Dog attacking lead during walk?

scarlet_mandy

Hiya,

Just have a question about getting our dog to walk on the lead. During our walks lately at some point she goes ballistic attacking the lead, jumping up to grab it out of my hands, jumping into me to try knock me down, etc. I've tried keeping the leash shorter, but that just means she gets to my hands quicker. It's sort of turned into a tug of war, but I can't let go coz we're usually by a road or in the park by a lot of football matches.

Any suggestions to get her to stop this? She's 6 months old, a lab, so very very strong, approx. 20kg according to the vet!

Gremlin

Pretty much the same deal with the poster with the greedy dog. t's the 'leave it' training thats needed. You need to invest some time before each walk with some treats. When she chews the lead he gets no reward and a reprimand, when she calms down then its a 'good girl' and a treat. She'll soon learn. When she misbehaves you must stop walking, so she learns that chewing the lead just delays her walk. It will be a PITA for a while but will be worth it in the end.

Gremlin

I meant to add, if you find you cannot train the dog yourself then get help from a professional trainer before she hurts you or someone.

JustAThought

If it's any use this is a " bold" thing, although some of it may seem funny or playful. It would seem that she is resisting you putting her on the lead and restricting her freedom. Unfortunately if you let her win you will end up with a very unmanageable dog. I have a big dominant breed and left it far too long before I started to seriously tackle her dragging me in the lead and when I started to successfully combat that this leaping and lead chewing and lying on her back started... It nearly broke my heart. You have my sympathies!
What I did if it's any use, was I would run her off lead to let off a bit of steam and let her runabout, I would then do a few 3 or 5 minute lead walks bribing her all the way to behave, and intersperse this with off lead games so that she wouldn't hate the lead. I gradually made the lead time longer and made her mix sit, lie, etc with it rewarding all the way so she had a bit of fun and didn't just think it was a restriction. That and a bit of bloodymindedness where I would try and walk her on lead from A toB and would stop and make her sit if she didn't heel as we went along. That part nearly killed me. But she is now 90% perfect 70% of the time and improving which if you had seen her before was unimaginable. I left it to 10 months to start with mine and I sorely regretted it: at least you re starting young- ish!!!!
Persevere !!!! Once your dog gets the message that you re in charge of the walk you ll never look baack!!!!!! But you have to be strict or you're ruined. I recommend small bits of smelly cheese as bribes!!!! Hold in your hand and that might induce her to heel / lead ... Mine will walk over purring cats for some!!!
Best of luck!!!

Whispered

Drop the lead and grab her collar. If you're not on the other end of the lead she has nobody to play tug with

Don't entertain any bad behaviour, just hold her collar and ignore her until she settles, ask for a sit then reward that with food (like cheese as suggested) take up the lead and continue on your way. It might take a lot of times doing this but she should get the message eventually. Be sure to ask for a sit or her attention and reward at other times during the walk too, so she doesn't get the impression of "be bold, then sit, then get treat"

liquoriceall

Oh dear God I sympathise! My Basset starting doing this not so long ago because the girl that walks him for me also has a guide dog puppy who is meant to be learning the holding his own lead thing! Anyways what I do is if he starts doing this I just stop and turn my back on him until he stops at the beginning it might take 5 or 6 attempts but thank god he ahs stopped its really annoying!!

are you serious

My Rottie does this every now and then and because of his size its getting worse, I give him a good pull back on the lead tell him no, sit.. wait until he calms down and then walk on. I think with him he's starting to just be bold on walks and it is generally only when he hasnt met another dog yet on our walks.

The fun thing about my last two days walking him, he's taken me right off my feet once right outside my house the other in the middle of the park. leash was wrapped around my feet and he was at full speed running past, up in the air down on my ass, luckily not hurt I got up laughing :P

RubyGirl

Try and rub some vicks vapor rub or tea tree oil into the lead, she wont like the taste of it. Might be time to invest in a dogmatic head collar or halti type head collar.

tk123

Whispered wrote: »

Drop the lead and grab her collar. If you're not on the other end of the lead she has nobody to play tug with

Don't entertain any bad behaviour, just hold her collar and ignore her until she settles, ask for a sit then reward that with food (like cheese as suggested) take up the lead and continue on your way. It might take a lot of times doing this but she should get the message eventually. Be sure to ask for a sit or her attention and reward at other times during the walk too, so she doesn't get the impression of "be bold, then sit, then get treat"

+1 this is what I used to do with my retriever. If he wasn't settling I'd give him a "LOOK!!!" command to snap him out of it and give him a treat. If she's in tantrum and grabbing the collar isn't an option (they usually start mouthing and play biting again as they get their back teeth) you can stand on the lead and "park" her - so there's only enough slack to go from her collar to your foot standing on the lead and she can't move anywhere.

A funny story now but my worst nightmare when it happened :rolleyes:... as some of you know my guy had an operation last year and was on crate rest... he had been out of the crate about 2 weeks and then went lame on the leg - we didn't know if a pin had come loose so he had to go back in the crate until the specialist saw the xrays so very very worried .. ANYHOOS a few days later (the lameness was gone at this stage thank god but no word from the vet) on xmas eve I had taken him out to the loo on his lead and let him sit in the snow to get some air when all of a sudden he decided he wanted off his lead - no probs for tk the expert I just stood on the lead as normal - no messing allowed on my watch...except it prompty sunk into the snow!!! The next thing he was doing laps of the garden delighted with himself and me frantically running around trying to catch him!! He was fine afterwards so we knew he was ok - the vet called a few days later to confirm it lol.:pac::rolleyes:

scarlet_mandy

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the replies, honestly I'd be lost without this forum!! I will definitely try some of these suggestions, especially the collar, and foot on lead one I've tried treats, but only dog treats so far so will def give the smelly cheese a try, as it happens I have some in the fridge so handy! I tried the vicks on the lead thing a few times, worked the first time but now it doesn't bother her at all :rolleyes: I was gonna try some hot sauce maybe, just a bit, on the lead? Not sure if its ok for her tho, anyone tried it?

She had a bout of tantrum lead behaviour this morning on her walk tho didn't last as long as usual thank god! due our evening walk in a bit so I'll be armed with cheese and determination not to lose a finger so we'll see how it goes