Every morning, across parks, pavements and suburban cul-de-sacs, thousands of dog owners are being dragged to work like reluctant water-skiers. Their dogs, meanwhile, are having the time of their lives.
If your shoulder has started making new sounds, you are not alone. Lead-pulling is one of the most common complaints from dog owners — and one of the most misunderstood. We looked at what the research actually says.
It's Not a Dominance Thing
For years, the popular theory was that dogs pull because they're trying to be "the leader of the pack." This idea has been thoroughly debunked by modern animal behaviourists. The real reason is much simpler: dogs pull because pulling works. They move forward, they reach the interesting thing faster, and nothing stops them.
A 2022 narrative review published in the Veterinary Record by researchers at the University of Edinburgh described lead-pulling as "a commonplace undesirable behaviour" with real welfare implications — not a dominance display.1
Dogs pull because pulling works. It has always worked. It will continue to work until something changes.
— The basic logic of dog trainingThe "Freedom Reflex" — Why Your Dog Leans In
It's worth noting this isn't technically a reflex in the neurological sense. It's learned resistance to pressure, rooted in fight-or-flight. The practical effect is identical: the harder you pull back, the harder your dog pulls forward.3
Why Some Dogs Pull More Than Others
Breed plays a significant role. Huskies, Malamutes, Beagles, and Labradors were bred for centuries to follow their nose or pull weight. Dog trainer Jean Donaldson has described the opposition reflex in working breeds as "beefed up by selective breeding" — asking a Husky not to pull is working against thousands of years of genetics.3
Age matters too. Young dogs operate at maximum excitement all the time. And there's the reinforcement loop: every time you eventually follow your pulling dog to the interesting thing, you've taught them that pulling gets results.
What Actually Helps
Reward-based training takes weeks of consistency. Make being beside you the most rewarding position in the world. High-value treats, enthusiastic praise — whatever your dog cares about most.
What Doesn't Help
- Choke chains and prong collars. These suppress pulling through pain without addressing the cause. The Edinburgh review is clear: aversive equipment can cause "pain, distress and injury."1
- Retractable leads. These reward pulling by extending range the more the dog pulls. Counterproductive by design.
- One training session. Consistency over weeks is what changes behaviour — not a single good walk.
The Bottom Line
Your dog pulls because it works, because the world is exciting, and because nothing in their evolutionary history prepared them to walk politely beside a slow human. The most effective approach: a front-clip harness for immediate management, combined with reward-based training for the long term. Neither alone works as well as both together.