pulling on lead

jap gt

hi guys

just wondering whats the best way to train a dog to walk on the lead. my friend is having trouble with his cocker pulling on the lead, any ideas

i-digress

There's three main ways to stop a dog pulling on its lead. A dog gets rewarded for pulling, because he gets where he wants to go faster. Your friend needs to stop him getting rewarded for the pulling, and then he'll stop because there's no point.

#1 Stop walking any time the dog pulls. Call your dog back to you, and when the lead is slack begin walking again. This way the dog finds out that pulling means he gets where he wants to go slower, not faster so it doesn't make sense to pull.

#2 Penalty steps. Every time they pull the owner takes a few steps backwards. Again the dog discovers pulling means he gets where he wants to go slower, not faster.

#3 Turn around. Every time the lead gets taught, turn around and walk in the opposite direction. The dog is now behind. If you do this a few times your dog will no longer know which way 'forwards', i.e. where his owner is going, is. So he'll start to follow your lead.

It's a subject I've a lot of interest in. I'm 23 with a long term illness which effects my muscles and joints. I'm training my thirteen week old lab to be good on the lead before she gets big and strong!

shinikins

I think it might just be something to do with the breed, we had two Cockers and they pulled on the leash from the beginnning. Tried the usual tricks like keeping the leash short, and giving a short yank back when thney pulled, but nothing worked. Got a head harness that worked on one dog, but the other really hated it, and would actually sit down and refuse to move. The answer to my problem was a body harness, both of them took to it immediatly, and walking was so much more enjoyable after.

suziwalsh

Easiest thing to do is get a sensi-harness, brilliant invention stops pulling straight away, easy welfare friendly solution. Although it is very very important to get it fitted correctly and in the right position

Jennyfer

A Halti Headcollar. My boxer has been driving me bonkers the past few months pulling on her lead and I bought one of these last week, I cant recommend it enough! I thought it was just another gimmick, didnt expect it to work all that well having tried various harnesses etc but I was so wrong!

Most petshops stock them, I paid around 16 euro for it. Just make sure you check for the correct size for your dog, theres a guide on the back of the box.

lisar201

suziwalsh wrote: »

Easiest thing to do is get a sensi-harness, brilliant invention stops pulling straight away, easy welfare friendly solution. Although it is very very important to get it fitted correctly and in the right position

where do u get a sensi-harness and how much are they?

suziwalsh

Sensi harness is great as most dogs don't like halti's or canny collars and they take ages for the dog to accept them. But harness's you can walk with straight away. Sensi-harnesses are different because the lead attaches to the front of the dog and not the back of the dog. You can get them in the wagging tail in dunboyne or dog training ireland. Well worth the spend and they will let you try it out before buying it

tk123

Our guy has a sensible harness too and it's brilliant. Not aiming this at anyone here but a lot of people we pass on walks etc seem to take the easy option and just use a halti instead of talking the time to train them not to pull?

@suziwalsh we got ours at Dog Training Ireland. If you take the dog along they have a shop and they'll fit it for you.

TechnoPool

we got a cani collar , works out around 18e and have never looked back!!

lisar201

TechnoPool wrote: »

we got a cani collar , works out around 18e and have never looked back!!

where did u get it?

KillerKity

We had a halti for our collie and initially it was great! But over time he started fighting against it, same story with a harness. Must try out the techniques i-digress was talking about but I'm guessing it'll take time!