Hello
I need some advice about my 18mth old golden retriever (Bailey).  He are having terrible trouble with him pulling on the lead.  He was diagnosed with HD at 6 mths and we had to suspend all exercise (advised by the vets) then he had an operation.  To look at him now running round you would never think he had ever had a problem, but because we missed out on the puppy stage training as we had to stop going to the classes and were not allowed to walk him he is awful on the lead.  He can pull me over if he decides he want to go somewhere!!

I know we need to go back to basics but I don’t know where to start.  I know it is our fault because of everything he has been through we have spoilt him and he has a terrible fear of the car due to all the trips to the vets so we have been concentrating on that by driving him to the park etc which hasn’t helped I know!

He pulls so much he makes himself choke and coughs terribly so he have put him on a harness which does seem better.  It is hard not to get frustrated with him as soon as he starts pulling we stop until he sits and there is slack on the lead but as soon as we move off again he is as bad as ever.  It doesn’t matter how long we do this for….

We are going away at the beginning of April and our parents are having him but I am worried that they won’t be able to cope with him on the lead and I REALLY don’t want to put him in kennels.

I know there is no quick fix but could anyone give me a few pointers….

By the way I do hope John hasn’t left the board for good I always enjoy reading his posts.

Thanks x

My male Dalmatian used to take me for walkies until my mum suggested using a halti which is just like a horses headcollar. The way it works is by giving the walker control of the dogs head so when you pull on the lead the dogs head follows which in turn makes the body follow. If you want to carry on with a harness you could get the halti harness. My mum uses these on her bullmastiffs and swears by them. You can get both of these products from your local petshop, hope it helps.

I agree. Our youngest cav would pull through the whole walk. We bought a alti at with a few days persistance she nolonger pulls. At easyer we're going to try and master the walking with a loose lead. Fingers crossed. LOL

hello, i have the same problem with my boxer she loves to pull and take me for a walk, i also have fond the halti headcollar to be very good.  if you dont mind spending a little extra then the dogmatic headcollar is much better ,because it is made out of leather, and you have to get the right size to fit your dog,so it doesnt move around the face or dig in. i can now take my 2 boxers out together and enjoy are walks.

www.dogmatic.org.uk.   tel. 0118 9448803

There's also been a lot of good reports about the Walkezee harness, i used a Stop/Pull harness from Kumfi until my girl was good on the lead.

I use harnesses on a dog when going from A to B (as you dont' have time to train then and it's tempting to just let a dog pull) and put aside sessions every day to train (ie clicker train or whatever) and found this really helps.

Lindsay
X

hello lindsay, I was just wondering if you had any problems with chafing under your dogs front legs with the harness.  I have had one about a week and under my dogs front legs is a little bit red eventhough the harness has cushions on it to stop chafing.  Does this mean i have not got the harness on right?  Grateful for  Any advice.

Hi Zach,

I have only used the Stop/Pull and never had any problems with chafing :)

Lindsay
X

I have just tried to order on line a dogmatic headcollar. It would not accept as the form to fill up wanted a start date for my switch card and my card does not give this information. I ended up phoning the order but the number has changed from the one you have quoted. The new number is 01652657922.

I have onlyjust noticed all the funny text not sue what is going on there sorry!!!

Yes i noticed that too.

Have you tried target training.  I had a similar problem with a dog I was given to lead train a few weeks ago.  It took me around 6 weeks to train him.

[link]http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?pid=448593;hlm=and;hl=target%20training[/link]

Kay

Edited, dont know why my links are not working at the moment, can you cut and paste, this might help. Hope it does :)

the alternative to the halti would be the gentle leader.  I personally prefer them as they do not tighten around the muzzle when they pull which means the dog can pant during the summer.  I did also find that the halti did ride up into my BC's eyes which is something the gentle leader doesnt do.  I swear by them and use them now only when we go into a crowded place and I need a little more control than normal.

Claire

I use the dogmatic on both my dogs it is worth paying that little extra, have used the halti but it does ride up into their eyes also the gentle leader didn't offer me the same control as a halti, which is why i went for the sturdier dogmatic.

Just thought that you were cussing :D

Seriously though, the different head collars fit different breeds, especially short nosed dogs like boxers struggle with some styles as they ride up in to the eyes. Please be aware that it is also still possible for a dog to pull on them, infact you can probably train a dog to pull on anything if you try hard enough and that there are some dogs who HATE these devices and will throw themselves around on the floor when you put them on, so there may be some aclimitisation needed. Personally I find liver cake or sausage a clicker and a spare afternoon work as well and are quite a lot cheeper!

i have found stopping whenever my dog pulled has stopped her pulling on the lead.  The first week of walks took 5 times the amount of time it should have taken, but with persistance it works.  If you NEVER allow ur dog to pull, it can be fixed in somewhere around 4 weeks, well thats the quickest time ive seen it done in.
I invested myself in a lead that clips around my waist so that i never subconsciously pulled the dog back, which in turn would encourage the dog to pull more, and everytime she started pulling, i jus stopped.  its a very tedious process for the first couple of weeks, but they start to get the idea.  my dog is now a pleasure to walk and i dont have to hear her choking on the end of the lead or make her wear a halti which is commonly misperceived has a muzzle which doesnt help with socialising to say the least!

hope that helps

I had to take my dog to training later on in his life as he was about to have an operation that would leave him deaf. He was attrocious on the lead, but the trainer suggested that if he starts pulling, the take 3 steps backwards and he would soon learn, I have to say that it worked.