Can someone please help! This is my first time, so here goes....ive got a lovely 18mth old springer, hes quite obedient, but.. he pulls terrible!! hes even made my hand bleed. Ive tried a slip lead, clicker & treats & a halti, the halti so far makes it easier but it rides up into his eyes & has made them have rough flacky skin around them! I have been reconmended a half check but his pulling is hurting my hands again. Can any one help? Has anyone else had this problem with the halti?

Yes halti doesnt work for my gsd try looking at some of the other headcollars. I like the dogmatic. Are you trying classes to help you with him too?.
Its really the training that you need a half check wont make a lot of difference imo.Have you tried stopping everytime he pulls and only moving when he stops, time consuming I know but it does make a difference. Another method is to change direction when he pulls so you are going away from him, also take titbits or interesting toy with you to keep his attention.
Also practice the watch command have something he likes in your hand bring your hand up towards you face get his attention telling him to watch. When he does give him the titbit, repeat until he has his full attention on you.
This should help when out walking 
I hope some of that makes sense and I am sure other more experienced people will be along to help

http://www.learningaboutdogs.com/acatalog/walktogdvd.html

This might help

Excellent advice/tips from furriefriends.

I have a Dogmatic for one of my girls which works very well.  I was recently recommended a specifically designed halti type lead for gundogs - http://www.harveydanielsonline.co.uk/ourshop/cat_292086-Gundog-Halters.html - bought one for my youngster who pulls occasionally and the difference is instant without the constant need to keep trying to scratch it off!  it is rounded so hopefully won't cause any coat/skin damage.  Not expensive so well worth a try.

Thank you both for your help, I have tried toys  & treats, the toy helps with his ova excitement with otha dogs. I will look into the dogmatic. Thanks again. 

I have seen that all in one slip lead/halter used to good effect on a large hound crossbreed in the high street walkign the kids hoem from school.

you need to exert dominance over the dog. At the moment the dog is taking you for a walk and you are resisting so he pulls harder and eventually you get the message and follow him, but you are hard work. See books by Jan Fennel, the Dog Listener, put into place the examples of dominant behaviour that she suggests, feeding ritual etc. Then once YOU are the dominant dog in the pack your dog will follow you wherever you go. Ceaser Milan says pretty much the same thing and calls it being the pack leader. It is all about leadership. Your pack needs a leader, it has to be you or the dog and at the moment it seems as if it is the dog. Be dominant, become pack leader and your dog will be the follower.

> Your pack needs a leader, it has to be you or the dog and at the moment it seems as if it is the dog. Be dominant, become pack leader and your dog will be the follower.

Oh dear, do people still believe that out-dated, thoroughly debunked nonsense?

Dominance myth.

Debunked.

sorry marvsdad but you are wrong, no amount of walking through doors before your dog or eating a biscuit before you feed them is going to teach the dog a solid heel or loose leash walking, thats just magical thinking, you will get much better results by actually training the dog :)
I found this article really helpful when training my lurcher to walk nice as a youngster
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002/pulling.htm

I am really enjoying reading all your advise, different people have different views & every dog is deffinatly different! I have been to a dog trainer to help me train Bilbo, but unfortanatly he was a star pupil & didnt put a paw wrong (trainer couldnt see his faults). Now his only problem really is his pulling. Im going to try some of the things you guys have sugested, I ll let you know how we get on. Thanks again. 

Black Dog Head Halter

http://www.agilitywarehouse.com/product_detail.cfm?id=960

The Canny Collar

http://www.cannyco.co.uk/index.php

The Dogalter

http://www.kumfi.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=1&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26

The DogMatic

http://www.dogmatic.org.uk/

Gentle Controller

http://www.gencon-allin1.co.uk/

The Gentle Leader

http://canineconcepts.co.uk/item--The-Gentle-Leader--gentlelead

The Halti

http://www.companyofanimals.co.uk/halti.php

The K9 Bridle

http://k9bridle.com/

The Newtrix Easy Way

http://www.dogpartnership.co.uk/equipment.htm

>Be dominant, become pack leader

What a total load of old codswallop.

