[Tic Tac Took]

So Sam has gotten pretty good on the leash but for the first 10 to 15 minutes of our walk she just wants to pull pull pull and she gets all pink faced from choking herself -_- I cant find any prong collars here and I really dont like that method (or choke collars) anyhow..

So, how do I stop her from pulling when shes excited during the first part of the walk? Once she calms down and resumes a good heel I praise the hell out of her, but when shes excited she just doesnt listen to me at all.

Ive tried stopping until she calms down but as soon as I start to walk again, she pulls again. Help? Tips?

[grosqueneen]

glad you asked this because i could use some tips also

[Jueqelyl]

I always try to exercise Chassis really good before a walk, so she's a little calmer. You can also adopt the "when she pulls, stop dead in your tracks" method.

Try searching the archives of the forum because this type of subject has been brought up numerous times before.

Good luck, leash training is often quite challenging!

[Tic Tac Took]

Thanks ill try searching! (cant believe i didnt think of that first lol).

[jeepgrandch]

You may have a luck with a Gentle Leader head collar or a Gentle leader harness, the harness has a leash ring in the front, instead of on the back. These may be ways of getting the pulling to stop. Also, I agree with the exercising before the walk. If you let the dog work hard, like with a flirt pole, or maybe chasing a ball for 15-20 minutes before the walk, they may be more tired out and less inclined to pull. Typically if I'm taking one of my dogs for a walk, I either bike 'em a couple miles first, or let them at the springpole or play flirt pole with them for a while, then we walk.

[SergeyLisin]

Two things:

1) Try teaching her the command "easy" or "relax." That command is to loosen the tension on the leash. I did that with Amy, and when she pulls I tell her "easy" and she will usually immediately slacken the tension and keep walking with me. If she doesn't I correct her, give a loud "HEY!" with a snap of the leash, and tell her "easy" again. Usually that will get her to relax. If she doesn't I stop until she settles down, and then we start again. I did it with a pinch collar at first but now we're doing it with just the regular martingale and she's doing great.

2) Try letting her get the crazies out before you go. I get Amy jumping for about 5-10 minutes, targeting my hand and doing some jumps and tricks. I also play with her a lot and just let her get some of her crazy energy out so she's not all "OMG FREEDOM!!" the second we step out of the house.

[frequensearules]

I definitely agree with exercising before you walk! Around here, we don't see walks as exercise.. They're relaxing, bonding time.

My dogs all know commands that tell them when it's okay to pull and when it's not. When I was teaching the command to not pull, I bribed them with food or a toy to stay near me lol It was very quick to teach!

[Tic Tac Took]

Well I take her to this little enclosed soccer field by my house first (I dont have a closed in back yard) and have her run and that helps some but if we walk there she pulls the whole way lol! I wanna try a flirt pole.. Shes 7 months is that too young for a flirt pole? I dont want to hurt her bones. And the only place to use it is on concrete :\

---------- Post added at 07:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:34 PM ----------

Sorrry about the random smiley?

[frequensearules]

One method I've used with dogs who just pull and don't seem to get it... is randomly changing directions. I'll walk 15 feet, then spin around and walk the other way, and drag the dog. They learn to pay more attention to where you are, and it can decrease pulling.

I use flirt poles with puppies... I would just limit the amount of jumping until she's older. I don't see any problem working her on concrete if she isn't jumping... Just keep an eye on her pads and nails to make sure you don't wear them down too far.

[Tic Tac Took]

Well her nails are actually a little long right now anyways haha! Except for one nail that chipped but its coming back nicely lol

[AnIInWon]

There's a whole bunch of different methods. If you don't want to go the correction route (chokes, prongs, martingales)
a no-pull harness is a good go-to for smaller dogs (don't know how well they would work on a dog 90+lbs meaning! lol) as well as combining it with some training.

