Leash Skills

A lot of dogs have a “recall” that looks great in the living room and falls apart the second real life shows up. In my experience, the biggest reason is simple: change of environment. Your dog may listen inside or in the backyard where the smells, sounds, and sights are familiar. That doesn’t mean they’ll listen at the park, on a walk with squirrels flying by, or when another dog appears across the street. When the environment changes, it’s a whole different ball game. Expect

A lot of owners get scared or embarrassed when their dog starts barking, lunging, or snarling at the end of the leash. They immediately think their dog is aggressive. But here’s the truth: aggression is not usually the problem — it’s the outcome of a problem. In my experience, about 98% of leash reactivity stems from something other than true aggression. Dogs don’t think rationally like people do. They live in the moment. They just are. They react without forethought. The mai

Leash pulling is one of the most common complaints I hear from dog owners. Walks become miserable, frustrating, and sometimes even dangerous. A lot of people try to fix it by switching to a harness or using a flexi leash. But here’s the real reason most methods fail: those tools don’t actually solve the problem — they just make it easier and safer for the dog to keep pulling. If your dog and you are disconnected, the dog simply won’t care that you’re on the other end of the l

Prong collars get a bad reputation, but a lot of that comes from misunderstanding how they’re supposed to be used. At Packline Canine, I recommend a prong collar in a few specific situations: When a dog is completely disconnected from the person on the other end of the leash When a dog is pulling so hard they’re choking or gagging themselves (flat collars and martingales aren’t enough in those cases and can actually damage the trachea) When the dog is simply too strong for th