Walking Past Other Dogs

When you’re walking past other dogs that are closer and you can’t create more space, such as on a hiking trail, store, vets office, parking lot, we can use training to help our dogs navigate the situation successfully without a reaction.

Its crucial to remember that this is a management technique, it isn’t the core behavior modification training that will create real, lasting behavior change. Heeling past other dogs calmer can show your dog they are safe and can be neutral even closer in, which is a huge help for basic exposure and desensitization. But it can’t replace the important training of Counter Conditioning and learning to offer Check Ins.

Most of the walk your dog can roam out in front, sniff, and do their thing. Just no freight train pulling straight ahead. If they pull, stop, and wait for the leash to loosen before moving on (see Left/Right below). These moments of heeling at your side should be done some on regular walks for practice, to get past distractions, or in crowded places (stores, cafes, the city). It’s not a very fulfilling walk if your dog has to just stick to your side and walk slow the whole time. Exploring and being a dog is!

Core Skills

There are three main skills you pup needs to learn to walk past other dogs:

  1. Stay close to your side when given the ‘With me’ cue

  2. How to come back to your side/heel position on a ‘Left’ or ‘Right’ cue

  3. To not pull harder against leash pressure


And a few core skills for you to learn as well:

  1. How to use a lure to help your dog stay close when they need it

  2. How to loosen the leash when they’re in the right spot

  3. To do the ‘body guard’ walk to show your dog they’re safe

Let’s learn these core skills as separate pieces so we can put them together for the full set up from seeing a dog arrive in the distance, heeling, and passing calmly.

With Me!

The cue “With Me!” means stay at my side until you’re released, as in a heel. Your dog doesn’t have to be looking up at you, but as you’ll see later, using a food lure to help keep them focused when really close to another dog is a useful technique to keep things calm and smooth.

With Me is similar to a ‘Stay’ think of it as a ‘stay at my side’ Just like a Stay, we need to be sure to only ask your dog to do the skill as long as they are able to, and give a clear release when they are all done.

To teach ‘With Me’ start out somewhere with no distractions such as an empty parking lot, your yard or even inside. Start with your dog at your side, still. Make a quick 180 degree turn in place away from your dog as you say ‘with me!’ and give a quick (light) leash pop. Feed your dog a treat at your side when they turn with you. We’re conditioning what the cues (With me = verbal cue, leash pop = tactile cue for when they can’t hear you) mean - to turn and find you and the treat! Repeat this step 10 times on each side.

Now say “With me” start walking in a straight line with your dog at your side. After 5 steps, turn as above and reward when they catch up. Start increasing your distances. If they accelerate and pull ahead, say ‘With me!’ give a quick leash pop, and make a quick u-turn the other way. This time, they should turn and see you’ve left! We want them to realize, “Oh! If I don’t pay attention after a With Me, you might not be there!” We want your pup to realize that if they lose focus, they could be losing the opportunity to be with you, and get the rewards.

Reward with a treat anytime they check in while you’re walking. Remember to feed with your right hand if they’re on your right side (or left hand if they’re on your left side) and close to your hip. 

After 15-20 steps, say “All done!'“ and stop walking. You can toss a treat off to the side to give your dog a break and reset. Want want to be clear that “With me” means stay close until “All done.”


Left and Right

Lure to heel

A core skill for walking by other dogs is being able to cue your dog to come to your left or right side. On your typical walk your dog will be out in front a bit, and they’ll need to know how to come back to heel position at your side. Remember our goal is they can come to your side on cue, not just be held in place as you go to them. We want a conscious, clear effort to come back and connect with us before walking on.

Start with a food lure in your hand and facing your dog. Extend your hand so they connect with the lure. Pull them back in a straight line, then flip your hand so they also turn, and you’re both facing the same direction. Mark ‘good!’ and feed at your hip/leg, with your dog looking up towards you.

The shape of the lure is a ‘J’ - your dog goes back, then turns towards you. As you both get more comfortable with it, it’ll go much faster and easier! Its ok to step backwards and forwards some to help encourage your pup to go far enough if needed, but try not to pivot or step sideways. Imagine walking down a narrow trail and your dog finding your side while you’re still on that narrow trail.

Feed a few pieces at your side, then release with an ‘all done!’ and either step away, or toss a treat to reset

Adding a verbal cue

Once finding heel feels smooth, we can add the verbal cue. Set out two Places your dog can comfortably sit on (half a yoga mat, piece of plywood, Cato board, etc). Practice Place on each one so your pup is excited to get and stay on each.

Now stand between them, with one on each side. Say ‘left’ then lure your dog to heel onto the platform on your left side. Mark ‘good’ feed a few times, then release ‘all done!’ After a few reps, give a smaller lure/gesture so your pup is getting just as much help as they need, but not too much. They’ll start to anticipate coming back to this Place platform after each ‘all done’ and begin to not need a lure at all!

The goal is to be able to say ‘Left’ or ‘Right’ with a small point or hand signal, and for your pup to be able to come up to the Place platform on that side, lined up with you.

Practice this for 5-10min at a time. When you can start a session with your pup anticipating coming to a Place platform/to your side, we can now also fade the Place platform and use only the verbal cue/small hand signal. They may need a bit more of a food lure to help them bridge the gap of understanding that the cue means without the Place platform, but they usually piece it together quickly and can start finding heel position at your side without much extra help at all.

