Moose has been so good on the lead but over the last few weeks she seems to have regressed but not all the time. She is very good walking to the heel with a lot of encouragement. We make sure we keep talking to her when to keep her interest in it. When she is in an open space however (still on the lead)she gets down on her haunches and sets off like a missile. It is when she sees anything that moves or looks like a bird or a small animal. She can spot something that is right across a field and she will be off. She is currently wearing a harness and is on an extendy lead. I have just been out a brought a halti in the hope that this will help matters.

We have incresed the amount of walking she is having (upto 1 to 1 1/2 a day) but this seems to have heightened the problem .

She is fine when she can be let off the lead(when there are no other creatures about (dogs and humans). She is getting very good on the recall 80% trustworthy. Has anybody any thoughts that may help in calming her down. She is an extremely well built and strong for a Lab bitch, absolutely nothing like my other two almost delicate girls !

Any advice would be extremely welcome as we are both suffering from aches and strains in restraining her when she makes her bid for freedom !
Thanks
Lucy

Hudson is a 9 month old Malamute pulling machine! We have tried heel work , halti and a harness . Yesterday we began something new that I read about ...very simple method :

Walk off with your dog ...as soon as the dog pulls at the lead , reverse ..walk backwards until the dog rejoins you. As soon as she rejoins ,,,walk forward again.

I have to warn you ...you look a complete idiot :D But it does seem to work ...even Hudson is beginning to get the idea after 2 walks ..he hates us walking backwards and will whine and moan about it .....fingers crossed that he twigs soon the pulling = backwards ;)

We can but hope!

Melody

Hi

We have already being trying that and she has got the hang of walking to the heel when just walking. It is the problem in the open spaces that is the real problem. We have tried everything from voice control to the reversing and walking backwards method. She just seems to get the devil inside her sometimes and the abilty to listen to voice commands ( goes totally deaf and dumb)and checking commands with the lead goes straight out of the window. We might as well be speaking in double dutch to her!

Lucy

I've just come back from doing a bit of training with Harvey as he's slipped a bit on his heelwork on lead. Whenever he starts to get ahead of me, I whip round and walk the other way. He will either come round with me or get to the end of the lead. He then learns that he has to keep an eye on me as he doesn't know where I am going.

I would start getting her steady around other animals and birds which will solve the suddenly going into fifth gear on lead! I made sure Harvey had a very solid sitstay and then introduced distractions for him. If he moved his arse, I would put him back down in the sit without saying a word. I then rolled everything past him - balls, dogs (not actually rolled but let them run), people jogging past, rabbits (still working on that one!) and crows. Started with balls as I had more control. Then when he started getting a bit more advanced on that, walked him to heel on the lead doing the above. Now, when he is in the heel position, he knows not to move when something dashes in front of him. It works pretty much all of the time but I'm doing a bit more with him at the moment to get him very steady.

Hope this makes sense!

Helen

I went and got a halti last week and we have been trying to get Moose used to wearing it and it is impossible. We have spent five or six times, sitting on the floor with her with calming words of encouragement, ignoring her when we put it on, treats to try and get her attention away from the fact she has it on, taking her out and trying it on half way through a walk, but she goes absolutely wild and get both paws vigourously clawing it off her face. I am afraid she will hurt herself as she is so insistant in getting the thing off. I even thought about putting it on myself and showing her that it was alright and would hurt her !:D

Has anybody got any suggestions advice on how to get her used to it ? It is something we would like to persevere with as her pulling when she sees any other dog is getting really silly now and we need to do something before she hurts herself or us.

Thanks

Lucy

Lucy

Lucy

HIi Lucy
I,ve been using a halti with murphy on and off ( more on than off !! )he,s 10mths and he hates it . I find it best to just put it on for the walk and then take it straight off -while he's walking he can't claw at it and it comes off as we reach the gate otherwise his snout is all over my legs trying to get it off . like I say he hates it but I feel more in control when he has it on especially around other dogs
good luck
liz

Hi Liz

We have tried but she just fights with it and we can't encourage her to walk with it on. We have tried just to have it on and use the Harness but no success. :(

Lucy

You just have to persevere with the halti .....keep putting it on and keep on stopping him clawing it ..he WILL get used to it.

:)

Melody

HI
like melody says he will get used to it -Ikeep his collar ( half check )and lead on and i have a finer lead attached to the halti ,then if ( big if !!) he doesn't pull it goes slack .if you don,t attach anything to the halti then it just hangs ( if that makes sense )so far thats my best method but I'm open to suggestions as well
liz

I personally prefer the gentle leader by Canac. It has a sliding clip on the dangly bit that goes on the nose. You adjust the nose piece to fit round the muzzle, just above the lips, and snap the clip on the hanging loop so that the bit on the muzzle stays snugly in place. this prevents the riding up often associated with the Halti, and the ability of the dog to pull the nose part off by rubbing.

At our training club we have found more people getting on with this head collar than the Halti. It also has softer webbing with no sharp edge so that less muzzle marking happens.

Also there is enough loop under the muzzle that you c an attach th lead to the halter and the chain on a half slip collar, giving extra safety, without impeding the action of the headcollar!

Thanks for all your help but we had a bright idea last night on our walk. We decided to transfer Mins rope choker collar to Moose. Min is quite happy to walk glued to our legs at all time with out a lead on, she is a well behaved girl !! She was a model puppy to train ! We initially tried Moose on this as a pup and she continuely strangled herself with it so that is why we went to the harness.

She initially had a little niggle but settled down to one of her best walks ever! She even when confronted with another dog, with retstraint on the lead and voice commands had a semi stay but ' I still want to go and say hello ' but she manged to stay and sit and then walked past without too much pulling and lots of encouragment and praise form me. I think we may be on to a winner here. I will see how it goes over the next few days and hopefully we may have cracked the problem !!

Lucy

Great - lets hope that is the solution :)

Fiona
x x x

well done
ps what breed is moose I,m presuming something fairly large and how old ??--just being nosey
liz

She is an Chocolate Lab , one years old !!

Lucy

Well I took my Black Lab on when he was 10 months old and he'd never been taught to walk on the lead, so he was a pulling machine too! He now though has progressed, and is now 2½ yrs old, but he still has days when he just pulls all the time. Other days he is really good and will walk to heal off the lead no probs! The thing is with Labs, is they love chasing things, and retrieving them if they can! (Hence their name!). I have 2 haltis (nice to have a spare one while one is in the wash!) and I think they are great, my dog does still to try and pull, but because you have their head, they cannot pull you as much, and therefore they are very easy to control.