I have a 16 month old staff who is truly wonderful - when indoors!
Whenever the lead comes out he starts; barking to begin with then as soon as the front door opens he is pulling like crazy.  We have tried all different sorts of leads, collars, etc - I think our biggest mistake was his first lead which was a stretchy one!  We have tried lots of different methods to try and stop this but with no luck.  Also we can't let him off the lead as he won't recall, plus he wants to 'hump' everything in sight!!  We are considering have him neutered, but I have had conflicting reports - some people say it doesn't make a difference to his behaviour (I don't want his personality to change at all), some say it will.
Other than this is such a great dog.
Any advice would be gratefully appreciated!!

Luck doesn't really enter into it when you're talking about training a dog to walk 'nicely' on a lead - it's consistancy that matters - and I'd like a £1 for every time I hear somebody say 'we've tried all sorts of things, but nothing works' - this is because it takes time for a dog to learn that his behaviour isn't going to get him the reward he thought it would - and often the owner will say 'it only made him worse' - this is because the dog thinks - this worked last time, so I've got to try more - then it's bound to work' the owner gives up, and the dog thinks' see, I told you so.....'

I would suggest going right back to basics, and reward your dog for coming to you at home, then you can start to walk around the house, and reward him when he comes to you - no lead, no commands, just reward him for coming to you.  If he's into food, make it the yummiest thing you can imagine, but just a small taste - you want him to come back for more ;)  If he starts getting excited each time you get the lead out - just put it away again....

Could not agree more with what Digger is saying.
Be so careful not the reward the wrong doing! Almost everyone does at some time. If he gets in front, the usual comment is a nice happy voice, "Heel, Good boy!" Think about that! He's not at heel and at that moment nor is he being a good boy! Draw him back to where you want him, either silently or with a sharp, "No!", then, when he's where you want him, "Good boy, Heel."

Regards, John

In addition to what digger and John have said, have you tried changing directions immediately as soon as he gets in front? (not easy with a strong dog like a staffy I know ;) ) Just a smart about turn and go in another direction (90 degrees is good ;) ).  At first you will be changing directions every 2 seconds and probably look as if you're insane :D but the dog will soon cotton on that he has to follow you and start watching you and staying to heel.  The important thing is not to let your arm follow the lead (making it longer)   I still do this with mine if they're a bit excited and I want to get their attention or even just to make things interesting and fun for them :)

Thanks for your comments - some of your back to basics comments make sense!! The rewarding with treats doesn't work - he has never taken treats, just not interested. 

The 'changing direction' comment sounds interesting - I can just see us now just going round and round in circles on the spot!!!!!!!  But we will try it!
Thanks again

Hello, I'm new to the forums, so I thought I'd start in grand style by writing an essay !! ;-)

I've been having a lot of trouble teaching my dog to walk nicely on the lead.

I've had my rescue lurcher (Greyhound/GSD/Staffie X?) for 2 years and he is now 3. We've achieved such a lot together and many people comment on how good and clever he is. HOWEVER!! his lead training is coming along so slowly! He picks most things up very quickly - even when I was really inexperienced as a handler he learnt all sorts. From an outsider's point of view, he appears to be supremely well behaved as he can give a very good appearance of walking nicely and people often comment on his good behaviour. But I know a different story!!

Learning how to train is so important and is incredibly frustrating sometimes.

My first belief on how to lead-train was to use treats and walk everywhere holding the treats rigidly in position saying "Close / heel, good boy." All that got me was a very well behaved dog in class situations, but the slightest hint of excitement outdoors and the treats were forgotten and he'd pull forward. I did the research to find the solution and was soon stopping, starting and changing direction in true mad-dog-lady fashion! So then I had a dog who was pretty good most of the time but he would always drift forward. For a while I just gave up and used a halti in situations where I knew the excitement would be unbearable for him (eg. visiting new cities). I realise this was not helping matters, but there comes a point where you just can't hang around to train your dog, eg. crossing a busy road.

Very recently, I read a couple of articles in well-known magazines about lead walking. They made me re-think my strategies so at present I've stopped using commands or verbal and other rewards. I simply stand still until he puts slack in the lead and then immediately move off. This has achieved a degree of success in that he is now feeling for the lead about to go tight. The problem now is that he still drifts forward, but knows to keep the lead slack. I still can't suddenly stop or change direction without yanking him round the neck or being tripped up by him. It's like he's only learnt that when I stop, he is supposed to return to me, but if I move off, he's at liberty to walk wherever he likes.

I read somewhere recently that you need to train a dog in about 8 different contexts for him to generalise the training to every situation. I and my partner lead-train every day, (almost) everywhere we go, and Fred still hasn't learnt to keep an eye on us and follow us around. The amount of time we've put in is totally disproportionate to the amount of time we've put into anything else.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should get him to walk backwards all the way to the park, and then at least it'll actually be impossible for him to pull forward!! :-)

It's not even that Fred is TERRIBLE on the lead; I think it's just the CONSTANT reinforcement of how he should be behaving rather than just learning the way we'd like him to behave that wears us down!

Anyway, I guess I could have made the point a lot more concisely by saying that, Sarah100, don't expect walking on the lead to be a walk in the park to teach (pardon the pun). It's the first thing your dog learns and so it is really important to get it right in the first place! DO be very consistent and don't EVER give him an inch, because he'll be taking a mile! I just wish I'd known about all the mistakes I was about to make in lead training 2 years ago! :-(

Liz

hi there, i had the same problem with my staffie who is now 8 months old.  She wud pull like crazy, we also started on a stretchy lead which didnt help matters.
Anyhow, my dog trainer suggested a halti lead, which i can clip round my waist, the benefits are that it doesnt hurt ur arm when they pull, and also you wont be subconsciously pulling back which can make them pull more.  So geared up with this halti lead, which we simply clipped to her collar or harness, whichever u use, i wud stop everytime she pulled, like she was putting the brakes on.  After a few weeks of very long tedious walks of constantly stopping every two steps when she pulled, she is no where near as bad now. 
hope this helps

thanks Jenny!

You said that you had some long tedious walks!! What did you do about burning your dog's energy off whilst you were training? Did you just extend the length of time you walked for? Or did you make up for lost park time by playing other games with him?? I only have an hour in the morning in which to walk to him, so he's spending less time in the park and more time doing lead training - I have to be more creative with indoors excercise to make sure his little brain is thoroughly exhausted!

liz

Hi Sarah

In addition to all that's been said about pulling on the lead I would add start your training BEFORE putting the lead on.  You say your dog starts barking (does he then run/pull to the door, flip round in circles, jump up and down?) when you get out the lead.  Stop there.  Hang the lead back up and sit down.  After a minute go get the lead again and ask for a 'sit'.  If your dog doesn't comply, hang the lead back up and try again in a couple of minutes.  If your dog does not learn to listen to you before you even get out the door there's not much chance of him listening to you once you are outside.   If you can get your dog to sit quietly for the lead to go on, walk under control to the door and wait while you open it etc you are starting to get respect from your dog.  Then heelwork can begin outside.