>you need to exert dominance over the dog

Nope - your dog actually knows that you're not a dog.

>Your pack needs a leader, it has to be you

This fallacy went out with the ark didn't it?

i could not disagree more. What many people are suggesting to this owner are ways of managing the symptom of the problem, haltie collars etc but not adressing the cause. My dogs do not pull, why should they? they want to be walking alongside me. My 4 year old grandson takes the lead when my boxer goes for a walk and the dog behaves impeccably. Normal lead, not a haltie of corrective collar in sight.

Codswallop. Fallacy. how rude! you carry on struggling to control your dogs but no need to atke that tone with someone who has an opinion that differs from your own.

Pookin. Correct, the way that you behave with your dog is not on its own going to teach your dog specific behaviour like leash walking without pulling and we all need to train our dogs. i think you have missed the point. i am saying that it is much easier to teach a dog to behave if he accepts you as his leader rather than the other way round.

lisa, You seem like a sensible person who will take on board the advice given by all and make up your own mind. The quality and tone of reply to my suggestion probably tells you all you need to know about the person(s) writing it! All i can say is that these methods have worked for my dogs over the years. i would prefer to have a dog who behaves well and does not want to pull on the lead than purchase equipment that treats the behaviour. My latest puppy, a DDB is 9 months old and already 50kg and i could not have him misbeahaving or pulling on the lead. He is the most laid back dog and the best behaved in his ringcraft class. Did i have to train him to walk correctly on a lead? of course i did. i just suspect it was a lot easier with a dog who was stood there waiting to be shown the correct way by me rather than with a dog trying to drag me off somewhere he wanted to go. Good luck with whichever method you try and i hope that you find one that works for you.

My oldest dog was a puller and lunger - he is a terrier type mongrel from a rescue home and his pulling habit had obviously never been addressed.  I wanted him to learn that by staying by my side when on the lead and for road walks that we would get where we were going much faster and it's fun to be with me as he'd get treats when he was least expecting them.

All good in theory BUT I struggled to keep him near me, practise a loose lead, mark his good behaviour, and find the treats with only 2 hands!

I opted for a Mikki training harness and within a few short weeks we were back to a normal collar and lead.  I continued to use the walk-rite from time to time over his first year, in high risk lunge spots (like walking through town pigeons) but genuinely have never needed to after that.  You also don't use this type of harness all the time - just short periods on each walk.

I made sure my next dog never actually learnt to pull and was diligent in this respect so he's always just had a collar and lead.  My youngest is somewhere in between, he will lean into the lead and he's quite heavy, and I know I need to do a bit more 1:1 with him but I can loop his lead around me for hands free treat feeding!:)

marvsdad,

Do you really believe this is purely a matter of leadership?

Most dogs pull because they want to get to the next place as soon as they can, and of course the law that makes most of us instantly oppose a resisting force that is holding us back (a lead and collar or harness in this case).

Then one has to consider breeds and types, some are more excitable with less impulse control and a stronger will/desire to get to where they think they need to be.

So, different dogs, different individuals some with more or less impulse control. Finally the trainer, some get in very early and have excellent timing and an eye for dog body language. Others are not so gifted. You may be the gifted type :)

I hope you might agree that the issue is rather less black and white than you present.

not directed specifically to anyone

My 4 year old grandson takes the lead when my boxer goes for a walk and the dog behaves impeccably.

Sounds a little risky!

Sounds like it but it is not. I didn't think that i needed to say that it is on the field at the back of his house and not walking along the pavement next to a road.

>I didn't think that i needed to say that it is on the field at the back of his house and not walking along the pavement next to a road.

