After months of shamefully relying on the gentle leader to get to the park with all my limbs still attached I decided in mid november to teach Roxy how to walk nicely on lead.

Now, whilst she's a geal berrer times better, there are times when it takes AGES to get 20 feet so I'm really after come reassurance that this will come.

After failing miserably using a food lure (the senario became Roxy pulls forward, I stop, lure her back she gets treat, she pulls forward, I stop, lure her back - you get the picture. Basically rewarding her for pulling. :rolleyes:)

The technique I'm using now is to stop immediately the lead is tight and as soon as it's slack walk forward again. We have great days. And then dreadful days. And then truely dreadful days. I don't want her nose glued to my hip, but I do want a slack lead.

If I have the right food in the garden, house and increasingly over the park she'll heel perfectly, and ignore other stimulus, but no food = little attention.

Am I doing this right? (just want to add that we do road walking - and consequently lead work- for about 10-15 minutes everyday)

Hi
You are already making progress, so you know that what you are doing is working!  YOU have to be the consistant one when Roxy has an 'off' day and tries all the tricks in the book to test your patience! Having got so far, do NOT give up now..........Roxy has learnt that pulling brings its own reward in the past, so it is going to take a long time of being 100% consistant to undo the months/years of successful pulling.  You are not teaching a 12 week old pup who has a blank canvas and never been on a leash before, so it will be harder and it will take longer. Your resolve to sort this problem has to be absolute!

You have discovered the pitfalls of using food as a bribe; by all means use the titbit to lure her back to your side but then don't deliver the treat until she has walked a couple of steps on a loose leash.  Then you build up, adding a couple of steps at a time.  Alternatively, if you don't want to use food the walk itself has to become the reward.....you use the same principles, dog pulls, you stop, wait for the dog to decide to come back to you and focus on you before moving forwards (the reward).

Also, you may want to consider using the gentle leader (your management tool) when you need to get from A to B in a set period of time - ie to go to the park to give her a free run.  Then, set aside some extra time in the day for the loose lead walking....then it doesn't matter one hoot whether you get 2 yards, 20 yards or 200 yards!  :-)  Also, two or three 5 mins sessions a day may be more beneficial at first rather than one 15 mins one.

Good luck and keep persevering!  Your'e doing great!

It will be worth it! My dog's best buddy is going through this now. He's a Lab X ESS and was walked on a head collar until he was 1 1/2 YO. The woman joined my training club this autumn and has taken the plunge to get him to walk nicely. She had days when she was in tears but you should see him now. He is about 400% better; it's been a hard 3-4 months but she has stuck with it and he is improving.

I've always made a point of doing one road walk a day to practice lead manners. So it's not just the 5-10 minutes to get to the off lead area (which he also had to do), I do 30-45 every day on the streets.

So here it is, the reassurance, if you are consistent and don't let her pull she will get better.

Now, whilst she's a geal berrer times better, there are times when it takes AGES to get 20 feet so I'm really after come reassurance that this will come.

After failing miserably using a food lure (the senario became Roxy pulls forward, I stop, lure her back she gets treat, she pulls forward, I stop, lure her back - you get the picture. Basically rewarding her for pulling. )

The technique I'm using now is to stop immediately the lead is tight and as soon as it's slack walk forward again. We have great days. And then dreadful days. And then truely dreadful days. I don't want her nose glued to my hip, but I do want a slack lead.

If I have the right food in the garden, house and increasingly over the park she'll heel perfectly, and ignore other stimulus, but no food = little attention.

Am I doing this right? (just want to add that we do road walking - and consequently lead work- for about 10-15 minutes everyday)

With everyday loose lead walking, I tend to do 2 things:

Use a harness (Kumfi stop/pull) for days when one has to get from A to B and no time to train: this takes the pressure off.

and, set up situations for teaching loose lead where I have a 6ft lead and simply do lots of direction changing. I dont jerk the dog at all, that's unfair, but if you do this lots, and reward for dog being in the right position, you will find the dog does pay much more attention. It's much easier to to set up for success, and not try to train the dog when she has been on her own most of the day (for example if the owner is at work) and then her one thing is to get to her walk - this dog will be hard to train, much better to train in the park and on the way back for a long time until the dog really gets it, then try on the way....sorry, sidetracking...!!

Lastly I use being let off the lead for the run as a reward, so ask for a few steps of good "loose lead" before dog gets told "good!" and is let off immediately (no sit, just let off straight away as the reward).

She will get better... keep at it :) Sounds as if you are doing very well...

Lindsay
x

You're doing exactly what I did with Remy for a long, long time - yes, the same mistake with the pull-treat as well!  It has worked eventually, after months (no, make that a couple of years, but he is extremely stubborn - he's a born puller, I've been training this since 7 weeks old :rolleyes:), it suddenly clicked.  He's 1000 times better, but he does still have off days.

Something that made a leap in progress was a Walkezee harness (google it!) - it seemed to get through to him what I wanted a little clearer.  From there we moved on to the halti harness, then to a collar; every now and then I have to go back to the halti for a little while to reinforce it but it has worked.  Bear in mind how determined he is to pull though, and you're having some great days even though you only started training it in November - I reckon Roxy'll be walking nicely in a much, much shorter time frame than Remy :D

Edit to say:  if he's on a really determined day, I'll halti him and if he goes to pull we go back a few steps to really reinforce the idea that pulling won't work, it'll only get him going backwards!

I am at present lead training my new 5 m old puppy seperately to my two older girls.

I am using a training lead holding it in my right hand across my body holding it in a loop through my fingers loosely for slack I walk puppy on the left using close and talking to her giving encouragement for good behaviour and when she begins to pull forward I change direction releasing the slack loop to stop the pull then puppy runs up to my heel it is working very quickly she is catching on fast although you do look a little strange walking in different directions but who cares I am training my dog.!

I might add my other dogs walk perfectly to heel but it takes time and perseverence stick with it.

Roni

Hi Roni

Nice to have you back.

I have to say that Beardies, which we both have, can be a nightmare if not controlled properly.  I won't drone on but my last baby girl now 12 months was a pleasure to walk from about 4 to eight months.  She responded to all the treats and corrections and was a pleasure to take out.  At 9 months it all went out of the window and she turned into a Beardie Blizzard.  Rushing ahead climbing over the other dogs and hanging herself at the end of the lead.

It has taken three embarrassing months to bring her back to half way as good as she used to be.  I have spent 20 mins regularly changing direction to stop her lunging at dogs, in a happy way but boy does it look intimidating, hanging herself and thoroughly being a pain on a walk that should take 5mins. 

Just stick with it you will get there.  Have to say I find it very embarrassing when people say 'you should watch It's me or the dog, she's very good' when I'm out walking my new show girl :rolleyes:

Lol!  Don't, I felt a right fool this morning taking Soli to the vet - I actually had to wait outside until we were called in because there were cats near the door (in boxes, but makes no nevermind to her!) and I just couldn't keep her still.  Everyone had a giggle as I struggled into the vet's office :rolleyes:

[link]http://www.learningaboutdogs.com/acatalog/petwwm.html[/link]

My dog is quite good at walking nicely on the lead when she is with' just me', but throw the OH and kids into the walk and she pulls like a mad thing, i guess it must just be the excitement as she will do the same if we walk into town etc.but it drives us mad and she pulls so much she makes a really horrible choking noise which can't be good for her. I have tried all the ways I have got her to walk well with me but she is just too darn excited with others around. So I was thinking about trying a Halti but I am a bit confused as to whether I need a harness or a collar (i have seen both on the net). She's only a small dog(border terrier) so not sure if anybody can help me work out which to get,