What behaviour does your dog demonstrate when you grab its lead, or your keys or anything else you do as part of the ritual before you go for a walk? Does it get highly excited, run around in circles, jump up at you, bark or whine? If you begin your walk with your dog in this manner it can be even harder to lead your dog on the walk in a peaceful and calm way.
Tip: If you have this issue give yourself more time before leaving for the walk. Wait until your dog is calm and relaxed before attaching the lead. Getting your dog to sit can be helpful but if your dog is not responding to your command don’t persist just stand there ignoring your dog until it stops. It should be noted here that your dog can be in a sit position but still not be in a calm and relaxed state. To help your dog reach a calm and relaxed state before you attach its lead to leave for the walk, practice not talking to your dog, making eye-contact or touching it. Instead just stand calmly. If your dog is highly escalated a touch correction may be required to snap the dog out of the unbalanced state.
Another useful thing to do is to grab the lead, or another object that usually triggers your dog to escalate in over excitement several times a day, at random times when you're not intending to walk your dog. Each time practise waiting for your dog to calm down following the stimuli. Eventually your four legged friend will know it needs to be calm and still before you will take it out for a walk.
We as humans associate excitement with happiness and therefore think that when our dog is excited it is happy. However this is not the case in the dog world. Excitement often represents an unbalanced state and can lead to other negative states such as aggression or anxiety.
