I am having some problems with my puppy.  I have followed Ian Dunbar's instructions but she is still pulling on the lead.  I bought a Halti but she still pulls and I'm worried she'll hurt herself.  She also scratches at her face to try to get it off.

When I let her off lead, sometimes she runs off after other dogs and won't come back unless I go and get her.  She is not interested in food lures if there is another dog to play with.   She also runs up and sticks her nose in children's faces, which frightens me (and them) half to death.  I have thought about long lines, but none of my puppy training books explain how to use them properly.  I read this article http://www.petbehaviourcentre.com/us/us_articles/us_longline.htm and it says your dog must know 'wait' and 'change direction' before you can use a long line.  My dog only knows wait combined with sit (as taught at puppy training class) and doesn't know change direction at all.  I don't even know how to teach it. 

Puppy classes have now finished until September when she will start the Bronze Good Citizen.  I have got three books (Before and After Getting Your Puppy - Dunbar, The Perfect Puppy - Bailey and The Culture Clash - Donaldson) but none of them seem to have much detail about this.

I don't know what to do.  Would it be worth employing a private dog trainer to help me?  Can anybody recommend a good book, especially one dealing with pulling and/or recall?  I am aware that my pup is at a critical age and my failure to know what to do could lead to long term problems. 

I need step-by-step instructions with follow up if I don't understand or something doesn't work properly, and I know its not reasonable to expect that on here, so if you can suggest anywhere off site where I could get this help I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

Alice

Okay let's deal with lead pulling first. How long have you been using the Halti? Virtually all dogs do try to get it off to start with, it does take time for them to get used to it, with plenty of praise and encouragement. Also you could try a more comfortable head collar as the Halti isn't very nice to wear compared to many others -personally I have used gentle leaders which are a lot softer, but there are many others as well.

Now my personal experience with 3 different dogs that I used headcollars on was that eventually they simply stopped pulling and they no longer needed to use a headcollar. They simply got into the habit of not pulling after a while -but yes they pulled on the headcollar as well to start with. (I can vividly remember being at LKA December last year with my Rio, walking around the show looking at the stalls, I used a headcollar to start with but I kept running into friends who wanted to meet her and I thought it looked bad with the headcollar so I took it off. I can honestly say that  could NOT hold her at all without it, and she was only 8 months old and only about 18 kgs. She pulled that much. Today she doesn't need a headcollar at all.)

The key is to not allow pulling and to not pull back. If I was you I'd persevere with the headcollar for a while. There are other kind ways to stop pulling but it's a lot more hard work, but if you want I can send you details by PM or e-mail.

There has been some very good info on here about this in behaviour. I got lots of help when my young dog was doing this kind of thing.
I found i had to train my dog to be bomb proof against distraction to stop him running off after someone playing ball, or any young kids who might want to play with his ball (sometimes they did, reinforcing his pleasure in this naughtiness) etc. he is much better now, but i still put him on lead when distraction is high.
I trained him at home by throwing toys, and making him leave them and come back to me. Then getting memebrs of the family to knock the door and doing a recall (the long line enforces the recall, if he doesn't come straight away, you can give a little tug to remind), then people and toys as distraction. I then took all this circus to the local park and did it all there with the long line.
He is much improved, but you have to remember that every time you train your dog to do things close to you away from all distraction that is only the first step, they also have to be trained when there are distractions, at a distance and also in different environments. I didn't realise the extent of this at first.
Also, when you are out, try to be rather more interesting than the other dogs etc, you can play with the dog as a reward as well as treats, to keep attention.

People will give you plenty of help..and you have the information already in the books...

Just remember pups are like toddlers..you teach them..but they don't become adult straight away. Training takes time and patience.  Then when you think you have got there  suddenly you reach the teenages stage! Like kids they learn and also they develop maturity and reliability over time. Try to relax and enjoy the puppy age because it passes so fast... and enjoy the training.

Not sure how old your puppy is but I think you are going to have a great dog eventually as you are trying hard to do all the right things :)j

It may hlep to get some one to one training, as if you are not used to training it can sometimes seem full of confusing ideas..try here:

http://www.apdt.co.uk/index2.htm to see if there are any one to one trainers near to you :)j

Hth and good luck

Lindsay
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