One of my biggest issues with Kody is leash pulling. With my recent attitude changes, instead of getting frustrated, I start observing Kody to see if I can figure out his motivations for certain behaviors.
After a fairly calm short walk he pulled me intensely, to the point of choking on the leash, for about 20-30 feet. Instead of trying some method to get him to stop, I just let him pull and kept walking to see if I could figure out why he was pulling. When we reached the front door he seemed to calm down a bit and was ready to pay attention to me.
Here are my observations:
I don’t really know what happened. One theory is that Kody just doesn’t like the cold and once we get closer to the door he remembers how much he’d rather be inside.
Since Kody’s leash pulling is so intense here, and looking at my past experiences, it’s one of those cases where I feel I need to just let him do his thing. If I knew the cause, maybe I would have a different plan, but for now, I don’t think doing anything would be wise because Kody clearly feels he needs to do it. What I would like to be able to do, and for Kody to learn is that when he’s ready to go back inside he can trust me to notice his needs and comply. Maybe if I do that, he won’t feel the need to pull on the leash so intently. Also, I’ll continue to observe to see if I can tell what’s going on.
One thing I like about this new attitude is it’s frustration free, which feels better to me. I admit I don’t know what’s going on exactly and just go with the flow. I’m sure that’s more pleasant for Kody, too.