The Two-Step Game

There’s a lot that goes into loose leash walking, and the Two-Step Game is a great skill to add to your toolbox! This pattern game teaches a dog that being right beside us is a valuable place to be.

It’s helpful to choose one side you'd prefer your dog to walk on, and then do your best to always feed them with that hand. For example, I prefer my dogs to walk on my right side, so I always feed treats with my right hand. It’s also a good idea to feed dogs by turning your hand back toward them, like a spoon or scoop, heading straight to their mouth. These two minor adjustments can help prevent dogs from walking in front of our legs as we try to feed them, and further reinforce being in that specific position on whichever side of our bodies. 

1. Start the game by scattering a small handful of treats on the ground by your side. Drop a few treats so the dog needs a bit of time to eat them.

2. While your dog is eating their treats, take two steps ahead of them.

   • I am intentionally keeping the leash loose and waiting for my dog to come to me. Leashes are a safety tool, not a steering wheel. Avoid pulling or yanking your dog around by their leash, especially when it’s attached to their collar.

   • When a dog chooses to move toward you on their own (and then we reinforce), the learning is much more powerful than if WE move them into position. If I physically move my dog into position myself, I’m doing the homework for them!

3. When your dog finishes eating the treats, they’re likely to look up and begin moving towards you. Use your marker the moment your dog looks up and begins to move toward you.

   • In this clip, I use the marker word “yes” with Bertie, but you might be using a different word, like “good,” or a clicker.

4. After you mark, reinforce this behavior by scattering another small pile of treats at your side, restarting this simple pattern.

When teaching any new skill, practice inside where there are no distractions present at first. Next practice in your backyard, then your front yard, then the sidewalk, etc., slowly fading distractions into the picture around you while playing. As you get better at this game, you can level it up a couple of ways!

The first adjustment you can make is to feed your dog directly from your hand, rather than setting the treats on the ground. You can also try not stopping, moving fluidly alongside your dog, and marking and feeding every two steps. Finally, you can turn this into a three or four-step game when your dog knows and engages in this pattern well.

Adjust your rate of reinforcement as distractions come and go. The more distracting something is, the more often you should mark and treat! I’ll even mark and treat every step when using this game to pass triggers, eventually. ‘Distractions’ are any new stimuli in the environment that pull your dog’s attention. Think of ‘triggers’ as the most challenging distractions for an individual dog. 

For my dog Randall, a tractor in the field next door is a distraction, while a dog walking past our house is a trigger.

If your dog is short, consider using a large spoon or a rubber spatula smeared with something lickable as reinforcement. This way, you can avoid bending over every time you need to treat them! Lower the spatula to let your dog have a couple of licks when you want to treat them. Some lickable treats to consider include peanut butter, whipped cream cheese, wet dog food (usually pâté-style works best for this), or even baby food (check that the ingredients are dog-safe). 

• These reusable baby food containers also work well for simpler treating. 

The Two-Step game is a great way to teach your dog the value of walking by your side. Remember to keep training sessions short and fun, and to take breaks often to ensure that your dog stays engaged and motivated. Give the Two-Step game a try with your dog and see how it can help improve your loose-leash walking skills. As always, reach out for help if things aren’t going as planned.

• Video Transcript

  Hello, Lily of Spot On Dog Training here with my puppy, Bertie. In this video, she's helping me demonstrate the two step pattern game. I start the game by dropping a few treats on the ground next to my feet- and I specifically am dropping quite a few treats because I want it to take her a second to eat them, so that I can take my two steps to get ahead of her. And then what I'm doing is the moment that she looks up and starts moving towards me- that's what I'm using our marker. We use the word "yes" but you might use something different, but you're using your marker the moment your dog lifts their head and starts moving towards you. And so, that's how you introduce the two step pattern game. But as you get better, you can kind of level it up. In this next pass I'm showing, I'm feeding Bertie directly from my hand instead of dropping the treats on the ground. And so, I'm still taking two steps, marking when she's catching up to me, and then feeding from my hand. In these last few passes then, this is how we play the game when we're actually on the trail and using it where as I'm moving and not stopping to feed her the treat and I'm just feeding her a treat every two steps as we're walking, marking as she's staying in that position with me. Notice that I'm feeding her with my hand, my right hand, because she's walking on the right side of my body. Feeding on the same side that your dog is walking, instead of reaching across your body, will help them stay in that position on that side.