Understanding the Bond Beneath Behaviour There’s the leash you hold in your hand — and then there’s the leash your dog feels long before the clip ever fastens to their collar. One is nylon.The other is invisible. The second one — the quiet, emotional tether between dog and human — is what we call the inner leash . It shapes how your dog learns, how they respond to the world, and how deeply they feel connected to you. Every behaviour you see on the outside begins here, in the