On a regular walk, if your pup pulls too hard while they are ahead you can either:

  • Mark ‘nope’ and make a quick u-turn

  • Stop, and cue them back to your side

    • As soon as they next to you, start walking ahead

    • Don’t feed when they first come into heel position while on in the ‘real world’ as it’ll encourage yo-yoing - pulling ahead then coming back for at treat for just a split second

    • Reward only when moving ahead together at a good, calm pace


Adding a leash cue

Hold the leash palm down, with your pinky closest to your dog. Facing your dog, gently pull them back towards you. The leash pressure should be very light (think holding a champagne glass) and steady. As soon as they take one step, release any leash tension, mark ‘yes!’ and reward. Repeat until your dog is able to follow the leash guide without hesitating or pulling back.

Now after pulling back a bit, rotate your wrist so your palm is facing your hip/leg. Mark ‘good!’ and reward when your dog follows into heel position. Make sure to fully release the leash tension when you mark ‘good!’ or ‘yes!’ It’s important your pup is learning to follow the leash, and that a tight leash means to do something, a loose leash is the goal. It can be helpful to also have a piece of food in your hand in the beginning to encourage moving with the leash (and food) and not pulling against it.

Attentive Heeling


Now your pup knows how to pay attention to where you are, and find your left/right side on cue. Next step is to practice luring while moving, and adding in distractions.

Say ‘With me,’ connect your dog to your hand with a food lure, and start walking. After two steps, stop and mark ‘yes!’ and reward. When they can stay on the food lure/your hand for two steps consistently, start to go three steps, work up to 6 steps total.

To go further, dole out rewards as you walk. You can either hold a few treats in your hand that you can give to your dog as you walk, or hold one at a time but refill another quickly from an open treat pouch.

The goal is for your pup to maintain their attention upwards, either on your food lure, treat pouch or with eye contact.

Once you can have attentive heeling together for 15 steps, let’s add practice with a distraction!

Place a minor distraction out on the ground. This could be a bowl with some kibble or treats in it, or a toy. Set up the same as above, ‘With me!’ and walk ahead past the distraction. The further it is to your side, the easier the heeling will be.

If your dog shifts their attention to the distraction, immediately stop walking! Ask them to come back to your Left or Right, and when their attention is back on you, continue forward then reward big!

Green light : Moving forward = Getting closer to the big reward.

Red light : Stopping = Oops something is wrong, reset attention

As walking by a bowl of kibble gets easy, up the ante with higher value food, a ball you’ve just thrown, or even another person offering up food from an open hand.

We’re practicing first with distractions that aren’t scary and that don’t cause emotional stress so we can isolate teaching just how to handle the distraction element.

Ok all together now!

Whew that was a lot of little pieces to teach. But once they are all clear to your dog, it makes navigating the complicated real world so much easier. You can now communicate exactly what your pup needs to do to stay feeling safe AND they understand how to manage past distractions as a concept.

On a real walk when you first see a dog, always start with Classical Counter Conditioning . Mark ‘Yes!’ jog backwards a few steps and reward your dog for seeing the other dog.

Now evaluate the situation and a few key elements:

  • How is your dog feeling? Are they calm and attentive or exceptionally stressed today?

  • How much room do you have on the side? How wide is the trail/path?

  • What is the other dog like? A mellow, geriatric beagle, or a pack of barking poodles with an oblivious person?

If it’s a difficult day or situation repeat ‘yes!’ and rewarding for seeing the other dogs as usual in training. Then do a ‘Scatter’ off to the side while the other dogs pass. Encourage your do to keep their noses sniffing for treats.

If it’s a middle day or situation, step off to the side and practice your usual training steps. “Yes!” for looking at the other dog, calling your dog and ‘Yes!’ for a Check in, and working towards if they can offer a Check in on their own. Toss most of the rewards onto the ground so your pup has a bit of extra time to sniff for and eat them to help them relax between in rep.

If it’s feeling great day and calm other dog, after marking ‘yes’ use that treat to lure your dog back to your left or right side - whichever side places you between your dog and the other dog. Cue ‘with me’ and start walking ahead while luring and rewarding your dog every couple of steps. It can be helpful to let them nibble during those last few steps as you’re closest to actually passing, then tossing treats ahead of you after passing to keep your pup’s attention on you and ahead at those closest moments.


What’s really amazing about all this luring and training is the behavior chain it teaches your dog. Dog’s learn behavior chains so quickly, they’re excellent at putting together what happens next and picking up patterns.

Seeing a dog sets up a behavior chain

    • See dog → look back to you → come to your side → attention on your until passed → keep going ahead for a jack pot and thrown treat

After reps, they’ll start to anticipate actually coming back to your side and offering attentive heeling because they saw another dog on a walk!


Body Guard Walking

When you’re walking, your body language can communicate a lot to your dog. Where you are looking and facing is also where your dog will move their attention to. So when approaching another dog, its important to keep your eyes, shoulders and hips facing straight again, pointing to where you want to be going.

Pretend your a celebrity body guard, swiftly calmly and confidently whisking them past a crazed crowed. Put yourself between your pup and the other dog, move with purpose, talk to him, breathe and smile! It’s not a panic run, it’s a confidant march - you guys can do it!

Walk with a short leash held close to your side. The leash should be loose, don’t pull up or to the side to create extra tension.

If your dog does start to react, hold them close to your side so they can’t lunge across your walking path or behind you, but loosen the leash once you’ve passed. You can use the same body guard style walking to turn into your dog (between them in the trigger still) and use your body/hips/legs to turn them around to create more space. If your pup is over threshold they often can’t focus or think well enough to be called back to you, but you can still use your body language to guide them away to where they feel safer swiftly and calmly.