When using only the written word it's very important to be especially careful to avoid any possible misunderstandings; in this respect the more information the better. The writer should not assume the reader is telepathic! ;-) :-D

No. As the post says it is not purely a matter of anything. What i am saying is that if your dog looks to you as it's natural leader then it makes life a heck of a lot easier to train them to do anything. Nothing in life is black and white, let alone dogs and i did not suggest this. if you are ill you can control the symptom by taking a tablet (halti collar). The cause of the problem is still there you are just treating the symptom. If there is a way of beahaving which removes or helps with the cause of the problem then you may not need to treat the symptom by taking a tablet (halti collar). Is this not a good way to go? i think it is.

However it's often the best practice to treat the symptom at the same time as addressing the cause; you take painkillers while resting the sprained ankle to allow healing ...

marvsdad,

While I would agree that an air of confidence is likely to help in any training situation, I think that dogs do things because it makes sense to them- it is rewarding, beneficial and so on (granted they will also try to avoid unpleasant/punishing things). I am just not convinced that dogs go around thinking "oh, you are a natural leader I'm just going to do everything you tell me, whereas X over there is a follower, so I'll ignore him/her and do what I like". Surely what you are describing is competent training and guidance, so that the dog understands what is required, makes the right associations and is given the right motivation to perform.

I do not underestimate the respect that an air of authority can command in many living creatures, however to make 'leadership' the core of your explanation is, I think, misleading.

By the way, I've never before come across lead pulling being described as analogous to an illness. I think its natural and something that we have to train dogs not to do.

[Mod edited]

Apologies if I missed your point Marvsdad but in your post that I replied to you didn't mention training at all nor that you thought being the leader makes it easier to train. It was this that gave me the impression you believed being 'leader' alone would cure lead pulling

>put into place the examples of dominant behaviour that she suggests, feeding ritual etc. Then once YOU are the dominant dog in the pack your dog will follow you wherever you go

> if you are ill you can control the symptom by taking a tablet (halti collar). The cause of the problem is still there you are just treating the symptom.

Sometimes you use soemthing to help with the symptoms until a cure is exacted.

>you carry on struggling to control your dogs but no need to atke that tone with someone who has an opinion that differs from your own. 

I am not struggling to control my dogs, so not sure where your comment comes from.

Your very first comment was that you need to exert dominance over the dog.

As already pointed out by Jeangenie in an earlier post - even giving links as examples, this dominance myth has been discussed over and over and over.  That is not being rude, it is stating fact.

> I was recently recommended a specifically designed halti type lead for gundogs - [url=http://www.harveydanielsonline.co.uk/ourshop/cat_292086-Gundog-Halters.html" rel=nofollow]http://www.harveydanielsonline.co.uk/ourshop/cat_292086-Gundog-Halters.html[/url] - bought one for my youngster who pulls occasionally and the difference is instant without the constant need to keep trying to scratch it off!  it is rounded so hopefully won't cause any coat/skin damage.  Not expensive so well worth a try.

just got one of these and so far very impressed.  she walks nicely most of time- odd thing causes a mad lunge and this has (so far) restored control during those mad moments.  have tried other head collars and she tends to have hystercial fits every few feet trying to get them off where as this she accepted very well.

My Viz bitch was terrible for pulling on the lead, I went to a trainer (same breed) and within 5 minutes she was walking to heel and touch wood so far we haven't looked back.... she is now such a lovely dog to walk.

I don't think the type of collar / lead you use makes an ounce of difference to a strong dog.....

Amazing that a simple gundog slip lead tied into a figure of eight is now a commercial piece of equipment?

You can do this yourself with your own lead, the same way as you can make your own temporary harness with a long lead. ;)

So, if it is the dominance 'method' that has worked, that must mean your four yr old grandson has 'exerted dominance' over the dog??!!

It is such an outdated theory, can you tell me, if it is so successful then why is it seen so very little amongst competitors in dog sports?! We (yes that includes me) manage to train our dogs to a very high level from positive reward based methods. Go figure.