What behaviour does your dog demonstrate when you grab it’s 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 peaceful 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. Do not talk to your dog, make eye-contact or touch it just stand calmly. If your dog is highly escalated a touch correction may be required to snap the dog out of the state.
Another useful thing to do is to grab the lead or that object that usually triggers your dog several times a day at times your not going to walk your dog, practise waiting for your dog to calm down. Eventually your four legged friend will know it needs to be calm before you 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 unbalance and can lead to other negative traits such as aggression or anxiety.