Hi!

I've got a 6 month old GR bitch that has started lunging. It is mainly at other dogs, to greet them or play but I REALLY want her to stop this painful and embarrassing behaviour.
She has become quite boisterous over the past month and her weight and strength are making it very unpleasant indeed. I just want her to be able to go and say hello to a dog in a more civilized way. The worst is at ringcraft and I feel I spent my time shouting and pulling on the lead which makes me look like a fool and leaves me feeling frustrated, embarrassed and altogether feeling rather down. How do you stop this sort of behaviour?
She will be the same if someone stops to stroke her in the street too. Apart from that, her lead walk is not too bad at all, it's not as if she always pulls me around. It's just when she sees something she really wants to go and play with. I am currently using a half-checked collar but am thinking of getting a halter (really can't stand any pulling on the lead - and my older boy is perfect with it). Still, it's the whole jumping and pulling that I want to stop more importantly.

We get this quite often when he wants to say hello to a dog. I put him back on the lead when around other dogs otherwise he will charge at them, though only to say hello. They way he does it can and has frightened a few dogs.
I put him on a dogmatic and everytime he starts to do this we walk in the opposite direction for a bit and then head towards the dog. If he does it again we walk away. It does work, though there are times when we don't greet the dog.  though like you at ringcraft we get the same ordeal when we first walk in.

I'd be interested in how OP deal with this also.
I have tried cheese or another high end treat on his nose, but the other dogs are just too appealing and the cheese goes out the window.

My golden used to do this and I used a Halti Harness which helped, didn't stop it completely but I had more control, we don't use it anymore but sometimes when he gets a bit hyper, I double the lead around him so that part of it hangs around his chest and that seems to prevent him from pulling, maybe give it a try.  

The problem is with goldens they just want to say hello to everyone and every dog, they are so sociable :)  but I understand completley how you don't want to be pulled it really takes the fun out of walking. I went through a stage where I dreaded every walk

I've had the same problem - Buster's over-entushiastic approach to greeting people and occasionally dogs!!!

I've allready posted about the method I've been using with great results here.
As well as this I don't ever pull him or shout at him as it only makes him either confused about what I want him to do (and therefore non-responsive) or even more exited. Staying calm is half the battle, allthough that is much easier said than done when you know your dog is going to jump around like complete idiot and humiliate you in the proccess!

I use a halti,  a half check collar and a harness (3 seprate leads), I use the harness to take the 'strain' of any pulling, the halti is just used to steer Busters head ie- if there is a chance of him doing a 'walk-by-slobber' on a passing strangers clothes!
The collar is just in case I need full controll, he has in the past got so exited he span in circles,in that sort of case I would not use the halti for fear of causing damage to his neck, with just a harness he is free to spin, so the collar means I can keep him in a straigt line!

you wouldn't be in danger of hurting his neck with a halti harness this is different than the halti collar which fits around neck and nose, the harness fits around the body.

I use a body harness, but that gives me no controll over his head. He slobbers A LOT, especially while sniffing about on a walk, the harness is great for steering his head if we are passing somebody and he wants to sniff them, even with the calmest passing sniff he will manage to get huge amounts of drool all over peoples legs/arms (at the least they look like they've been ambushed by an army of slugs!), luckily the few occasions he has done this the people have not been offended in the slightest, but it's not something I want to allow him to do, so I prefer to have some sort of head control there :)

On top of that it's amazing how many people are completely frightned wit-less if he turns his head to sniff them/look at them, if any other dog did that they wouldn't bother, but when they see Busters big bonce facing them, they don't like it. He's learnt the word 'walk' to mean 'walk on a slack lead', now I'm adding it to mean, 'walk on a slack with with head facing front', he's picking this up really well, but occasionally somebody is just too tempting not too look at and with the halti I can steer his head away from them. It's never something I've ever had to do before, nobody botherd if my last dog sniffed them/looked at them on the way past, but poor Buster gets judged as a scarey monster :(

i have the same problem suejaw. a large powerful dog who just wants to say hi to everyone and anyone, but especially other dogs, he adores them. i also use the dogmatic if we are walking in high dog density areas, at home we stay in a very quiet area so its collar only with dogmatic in pocket!! he walks beautifully until he sees another dog, then starts getting excited but still wlaking ok, then with about 4 feet to go, will suddenly launch! nothing i can do or say is more exciting than another dog, he is a very food orientated dog but would rather say hello to a dog.
its gotten to the point i give other dogs a wide berth if i can help it, especially small dogs, he often squashes them in his excitement! arrrghhhhhh!
ive tried the walkaway if he gets too excited, but then the wee bugger will walk backwards so he can still see the dog! i struggle with this, as it is difficult to turn his head around, so i will watch with interest any tips or advise for this.

I know what you mean about them lunging to greet people. I have two GRs and when one was 6-12months old i found it very difficult to walk them both on my own...due to the younger one wanting to speak to all and sundry.I got a nose halti for her and it was perfect..a new dog on the end of the lead. Other than that i would put my hand in her half check and hold that if someone was coming close and that worked very well too,i had full control that way.
She still gets excited now but we dont need the halti anymore...i still hold the half check if i need too.

Well after a couple of weeks with the Halti... she hates it! she spends the whole walk with her head down and brushing against the walls. She'll eventually get sort of used to it in the end but only if she can brush the walls. This habit had started annoying me before, she just won't walk close to me and keeps walking away from me even if she's not actually pulling forward. The halti has reduced the pulling so i struggle less, but it's still not perfect. And when we come close to other dogs (like in the vet's lobby) she'll wriggle and pull and look like a wild animal caught in a net! Pff, still some way to go!

Hiya,

Lots of dogs dislike the halti as they tend to ride into the eyes.  I've found the Dogmatic and Gentle leader to generally be much better than the halti.  It might save you some nose surfing!