I take my girls out for a walk 3 times a day. My Queen B, Diva, who is almost 2, does not like the leash at all....as soon as it goes on...she's a statue..so she walks without a leash most of the time but I still carry it and she stillhas her harness on just in case. Everyone asks me, how did you train her to do that...well when she was about 7 months old, I used to not use the lease for our late night walk...which is when noone else is out so I was able to see how she would do..when we get a curb, I put my hand down flat and say stay or wait...When I say okay or lets go, she knows we cross...A neighbor who lives a couple of streets over, tried it one day with her Bichon. She's always said she was gonna try it...she wanted Jax to be like Diva. Well, 1 day after I had just seen her and was back at my front door...in a matter of 3 minutes I see Jax come from nowhere run onto my porch to play with Diva and foxxy and minutes later she was running behind to catch him...it was so funny!!!! Needless to say, Jax stays on a leash... Now my Foxxy is a little more wilder so she's on a leash and Diva walks calmly beside us.
I know I'm bad and Diva should really be on a leash so I've been alternately putting her on one. I do want her to be one of those happy dogs when they see their leash but right now, that's not the case....I do leash her when going to other places, groomers, petsmart, parks, etc.