Teaching your puppy to follow you

During the first several months that you have your puppy you will notice that your puppy likes to follow you about. This is a natural protective instinct in all puppies. It is important that you capitalize on this important time to teach your puppy that you are the leader.

Take your puppy to a safe place. If she starts to walk away from you, run in the opposite direction. Praise her when she catches up. Walk about casually, and let her get distracted. When she isn't looking try to hide from her. That is what I did with our dogs. They learned very quickly that I would ditch them, if they didn't pay attention. (they hate that) Of course I waited for them to get older before I started actually hiding from them. Now I know that where ever we go, they will not try to run away. They always keep close by even on long wooded walks.

Shy in a the back yard

When the puppies are boarding with me I take advantage of this time to teach them that they need to look out for their leader. I live in a very safe place for this excercise. We are over a mile from any kind of road traffic....and our own backyard is at least an acre, fenced on 3 sides. So every time I take the puppies out for a walk, I walk them off leash and up our back yard path. It is a long walk to our back gate. The puppies are insecure in this unfamiliar area and keep so close to me that I have to be careful not to step on them. But the important thing is they are learning to follow me and let me be the leader.

Look at the ears on the pups...you can see they are not too confident!

The gate is getting close now...and the puppies still are keeping their eye on me.

Our gate is in the back corner of our yard. I built it nice and tall...so bears and foxes wouldn't come to visit.


Just outside our gate, the woodland path is wide and safe.

I can see right away that the puppies are sticking to me like glue, so after trying this for a few days I am confident I can take them on longer wooded walks.

(on the left) Maya does not want me to get behind her.

The 300 acres of woods behind our house is far from vehicles. The path is nice and large, and the puppies stick to it. It is the middle of the day, the larger wild life is laying low. We have a nice easy walk through the woods and the puppies enjoy follow along with me, Toby and Dixie.

Look at Maya....she just sits and waits every time I go to take a picture. That's a great habit Maya!