Biting the Leash on Walks

[oakleysdad]

Hi everyone so Oakley is 3 months old now and doing awesome. She knows all basic commands..sit,down,stay,shake paw,high 5, and so on. She loves walking and running. My problem is I go on walks daily and she is perfect on the leash, sniffs a bit and is very good about ignoring distractions with small corrections and so on.

The PROBLEM is when I want to run with her on leash. As soon as I take one quick stride to start running she reaches around and grabs the leash as we run. I tried yanking it out while still running but she is fixated on it and will jump and go nuts to get it back in her mouth. Once she has it in her mouth she is fine and will run forever (can't wait to go jogging with her), but Im wondering why she grabs the leash. As soon as I stop running she drops the leash out of her mouth.

I have a pretty standard 6' leash from New Earth. The only thing I can think of is that the clasp for the leash is moving around and maybe hitting her or causing discomfort. As I said before once she has the leash in her mouth I have no problems, but I don't want her to continue grabbing for the leash as I think its a bad habit.

Any help would be appreciated thanks guys and gals

 

[chrystel]

i would be interested in the answers too... Oxford does that. Only on the way back home and only if i do a quick stride, little jog... he doesn't pull on the leash, just runs holding it.

if i play tug then he will.. but otherwise, he just grabs it....

 

[LILYLARUE]

It wouldn't surprise me if your pup is one that needs something to hold during an excitement burst. Not much different than those dogs who grab a toy as soon as you enter the house or a stick while they run the fields. I think it could be part of their hunting instinct. Though a lot of hunting dogs do this as a "show of prey" to their owners when they arrive home. like "Look what I hunted for the pack while you were gone".

My pit/boxer MUST have something in his mouth when he gets excited. What I did was hang a toy off the handle of my leash with elastic and he will grab that when he gets excited and carry it. When he drops it it's still attached and won't get lost. It has stopped his leash grabbing altogether.

 

[ehayes21]

I agree with Lilylarue, however I do have to add that 3 months old is WAY too young to be doing any type of forced exercise. You run the risk of damaging her growing joints and bones when you do so.

 

[Poetic_thing]

First off, I totally agee that 3 months is too young for forced exercise, nothing till they are 1 year - not good for their joints. Secondly - LOL sounds like my Rock - he loved to grab on to his leash while walking or running (notice I put loved ). What I did with him was as soon as he grabbed the leash I would stop and say uh uh. Once the leash was released we would start up again and do the same thing over when he grabbed the leash. It didn't take long and now we both have a great run. Once in a while he will get a bug in his butt and want to grab it but I say his name and he leaves it alone.

 

[Hioctanechic]

Holds leash too

So glad I found BW and this thread. I was really wondering about this since my 9wk old is so prone to holding his leash during a walk. I wondered if maybe he was uncomfortable with the leash altogether and why he might do it. He doesn't try to chew it (unless he is resting) but in a trot or run, he prefers to have it in his mouth. I am [slowly] trying to break this habit but also wondered if there was some great method to thwart it, as well. Is it the collar that is forcing the leash to be in his way (just using a buckle collar)? Or is this really just a tendency for the breed/instinct?

 

[LILYLARUE]

Im sure it's not much different than human babies.....ever see one get excited and put its hands or toy in its mouth? Or YOUR hand! LOL

Dogs touch with their mouths. No opposable thumbs adds to this! LOL So when they are excited or even anxious, things go in the mouth. Some out grow this.....some it becomes an appeasing behavior like my boy.

See if replacing the leash with a toy helps. Again, attaching it to the leash handle so you aren't continually picking it up during a walk.

 

[ehayes21]

Some out grow this.....some it becomes an appeasing behavior like my boy.

Yeah, Rowdy still does this every time I come home. It's silly.

 

[oakleysdad]

Hey everyone thanks for the info...I am by no means forcing exercise on her and only do small bursts of running on a park near our house. She loves walking and totally enjoys running and such, kept to a reasonable length of time to ensure proper growth of her bones and joints. I have tried a few different things with her, i tried stopping and starting with little success, I found that when I tied the leash to her collar not using the clasp she was great. She grabbed at the leash once and after that she was excellent. So I think in my case my leash was bugging her and making her uncomfortable. She never grabbed the leash walking regularly so I figured it wasn't a hunting instinct but each case is different.

Thanks for all the reply's and happy walking for everyone

 

[xJazerx]

My pit bull did this, but he did it to be a brat. He broke two nylon leashes in less than 2 months. I ended up getting a chain leash.The problem stopped, he had no interest in biting metal. You can get leashes that have metal for the first foot or so, and then switches to nylon. At first I tried to correct him every time it went in his mouth, he learned it stopped for awhile, and he became a perfect little walker on the leash, but when he hit his teenage stage it came back full force, so I just went with the chain leash (they sell them at Petco and other pet stores) and he had no interest in biting that leash anymore.