Being in a city environment isn’t always easy for dogs. Cities are crowded and busy with distractions around every turn. Regardless of if you live in a large city or just plan to visit one, there are training skills that are helpful to work on with your dog in advance. With a little practice, you and your dog will be ready to face the challenges that life in a big city brings.
Handling Skills
When walking in the city, keep your dog on a short 6-foot training leash. In busy areas, like on crowded sidewalks or walking paths, you’ll want to keep your dog even closer to you. For everyone’s safety and comfort, don’t permit your dog to approach people or other dogs uninvited. Not everyone or every dog is comfortable being approached by a dog they don’t know. You’ll also want to have a large number of small, high-value treats for rewarding your dog for good behavior while you’re out together.

Focus Around Distractions
When in a busy city environment, your dog will need to be able to ignore and be calm around a variety of distractions. To help your dog build up an ability to focus around distractions, start training in a quiet area like inside your house or apartment. Then, start training in new areas with more distractions. By building up the level of distractions slowly, your dog will learn to focus on you, regardless of what is happening around you. If you live in a quieter area and want to get your dog ready for going to a city, start training in public places like parks, pet supply stores, or dog-friendly shopping centers.
Teach ‘Leave It’
There are few places more distracting for dogs to walk than in a city. In an urban environment, dogs will need to ignore traffic, people, dogs, cats, and other animals. In addition, there is likely to be trash, discarded food wrappers, and food in front of your dog on the sidewalk that they’ll need to ignore. To help our dogs be successful, it’s beneficial to teach “leave it.” This cue allows us to keep our dogs from approaching something that could harm them, or we don’t want them getting into. You’ll want to start teaching our dogs “leave it” at home without a lot of distractions.

Step 1: Put a treat or toy in your hand near your dog. Ignore any attempts by your dog to get at the treat or toy in your hand. When your dog backs up or stops trying to get to the treat, use a clicker if you are clicker training or use a verbal marker like “yes” and give your dog a treat.
Step 2: Once your dog is automatically ignoring the treat in your hand you can introduce a verbal cue of choice like “leave it.” When your dog ignores the treat or toy in your hand, praise your dog and give them a different treat.
Step 3: When your dog is successfully ignoring treats or toys in your closed hand, put a treat in your open hand, and say “leave it.” If your dog approaches, close your hand around the treat to prevent your dog from getting it. If your dog ignores the treat, praise and give your dog a different treat.
Step 4: When your dog successfully ignores the treat or toy in your hand, put it on the ground. Stay close so that you can reach it before your dog if they don’t ignore the distraction. Cue your dog to “leave it.” If your dog doesn’t approach the object, praise and treat your dog. If your dog does approach, pick the treat or toy up and practice again with it in your hand.
Step 5: When your dog is successfully able to leave treats and toys that you put down at home, it’s time to start practicing in new and more distracting environments, like on walks or at the park.
Trade or Drop It
Ideally, we want to cue our dogs to ignore things we don’t want them to pick up while out walking. But sometimes our timing isn’t perfect, and your dog might pick something up. In this case, we want to be able to cue our dogs to drop what they have in exchange for something from us. By teaching our dogs that it’s a trade for something better, we can prevent them from trying to play keep-away with newly found treasures.
Step 1: Start teaching this skill at home without distractions. When your dog has a toy or a low-value chew approach your dog with a very high value treat. When your dog drops what they have, praise and give your dog the high value treat.
Step 2: As you practice, and your dog willingly drops their item in exchange for what you have, introduce a verbal cue of choice like “give” or “trade.”
Step 3: Once you dog gets better with trading, you can begin to increase the difficulty. To do this, start asking your dog to trade higher value objects with you. Just make sure the treat you have to trade is of higher value.
Step 4: When your dog is able to trade high value items with you in the home, it’s time to start practicing in more distracting environments. This will help your dog build up the skills they need to trade or drop items while on a city adventure.

Walking On New Surfaces
When walking in a city, your dog will likely encounter a lot of distracting scents and sights. Your dog will also need to be comfortable dealing with a variety of surfaces underfoot, especially metal grates. Walking on different surfaces can be difficult for dogs, so it’s a skill to practice before going to a city with your dog. Look for metal grates or other unique surfaces for your dog to practice walking on. When your dog walks on a unique surface, be sure to praise and reward your dog.
Potty on Cue
One of the challenges for dogs in an urban environment is that they often don’t have quiet, grassy locations to potty. In addition to teaching your dog to potty on cue, before going to a city with your dog, be sure to practice asking your dog to potty while on a short leash. Many dogs are used to having some space especially when they poop, but in a city, that often isn’t possible. You’ll also want to make sure that your dog is comfortable going potty while on concrete, as finding grass or dirt may not always be an option.
Ride in a Bag
If you’re living in a city or visiting a city with a small breed dog, traveling by bus or subway/train may be the easiest way to get around with your dog. In most American cities, pets must be in a carrier in order to be allowed on public transportation. To help your dog get ready for traveling, be sure to have a bag that is a comfortable size for your dog to be in and for you to carry.
Be sure to introduce the carrier to your dog in advance. Let your dog explore the bag at their own pace while at home. Praise and treat your dog for any interest in the bag, and then for getting inside it. When your dog is comfortable with the bag at home, start taking your dog out for short outings. Slowly build up the length of your outings until your dog is content being in their bag for extended periods.

Riding in Cabs
Many cab or ride-share companies have dog-friendly options, provided dogs are clean, well-behaved, and under owner control at all times. Even if your dog regularly rides in a car, riding in a cab can be a new experience. If you’re going to be taking cabs while in a city, try to practice in advance when you aren’t rushing to get somewhere. To do this, call a cab to travel just a short distance, ideally to somewhere you can walk around with your dog like a new park or a pet store. Consider bringing a blanket or towel to put under your dog for their comfort and to prevent dog hair from getting on the vehicle. When your cab arrives, put the blanket or towel down on the floor (dogs shouldn’t ride on the seat in cabs), and ask your dog to get into the backseat of the car with you. Praise and treat your dog for sitting or lying quietly at your feet during the ride.
Become a Canine Good Citizen
Ready to take your dog’s city training to the next level? Consider working with your dog on earning their Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Title. When your dog has mastered the skills of the CGC you can then move on to more advanced skill testing with the AKC Community Canine (CGCA) test, and then the AKC Urban Canine Good Citizen (CGCU) test. These skill tests allow you to test your dog’s proficiency with good behavior in public and showcases their skills in a city environment. Even if you don’t live in an urban environment, knowing how to behave in a city is a good skill for any dog to have. After all, you never know when you’ll need or want to visit a city. Working these skills in advance will make the trip more enjoyable for both you and your dog.