A lot of trainers are introducing the concept of "heeling" nekkid now. The leash is often a crutch that we overuse for lack of training, a good foundation and lack of positive reinforcement. Using food lures, hand targets and teaching position first has become much more popular because it's easy and once you clip the leash on it's really just there to abide by laws and as an extra security measure.

Ask yourself; Why shouldn't Sam pull?

I mean, we know why she does pull, well we have some good guesses at least! Number one for most dogs, they want to get where they're going... FASTER! And if she gets to run around loose in a fenced area, that's really going to increase her drive to pull you to hurry up! Opposition reflex is probably another likely factor. Stuff that Sam wants to check out is not within the 4 or 6 feet of lead space that she has is probably another good guess!

So what's the competing motivation for all of the above?

High value rewards is what I would use, and I would use a lot of them. In the living room I'd work on focus commands; Watch me, I'd work on basic heel positioning off lead, so basically making her "safe zone" a high reinforcement zone. If you are within 3 feet of me, you are getting rewarded. After a week or so you move to the backyard, and during this time when you walk her, you have a super special treat, that you use only on walks, and you put it all to work.

So if Sam is beside me, I'd be rewarding her every 5-10 steps depending on her focus level. If she ran out to the end of the leash, I'd stop abruptly (let her self correct on a flat buckle), then take a few steps backwards, this will encourage her to come back to you, and as soon as she's back within the "safe zone" I'd give her a treat. Basically every time she hits the end of the leash, then you get her back to the safe zone, you reset. You start from the safe zone as if the mess up never happened. You go back to using your "watch me", verbal praising for focus then food rewarding 10 steps or whatever of attention.

If she wants to sniff a pole but pulls you to sniff it, do the above, get her back in the safe zone, food reward, than use your cues to keep her attention to loose lead walk to whatever it was she was interested in and double reward her with food and with the environment (you get to sniff when you don't pull).

As for running around on concrete, I avoid it, but I avoid it because I can without a problem.

[Tic Tac Took]

Thank you K9 Love! That was excellent and Im starting the new training program tomorrow! Ill follow your advice and let you know how it goes!

As far as the concrete, I live in Mexico and everything is concrete lol! Maybe ill invest in little orthopedic puppy shoes

[AnIInWon]

Your welcome!

Can't wait to hear how it works out for you!

Gah, I can't imagine living in a concrete city! I live in a small town in the country, so no matter where you are in town, you're only 5 minutes away from farmer's fields, bush and lakes!

[Tic Tac Took]

We did find one little park with grass I guess we could walk around there more often!

And that's crazy I bet its pretty there Im jealous!

[SergeyLisin]

One thing about no-pull harnesses, be VERY careful that your dog can back out of it. Amy is one crafty little bitch and figured out how to escape from it, surprising the hell out of me one day. I couldn't figure out what she was doing but she backed up and had her legs out of it in a flash. I caught her fast though.

Same reason I use a martingale instead of a flat collar. This dog can escape anything.

[Sydneyfonzi]

Frankie is 7 months old. I use a martingale on her with great results.
One thing that worked great, when we first started training, was just holding a treat, basically in the heel position. When she is walking nicely in heel position, there is a treat for her.
Now that we're getting more advanced, I give her a slight leash correction when she gets out of heel position, and she comes right back. She's to the point, that if I let her go to the end of the leash, she'll stop and look at me, and wait until I catch up, then she'll start walking again in heel position.

[SergeyLisin]

Frankie is 7 months old. I use a martingale on her with great results.
One thing that worked great, when we first started training, was just holding a treat, basically in the heel position. When she is walking nicely in heel position, there is a treat for her.
Now that we're getting more advanced, I give her a slight leash correction when she gets out of heel position, and she comes right back. She's to the point, that if I let her go to the end of the leash, she'll stop and look at me, and wait until I catch up, then she'll start walking again in heel position.

You keep her in the heel position for the whole walk?

I don't really do that with Amy. As long as she's not pulling she can generally be wherever she wants. It gives her a bit more freedom to sniff and do whatever. She goes into heel when I tell her too, but usually not more than a couple minutes.