distance to our commands without us having to worry about our dog running off. For example, if we used our 6ft long leash (a long leash not a retractable leash) to do a command like stay, we can only get a few steps away from our dog without wanting to drop our leash. That's where our long leash comes in handy as we can use it to get as many steps away as it allows. Here at Athens, we recommend getting a 30ft long leash and we do not encourage you to have your dog off leash in any public setting that does not allow dogs off leash. This tool can also help with practicing recalls. You can use it at parks and trails without having to worry about your dog running off into something dangerous.

The Easy Walk Harness (Recommended)

The Easy Walk Harness is a very useful harness that wraps around the shoulders and attaches the leash to the front of the chest making it harder for dogs to pull. Harnesses that you would buy at pet stores usually have the hook on their backs and it helps provoke pulling. If someone were to come up to you, grab the back of your shirt and pulled you back, your first instinct would be to pull forward and that's their first instinct as well. This harness is specifically made to prevent pulling so when your dog pulls, they get pulled back towards you.

The Gentle Leader (Optional)

The Gentle Leader is a head halter that wraps around a dog's snout. It is used by redirecting their head to face towards you when they pull. It works pretty similar to the Easy Walk Harness but instead of pulling their body towards you, this redirects their head. Both of these tools are extremely helpful and it depends on the breed of the dog and owner's preference when it comes to deciding on which one to use.

Reward marker (Clicker)

The clicker is used to mark a desired behavior. For example, if you cue your dog to sit, the moment they perform the command (as soon as their butt touches the floor) you would click and reward. We mark our dog's commands or behaviors because we want them to know that what they're doing is correct. Here at Athens Dog Training, it is not required for you to use a clicker because you can get the same result with simply saying "yes" instead of clicking. This is also an owner's preference on which they'd rather use.

Here is a quick quiz on what we've learned: