Its important that your dog is calm when the collar/harness/lead are produced so that you can calmly put it on and the dog can leave the house in a calm state of mind. However, repeated preparation for a walk can result in a dog getting very excited at the thought of the walk (so they bounce around, wriggle, jump, bark, whine and pull out of the house), or being anxious (so they run away, hide and can even growl when you approach). This is all based on learnt experience and so if this is how you dog reacts, this post is for you!

If your dog is afraid of the collar/lead/harness

You need to teach the dog that this is a neutral object and so they don’t need to be anxious or afraid. You essentially need to be able to isolate the steps that make up you getting the collar/harness and at what point their behaviour shows that they are uncomfortable at the idea.

For example, you may keep the collar/harness/lead in a drawer or on a hook – so what happens if you walk towards this location? What about if you reach your hand out towards it? What if you open it? What about if it starts to appear?  You get the idea. You are going to find the step at which you dog becomes uncomfortable but before they leave and repeatedly do this step but without a distress response from your dog. It will be come neutral and there will then be no reaction. Then try the next step and repeat this without a distress response – follow along the chain of events which make up getting it out and having it in your hands. Each time you want a non-response from the dog so you know the object and situation is becoming neutral until you can.

For more information watch this video

For the next steps  watch this video

If your dog is excited by the harness etc

Firstly we need to teach calm behaviours so the dog is able to think and learn. Do a sniffing game, do some blanket training, offer a lickimat/snuffle mat to support this.

You need to work on minimal exposure to the harness/collar/lead combo (as per the section about for fearful dogs) whilst being able to mark/click and reinforce calm behaviour. You need to be able to get the dog to be calm when the harness is in sight before you can start teaching calmness putting it on them.

Watch  this video for more information – the starting steps teach calmness putting your head in the harness as the first step when the dog is standing calmly.