we have run into issues again....

I

itsme123

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We've done doggy classes since day 1, and now taken a break until after christmas. We'd mastered the art of 'heel' (well, walking with a slack lead, no pulling) and walks were enjoyable.

Now we've started pulling again :rolleyes:

We're talking full-on legs going ten to the dozen "oh I gotta run run run" pulling. It physically hurts me, let alone her!

So we went back to the beginning and practised what we learnt at dog school, and she KNOWS. She KNOWS what to do. In an enclosed area she will walk to heel, even off the lead! Recall is spot on, she'll leave ANYTHING to come back when called. It's just on paths / sides of roads she turns into this mad terrier that swings off the end of the lead.

Today resulted in me hauling her back (I just got so peeved :() and growling "noooo, bad girrrrllll" which is our signal for 'stop what you're doing'. But she almost rolled her eyes at me. I walked her the whole way with lead a/x my body arm aching. As we turned the corner for home a cat ran out of the fence, and she leapt forwards and swung off her lead again. I stopped, pulled her back and told her "no" and the little bugger leapt up and nipped my hand! :mad:

I've trained her to "wait" at crossings, but recently, if it's a crossing that 'beeps' she'll dart out as soon as it beeps. I've even stood and waited for the beeping to stop (and pressed the button again, and again...) but it hasn't helped. We just get five minutes of yapping and swinging off the lead, jumping up, being a total little terrorist.
We've now passed two stages at dog school, proving she is totally capable of most things. As am I lol. But she seems to have suddenly got ants in her pants and stopped listening. I then get het up because she's hurting me, and the more het up I get the worse she gets.

Dad's no use as all his work's off lead (and he just thinks I should walk her off lead anyway), and as I said, off lead she's perfect. She will heel, recall, go away, sit, lay down. It's simply ON the lead she's started this.

Would something like a canny collar help? I hate to resort to gadgets, but I'm getting to the point where I don't want to take her out in public. I currently walk her in a harness as my vet said collars can hurt their windpipes. I tried a leather collar the other day and she just kept spluttering but it didn't stop her pulling.

Once she's been to the park and ran, she's fine by the way, she trots along nicely. We got to diferent parks / fields. It's almost like an overwhelming excitement.

she's a year old.
 
I think you know yourself, the best way to stop pulling is to gain focus under distraction and make yourself more attractive than everything else
This begins at home and in the garden and can be a long process. IMO all young dogs should be focus trained as it makes everything else so much easier.

Obviously for dogs with certain drives, that is more difficult.

If it means witholding normal feeds and feeding from your pocket, so be it.

Bear in mind a lot of dogs naturally pull against restriction, IE a lead, they do not know it is attached to you, they just feel a force pulling them backwards and they want to escape it.
They also have four legs as opposed to two and want to get somewhere faster than you can go and that sounds like the issue here, youthful exhuberance at the start of a walk.

Your dog is not a miniature, delicate breed AFAIK and I am sure that walking her in a half check would do her no harm at all. Harnesses and flat collars allow the dog to use their weight against you. We use both for tracking and protection because it actually allows the dog more freedom and so they can work remotely.

Try also stopping dead, turning in circles, so she learns, the more I pull, the less and less further ahead I go, if I return to her side, I get praise and a treat. it's further and faster she wants to go when she pulls, so pulling = nowhere, walking on a loose line, progress, although not as fast as she would like it to be.
 
I have to say that of all the 'gadgets' out there, I do like the canny collar. It sounds like you're doing everything right, but honestly, my two pull/pulled like demons and the canny collar just meant that I could enjoy a lead walk again.
 
Echo CaveCanem just stopping dead works, worked with Stanley my Wire Viz.

Mikki do a harness that does actually stop pulling, we had one for our German Wire who pulled like a steam train. It's called the Mikki Walkrite Harness, I'll try to find a pic cos that will explain better, but basically when the dog pulls it applies pressure that the dog doesn't like so they stop doing it. It's not harsh either.

I can only find one on a Boxer but they do do different sizes
Harnes%20Mikki.jpg


ETA all my Jacks know how to walk to heel and sit and wait but they rarely do it and Jim passed his stage one lol
 
Harnesses are designed for pulling sleds not walking dogs - it will simply make it easier for her to pull.

What I do is practice walking with a wall to the side and have the dog between you and the dog. Every time the dog tries to pull nip in front, close to the wall, and block her. This way she will learn that you go first and she can either be at the side of you or behind you...

Another way is to switch direction randomly every time she pulls.

Whatever you do you have to do it every time. With pulling, as soon as you let them do it again, just the once, because you are in a rush, you are back to sqaure one :(
 
Inky_and_Sunny said:
Harnesses are designed for pulling sleds not walking dogs - it will simply make it easier for her to pull
Click to expand...

