I have a ckcs.  A small dog.  She pulls like mad on the lead.  Brilliant at puppy classes.  Not food or toy motivated.  Tried halti, harness, choke, normal lead over the 12 months that we have had her.  Nothing working.  Have had her since she was 8 wks.  I feel like an idiot taking her out.  Thought she may have settled now she is one but she is just the same.  My patience has run out.  I stop and turn round and all sorts.  Think the neighbours must think I'm mad.

Sure someone will come along soon to help.  Unfortunately I too have the same problem but with a 6 year old dog.  Ashamed to say that we gave up in the end and wait until she really just gets tired :(  I strongly suggest you don't follow my example (looks like you're not seeing as you have posted here :)  Our other dog we managed to train with no problems.  Laziness on our part means lead walks are rarely enjoyable.
Good luck, you'll find good advice on here (just not from me I'm afraid)

[link]http://www.learningaboutdogs.com/shop/books&vids.html[/link]

The Walk With Me booklet by Kay Laurence is brilliant.  If you follow the instructions you will not have a problem. Dogs only pull because we let them!

oooh thanks tohme I'm going to order that book, mine don't really pull that much but it would be nice to find out how to get the dogs walking completely to heal ALL of the time.  :D :D

Clair

Hi,

Have you persevered with any of the leading implements that you have mentioned that you have tried? I have also come across this problem with training/walking my dog, except he is a Briard who weighs 45 Kilos!

Choke, or check chains as they are now called are of no use when training IMO, all they succeed in doing is choking the dog until it gasps for breath and defeats the object of the excercise. You need your dog to walk to heel because it wants to for whatever reason not because it risks strangulation if it doesn't. Have you taken her to training classes? or sought professional advice?

I personally use a Halti for my boy now, because it leads his head and seeing as I am in control of where his head now goes by leading, his body (therefore the weight)  follows in the same direction :) Not all dogs take to it straight away and my boy took a good 2 months of regular (twice a day) use, to understand it and comply with it. He is a very stubborn dog by nature and not a breed for the novice owner, albeit I have a lot of experience with dogs, if I can do it with him through sheer consistancy then anyone can do it!

HTH

I have tried a halti and a dogmatic with my lab, and he was just so unhappy with them...:( :( :(. He kept pawing at his face and rubbing his head in the ground. When trying the halti, he ended up with a haemorrage behind the eye - may have been co-incidence, but I stopped using it. We now use a Walk-eezie harness - he's still a bit pully but he's happy!

However, going back to the original question, I had 2 Cavaliers as my first dogs - I never did succed in teaching them to walk to heel, and eventually we moved to an area where there were foot-paths near the house, so they were mainly off-lead. My 2 labs are so much more biddable than they were - thank goodness. So much bigger, though........

I do all my heelwork/walking to heel training at home off lead in the weeks before the puppy can go out for walks, it is a lot harder than using the normal constraint method with the lead attached, but when the basics are taught popping the lead on causes a lot less problems & the dog walks to heel because it wants to be there, I do use treats & toys to keep the puppy's attention

I was at the end of my tether yesterday due to the fact I have a 4 month old steam train, and not a black lab!  Well, you would think he was because he pulls like one!  He was really good when we first started walking him, but as he's got older and more confident (and oh boy is he confident!) he just wants to march out in front of me and pull me along.  The dog trainer suggested a check chain - disaster.  It worked for 2 days, then I was nearly choking the poor dog yesterday, and I swear it made him pull harder.  A couple of friends suggested a halti, and I was straight down to Pets at Home last night with Ozzy, so I could get the right size.  And I must say, I know they're not always great, but they were really helpful.

So, I got him home and put it on and took him straight out for a walk.  He doesn't like it much, but oh boy what a difference.  He just can't pull, it's amazing.  I just hope it lasts.  I actually tricked him this morning - I put the halti on, but actually attached the lead to his collar, and he did not pull at all!  My advice would be to perservere with the halti.  I could confidently let my 4 year old hold the lead now - yesterday, he would have pulled him over.

I was going to post on here tonight to see if anyone knows any adverse effects of using a halti?  I read a post about a dog having a haemorage (can't spell it sorry!) in the eye which didn't sound good - any other words of warning?

Regards,

Julia

Generally speaking they are very useful; however i do believe that some dogs just will never get used to them no matter how carefully they are introduced (this tends to be more physically sensitive breeds) and also, the headcollar must never be used to actually jerk the dog back because that could harm the dog.

Lindsay
X

gentle controllers (not leaders) are fantastic headcollars!

We gave up and now use a halti to go to the woods although Ella will walk perfectly to heel off lead in the woods and on a loose lead on the way back!!  We resisted a halti for a long time because we had heard stories about accidents happening to dogs that lunge but we gave in when my parents (our dog sitters) said they just couldn't cope with the pulling anymore.  I couldn't hold Ella at all at the moment anyway without some extra control. After researching we use a double ended lead, one end attached to the halti and one to the normal collar and this works perfectly.

I also have a champion puller/lunger and I've tried everything.  I suppose I've had most success with the gentle leader but he can still pull for Wales on that when it suits him :)
Fortunately he is food orientated but this only gives limited success.  He's learnt that he gets a piece of sausage when he walks close to me but as soon as I give it to him he's off pulling again to get to the next sniff.  Then back again for more sausage.

The book recommended by Tohme sounds interesting though - might be worth investing in a copy.

I've just looked at the gentle controller (www.doggiesolutions.co.uk) and it says that one size fits all.
Anybody know if this includes toy breeds ?

A choke chain!!! :o Surely that will really damage the neck of a ikle cavie :(