Kikopup
Firstly, Different trainers condition and use leash pressure in different ways. Some compulsion trainers will condition the leash pressure to become a conditioned punisher that will stop a dog doing something or make them less likely to do it in the future.
While a lot of trainers like myself specifically condition leash pressure to become a cue like a recall trained with positive reinforcement, to mean, come back and stay with the owner. But because most dogs without any initial training find being touched by the leash when they pull aversive, the trainer first has to use counter conditioning to change the dog’s emotional response to the feeling of the pressure to be a positive one, before then conditioning it to be a cue to return to owner. The difference in this training means that when the dog does hit the end of the leash or the owner shortens the leash, the leash pressure will not act as a conditioned punisher making whatever the dog was doing less likely to happen. So with positive reinforcement training, the trainer will then have to reinforce the behavior they DO want the dog to do, otherwise they will get a dog constantly hitting the end of the leash for treats. So to do this while training the leash pressure exercise you will see the trainer, marking and reinforcing for the dog staying next to them as the behavior they do want the dog to do around distractions.
Things are not intrinsically reinforcing or punishing. You can turn food and petting into a punisher and something like putting on a leash and harness or even pulling on one into a reinforcer. Over time and in different situations the values change and a punisher can change into a reinforcer and vise versa. So the trainers and owners need to be good at reading their dogs body language and taking note of their dogs behavior rather than just assuming something is a punisher or a reinforcer. Over time a dog could regress to start to find the leash pressure aversive and so more conditioning would be necessary. In the same way a dog might start to not enjoy being groomed the steps need to be broken up and worked on where the dog is having a positive emotional response during the session.
Kikopup
Is your puppy pulling? Teach the Leash Pressure GAME!
If there were one exercise I think every puppy and dog should learn if they have to abide by leash laws, it is this one. If you want to know why some people struggle with a dog who pulls on leash, besides the issue of over-arousal, it is because they haven't yet trained and proofed this behavior.
The giving into leash pressure game teaches your puppy what to do when he hits the end of the leash, which is to turn around and come back to you. By training and conditioning leash pressure in small enough approximations it is possible to turn what is usually a frustrating and aversive experience into a cue that has a positive association to the dog that simply means "move with me". A lot of people believe certain stimuli are "intrinsically" reinforcing or punishing. But this is simply untrue. It is possible through training and conditioning to change an animal's emotional response to a certain stimuli. Instead of just relying on habituation, where dogs learn over repetition that being moved by you on leash isn't terrible I suggest playing these training games to make it an experience where the dog doesn't feel like it's some sort of intimidation game. I also suggest doing the same with teaching a dog to be picked up as well as handled and groomed.