I know that is normally the case, but the one I've posted about is designed specifically to stop pulling, as I said it applies pressure to the dogs sides (picture shows it better) when it pulls and the dog doesn't like the pressure so it stops pulling, when the dog stops the pressure slackens off etc etc until eventually the dog stops full stop. I know it works I've used one hence I recommended it :D
 
I tried a halti with my mini schauzer cross, and she managed to get it off. I used a canny collar which seems to do the trick. BTW she has been to dog training and walks lovely to heel there!!
 
I know it worked for you ED but just a word of warning about those harnesses with thin straps like that - I used the Lupi for a while and B carved a big X across his chest because he kept on pulling through it and took all the hair out from under his elbows as well.
I remember PM'ing Cayla in floods of tears (and in pain, he ballsed up my back) worrying that I was hurting HIM (hahahaha!).

I got the slip lead out went up the back lane with him and spent about a week with him, every day, with a bloody MP3 player on to stop myself going mad marching up to the top of the hill and back down again, you pull, you go nowhere or backwards, you stay with me, awesome times.
I looked like a berk but it worked.

He now walks mostly on a long, loose line, I still do heelwork with him sporadically through the walk, and if there are cars, bikes, people passing (he sometimes comes to heel without being asked in that instance, because he knows I will make him anyway) and even on a loose line he will often come back and check in with me and he is praised and told he is a good boy every time.

I also think there is a big bonus in teaching the dog the difference between heel/close and hup-hup (pull your fat ma up the hill) and 'free' and OK! let's go.
So pulling could become like a command, although I can't see the attraction in a smaller dog in a flat area :p

It can be hard work but get it straight in your own head, don't be wishy-washy, be consistent and DON'T let her swing around like that.
I don't believe in a lot of dominance theories any more, but K you are much, much bigger and stronger than her and she is just a wee dog, she shouldn't be hurting you.
I used to think B was 'challenging' me, he wasn't, I was just inconsistent, I was complaining about his pulling and admonishing him, but then afterwards, just let him haul me about again, because it was the easy option, so, the more he pulled, the further he got, but I kept telling him 'no' - his head was up his backside!
(Sorry for the essay :o)
 
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Thankyou everyone.

It does seem to be a pure "Oh my GOD!!! We're going for a WALK!" thing, because once we get there she's a saint again, it's just cutting through the thick fog of excitement where NOTHING matters, just her walk.

I'm going to try a few things suggested and give her a couple of weeks solid work on it, if all else fails then it;s the canny collar. Harnesses: I have to be careful as she's slipped a few (manages to get her legs through) and I'm very wary of her getting onto the road.
 
I don't know about all of them but the Mikki has soft rubber over the strings and they can be moved so they're sitting in the correct place.

Lol this is why I just bung them in the car and free run them straight off :p
 
echodomino said:
I don't know about all of them but the Mikki has soft rubber over the strings and they can be moved so they're sitting in the correct place.

Lol this is why I just bung them in the car and free run them straight off :p
Click to expand...

they all sit nicely when on a taut lead, she;s just an odd shape and as soon as we slacken the lead she slips out of it. Do it up tighter and it digs in when the lead goes taut and I get glared at and told "that harness is too tight".

I noticed today she does lean forward and put all her weight through it to drag me along.... I'll be trying to keep her to the side with the lead across my body and having to keep my left arm tense, resulting in lots of pain and red raw fingers.

I offered her free to a passer by today :o
 
I keep mine on the left. Majority of the lead is in the right hand and fed through the left hand, with it quite short down to the collar. Their shoulder at my knee. However you're dealing with a different centre of gravity with a smaller dog. Try and get the lead 'above' her rather than behind her, if you know what I mean. You can pull up as well as back.
Leather leads for the win! Or fingerless gloves...and you can feed from pockets, encouraging dog to look up.
 
that's how I do it CC, loop in my right, fed through, across body and down through my left into the dog. I've tried pulling her upwards, keeping lead above her she just runs mid air.... I mean, she's not the most intelligent dog i have ever owned (no, really, she is quite dense, it takes us twice the time to master anything that others mastered long ago).

Feeding treats (she has finally got the jist that treats are better than toys) becomes a problem because we physically have to stop to do this. Me= bad back, her= small... I actually trained her to put her paws on my knees after recall so i can clip her lead on as I struggle to bend down that far :o, which looks terrible to other people (most spend months training them NOT to jump up, I spent months teaching mine TO jump up) but makes life easier for me. So treat feeding means we have to stop, me crouch down and feed her. But we did it before, so I'm sure it'll be no problem second time round - I only just got out of feeding the treats after every command too.

Would anyone like a Terrorist that thinks it;s a cat??? :p
 
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