Collar and lead suggestions please

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MyBoyChe

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For my 12 month old springer Chloe. She is a fab little girl in all respects except that she pulls like a train on the lead. To be fair, we dont do much walking on the lead but the little bit we have to do she nearly pulls my arm off and easily gets me off balance. She currently wears a strong webbing collar with a rope lead attached by a really strong clip from the outdoor shop! My preference is for a rope slip lead but the ones I have, I either seem to be throttling her or simply have no control. I seem to be forever correcting her, by this I mean having to really tug her backwards to stop her from being at full stretch, as soon as she is where I want her, she leaps forward again until the rope is at full stretch. The only way at the moment to stop her pulling so hard is to hold her so short she cant get any purchase, but even like this she almost throttles herself. Is there anything that would make walking more comfortable for us both. She gets plenty of regular exercise and once running free is well behaved with good recall (touch wood) and will walk off lead next to me. I know it takes two to pull but honestly I cannot get her to walk on a loose lead without pulling it to its limit!!
 
I would get a decent leather training lead to save your hands first off, Equus Leather make them or I got one made to order on Ebay. Absolute godsend, so easy on the hands and if you care for them, more or less ever lasting:)

Have you tried frequent changes of direction while the lead is still loose? Even if you are only walking two steps then turning, this should help to get her focussed on you. Also, don't be worried about using food or a toy to lure her to the right position, then when she is there - 'good heel' so she learns what heel means. If you are saying 'heel, heel, heel' when she is miles out in front, then she may well think that heel means walk miles out in front.

You may well end up having some highly repetitive walks:D but if you persist this is a good method, and has worked for Henry:)
 
I had a similar problem with my dog when she was younger before i started using a halti. She would walked perfectly on it (hold the lead with one finger) and realised she didn't get places any faster if she pulled my arm off. 4 years on and we haven't used it for years because she now realises her place is by my side!
 
lq22 said:
I had a similar problem with my dog when she was younger before i started using a halti. She would walked perfectly on it (hold the lead with one finger) and realised she didn't get places any faster if she pulled my arm off. 4 years on and we haven't used it for years because she now realises her place is by my side!
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agree completely!! halti was the best investment i ever made!! :D
 
My preference would be a good leather training lead and half check.
Flat collars are useless for pullers.
You have to incentivise walking to heel or on a loose lead.
Re the slip lead, make sure it is on the right way round, and if she is throttling herself? Stand still until she stops throttling herself, then move forward. Repeat ad nauseum. Time consuming, yes, but these things don't get cured overnight :)
As Spud says, you can also try directional changes, going backwards, turning in a circle.

If you are looking for a quicker fix, try a halti or similar heacollar.
 
I would also recommend the halti and we have had great success with using it on various dogs. I personally also prefer it as you don't interfere with the dogs throat or breathing which some collars would do. It's also good training for the dog as the more they pull the more their head comes back in the direction in which you are standing so they soon learn that they get nowhere by pulling and it only comes into force if they try and plough off with you!

I do however hate choke chains and believe they are totally unnecessary but if you must I find martingale collars a good compromise as they cannot completely choke the dog but do tighten that little bit if they pull against the lead.

But I do think try the halti out first, and you can use it to help your dog by showing it where its meant to be while your walking and to not pull against the lead.
 
CaveCanem said:
My preference would be a good leather training lead and half check.
Flat collars are useless for pullers.
You have to incentivise walking to heel or on a loose lead.
Re the slip lead, make sure it is on the right way round, and if she is throttling herself? Stand still until she stops throttling herself, then move forward. Repeat ad nauseum. Time consuming, yes, but these things don't get cured overnight :)
As Spud says, you can also try directional changes, going backwards, turning in a circle.

If you are looking for a quicker fix, try a halti or similar heacollar.
Click to expand...

Just what we do.

You can get non pull harness which will save her throat, or a canny collar or halti, but they are a quick fix, and don’t solve the problem as when put back into a normal collar lead/slip lead they still pull.

Training is the key and timing, go to some classes as sometimes others can see what you are doing wrong and offer tips to help that you may not of thought of.

Positioning is the key to a slip lead or half check, they should be right at the top of the neck just behind the ears, watch Crufts tonight and watch the handlers you will see the correct position of the slip lead then.

And don’t forget to have fun doing it
 
No idea if any of this will help, but reading through your post I think I'm going through a similar thing.

From day 1, walking on a lead has always been one of Harleys "things". I think it's due to when I 1st started walking him there was snow on the ground and his paws got cold (hindsight is great), so wasn't a great experience! He used to literally have tantrums throwing himself on the floor or swinging off the lead.

Kept going training and things improved to the point when he was tired or calm he would walk on a loose lead beautifully. But, if he was excited for any reason (start of walk, out with other dogs etc etc) although he didn't pull like a tank, he just didn't "think". He would walk faster than me to the end of the lead, he'd go into the pressure, then stop and wait for me to catch up or turn around and come back to stand next to me. It must have looked so ridiculous, but he never seemed to get the message of just staying next to me. He'd just walk out. I tried changing direction, checking him, stopping when he got to end of lead (which created the turning and walking back to me, but straight away walk in front), walking on short lead (constant checking drove me mad), walking lead in my right hand with him on left. Just nuts. (generally walked on a slip lead, tried half check and full check which were not much better)

He would always walk off lead to heel though really nicely. Usually I had a treat in my hand (as a puppy when I tried walking with a treat he was like a bucking bronco so my trainer told me not to do that), so this week, before going and buying a halti (which I didn't think would work as he doesn't actually pull) I decided to start walking him with a treat in my hand and IT'S WORKED!! I haven't tried him in a very exciting situation yet, but last night when I took him out we ended up having to walk on the lead for quite a while, and usually he'd get distracted and we'd end up doing the forward and back thing and he just stayed next to me! He wasn't constantly at the treat, but I kept giving him one every now and again and I think he'd realised if he stays right next to me that's where the treats are.

I'm going to keep working at it, I don't think we've cracked it yet, but last night I really felt like we had made a big step forward!
 
I use a canni collar for Monty in certain situations as he pulls like billyo atm, but as stated we are working on this problem so it is only used sparingly.
The thing I like about the canni collar is that the dog is pulling against itself and not you, if you understand what I'm trying to say.
 
SamanthaG said:
Just what we do.

You can get non pull harness which will save her throat
Click to expand...

I know I sound like a broken record and that harnesses work for some people, but in dogs with a certain point of gravity, they are useless...also I used a Lupi
and it rubbed all the hair off my dog's underarm area and carved an X across his chest, he was pulling so hard.

Like I say, I know they work for some people but just to let peeps know :)
 
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