Nordic Breed Information and Help

Leash Walking Nordic Breeds

A malamute and most nordic breeds are born and bred to pull under any circumstance. This is recognized as one of their main and best traits. This type of breed does this naturally, so to break this in them is taking away one of their major self traits. Its counter productive to stop them from pulling on a leash (if you happen to ever want it to pull something), but if you never need it to pull then the training can be long to break, as it is one of its natural instincts.

Try being gentle with them, and give them slack when they start to pull, because once you tighten the leash they bury in and start to pull harder, its their instinct. Try walking with them close by your side, and then once they start to pull give them slack,. Once they get to the end of the leash and actually start to tug, then say a sharp and quick "hey" then simultaneously give a few inch gentle slack-then-tug back with your wrist ONLY, then they should return attention to you and come back by your side, then reel in the leash with a quick grab from the opposite hand as they allow the slack back. Continue to play that game over and over again and they will be happy to jump and play within your given limits. Its easy to accept them doing this because its their natural trait to pull or keep movning swiftly.

If you want to allow them to be natural as possible to keep their good behaviour, then this is a good game to play with them. The more you play it, the less they try to tug once they get at the end of the slack, and they actually start to turn around quick and run back to your side more often and more willingly. Also, it lets them run a bit more and gives them more exercise as they walk out, then spin back to come back to your side.

Its not really fair to make them walk at your pace, so a suggestion would be an 8-12 ft lead and let them do as many circles as they want and sniff around, and they will learn the rules. As long as your gentle they will respect them. Try to use your opposite hand to grab up the slack every time they stop, or circle so you don't have to break your walking pace, then they will learn their space.