Hi everyone,

This is my first post. We're getting a puppy in a couple of weeks, this will be our second after our first dog sadly had to be pts.

We're looking to do more training in regards to pulling on the lead we didn't fully achieve with our first dog. I've read that heel training should start off lead, before its first walk, by using treats and encouraging the dog to walk to heel following its treat. This all makes sense, and i understand that training without a lead first is better because the lead is a distraction.

We were all set to do this, but now i've been thinking about toilet training. With our first dog we put her on the lead from day 1 to take her to her toilet spot rather than have her zooming around the garden exploring. How do we go about toilet training without a lead? I don't want to put her on a lead just for toileting, because i don't want her to become familiar with being restrained by a lead pulling on her neck. I'd rather teach her 'heel' is normal rather than 'pull'. The problem is various books and articles give tips on how to toilet and lead train, but putting them together causes issues!

Any advise?

Thank you!