New dog, old dog

JavaJaneW

JavaJaneW

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16 January 2009
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I have a new friend. She needed rehoming and the timing was right, have had a GSD before so know the breed. She is 5 nearly 6 so not a youngster.
She settled in well, mooched around the house having not had the opportunity to before. She sleeps in a very large cage which is open and her space. Lovely temperament and craves attention. I have had her one night and one day.
I let her settle before taking her out the front for a walk, I was told she was strong - actually strong is very mild!
Horrendous!
She has no respect for the lead, dogs, people or the person on the end of the lead.
She has a halti but this is so small and fit for a Yorkie so I didn't use it. Just her half chain collar.
We need to establish who goes where!
Your tips on re-training would be most welcomed along with the best aids, collar etc, please :)

Would post a photo but there is no option..
 
I think a halti would be best so I would be looking to get one that will fit her ASAP. A collar won't really do much good nor will a harness as those both let them use their shoulders and body weight to pull. With the halti I would keep your hand at your hip so that when she is at your side the lead is loose but gets tight as she moves in front of you. This means that she is fighting against herself rather than you getting into a pulling match with her. I have a Canny Collar which attaches at the top and it prevents the halti slipping into their eye.

If you have lots of time (and patience), every time she pulls stop and wait for her to loosen the lead. This will work but does take a long time. I would make her sit and look at you every time a person/dog approaches and once she has done so, and if the person is happy for you to, give her permission to go and see the person/dog.

I think you'll need to take your time to get used to each other, but I do think a halti will definitely help!
 
I found the Gentle Leader headcollar exerted a lot of control but obviously needs to be introduced.

As above, annoying and time consuming though it is, lots of stopping, turning around, going nowhere. You dictate the pace, not her. You won't do any actual walking for a while but she'll get the message.

Try taking the edge off her first with a bit of ball chucking or training for her food before you go straight out on a walk.

GSDs thrive on work and training. Give me a PM if you want lots of boring exercises and waffle :p
 
please be mindful of the gentle leader,i used one for ages,my dog developed a lump on his chops that had to have an op.
i now know that there is a left/right way to wear it.
it was the clip underneath that caused it.

i now use a cushionweb figure of 8 .

(my dog pulls when we 1st go out,busy rd with no pavement so we do that bit asap)
 
I had 60kg of Newfoundland arrive with no manners on lead. I use a halti harness with him and one of the double-ended halti training leads. He's improving with time, and even in times of high excitement if he sees a cat or a squirrel with the halti harness, even though I'm an average-to-skinny size woman, I can keep hold of him without resorting to the full choke collar his previous owner used.
 
Thank you for the suggestions :)
I do have a lot of patience and time and not expecting very long walks yet. I will give a Gencon lead a go, have ordered one (similar to the canny).
She doesn't even respond to her name! Which may be a blessing as it isn't a good one so I can choose a more suitable one. I am just a 5'1" oldie, but have managed bolshy cobs so she wont pull me over :D At least I'm blowed if I'll let her!
 
It's surprising how often dogs learn to walk to heal 'off' the lead, rather than 'on' it, and by so doing dogs seem to acquire an understanding of their space and ours. those dogs which 'hang' on a lead do so because they have the certainty of where their handler is. Many consider it better that the dog has to actually 'think' about where the handler is. The difference is that with one, we have a dog walking at heal, and with the other, a dog which doesn't really give a stuff!

The best way to achieve off lead heal walking is to find a narrow 'alley-way', a footpath perhaps where the dog has to go 'past' us rather than 'around' us. With every transgression, we jump on the dog, NOT perhaps literally, but we ramp-up or relax the influence which we have, according to the dog's acceptance of discipline.

The other important point is that we have the dog walk at OUR pace, not HIS or hers. A badly mannered dog can have a 400 yard walk take 10 minutes, a well mannered and trained dog can be walked at our usual 5mph.

Alec.
 
JavaJaneW said:
Thank you for the suggestions :)
I do have a lot of patience and time and not expecting very long walks yet. I will give a Gencon lead a go, have ordered one (similar to the canny).
She doesn't even respond to her name! Which may be a blessing as it isn't a good one so I can choose a more suitable one. I am just a 5'1" oldie, but have managed bolshy cobs so she wont pull me over :D At least I'm blowed if I'll let her!
Click to expand...

new start-new name -new associations :)
 
CorvusCorax said:
I found the Gentle Leader headcollar exerted a lot of control but obviously needs to be introduced.

As above, annoying and time consuming though it is, lots of stopping, turning around, going nowhere. You dictate the pace, not her. You won't do any actual walking for a while but she'll get the message.

Try taking the edge off her first with a bit of ball chucking or training for her food before you go straight out on a walk.

GSDs thrive on work and training. Give me a PM if you want lots of boring exercises and waffle :p
Click to expand...

This! When walking her have her on the left, the lead in your right hand and a loop in the left. Randomly drop the loop and turn and walk in the other direction, have a treat with you and make sure you have her attention (lots of high pitched noise, and energy). After a while she should start to focus on you as with all the changes of direction she will have to watch you to know where she is going.
Also second getting some 'bounce' out of her first, I have to do this with my collie dog as he's too hyper at the beginning to really focus on me.

ETA: I really prefer a figure of 8 lead rather than a halti as it doesn't turn the dogs head too much.
 
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