Pulling on the lead

paudie

Hey guys, just look for your thoughts on this.

Have my new dog a week now (2 year old retriever/collie).

When out walking I'm having a lot of trouble getting him to heel. After the first two days of this I just started walking him around the back garden and rewarding him for staying beside me. He's perfect walking on the lead in the garden no matter what path we take. He will even walk by his toys now. But he starts pulling like crazy once we go out of the garden.

Any ideas what more I could do? Just keep practicing in the garden?

are you serious

The reason he wont pull in the garden is because he knows he's not going anywhere!!

When you get outside his mindset is completely different. He will be thinking yessssssss where are we going, I want to get there now now NOW come on hurry!!!

So anyway with the above a few questions to start off..

Your dog is in a completely new environment!! For the first while because he is new to you and new to the area he is going to be going mad to get everywhere!!

1- have you access to a park within a minute or so of your house?
2- when he does get out how long for?
3- do you go on the same walk all the time when you do go out?
4- where did you get him from?

im a believer

i have the same problem with my dog, its very frustrating but what i found works is to bring her as far as the front door, get her to sit, don't go any further until she has calmed down, do the same at the gate and also outside the gate. she soon realizes that we are going nowhere until she is calm. takes a bit of time and a lot of patience but is worth it. she loves her walk and when she is calm it makes it more enjoyable for both of us. best of luck.

paudie

1. I don't think there's a big park that close to us, small green in the housing estate just outside the front door and a beach ten minutes drive away.

2. This varies Trying to do 2 145 minute walks a day but usually try to go to the beach for 30 minutes to an hour on days off.

3. Again have been trying to do the same 15 minute walk.

4. Got him from a rescue centre quite near to us, I know he wasn't walked that often there and they don't know anything about him from before they got him.

I have been doing the sit and wait at the door thing and he's good at that now even with the door open he'll wait until I tell him to go. I guess I just have to keep on working with him, I was just surprised at the difference inside the garden and outside.

are you serious

Try a field leash/tracking leash.. They for me are a perfect training aide as he will have no reason for pulling any more and it doubles up as a great aide for recall training.

When you do get out to walk in your park or the beach let the dog have the whole length of leash (depending on the length you go for this could be up to 20m) When you want him to come back give him a call, if he comes back perfect, praise him lots, if he doesnt you can give the line a tug and call again.

You could use a clix retractable lead(i just dont like them)

Depending on the size of your green at the front of the house, this could be a perfect place to start your training with him. I also have a green at the front of my house, its roughly the size of a football field and is perfect for working on any training with my dogs before I go out to public parks with them.

I would always suggest for people to let their dogs have some free time off leash, but for you beginning and building the trust up with your new dog I would definitely recommend the field/tracking leash.

Zapperzy

What was suggested to me was from the very start of the walk the moment he pulls stop and turn around and walk a few steps in the opposite direction and keep doing this. He's pulling to go somewhere so by you stopping and walking in the opposite direction it takes longer to get there, it also keeps him more focused on you and his mind engaged with all the turning and switching direction. I done it with my dog for a bit (and it worked) but felt like an absolute edjit back home, though if I had a bigger dog constantly dislocating my shoulder I'd be less inclined to give a crap about what others think!

What I find works well with mine is just walk really fast, tires him out so he's less energy to pull. I also have a retractable lead and when he's on this he knows he can run around, sometimes he comes back and walks to heel on this if he's tired or run out of things to sniff, but generally when I want him to walk to heel or just not pull I put on a short lead (with a halti) and he knows it's time to stop acting the edjit.

There are loads of special harnesses and headcollars designed to stop pulling, but I'd be more inclined to go down the training route first before trying these.

JyesusChrist

My collie used to have this problem, it is actually a easy fix. What I would recommend is every time he pulls ahead give the leash a tug back until he is next to you then relax the tension. Eventually the dog should realise that he can keep going forward un-interrupted if he just chills out next to you. This does take dedication and persistence however! So don't be disheartened if you don't get results the first day. (I used to go daft sometimes)

marijame

In the process of lead training as well with 12 week old pup, we were advised that you do not tug on a lead at all, you simply stop and dog realises they are going nowhere and wil stop also (our dog sits down sometimes) after pulling loads initially. We only move forward when the lead is slack. Loads of praise and just encouragement to move forward but no tugging, it's working well after just a few days and dog automatically sits for roads and junctions which is handy. Our last dog wasn't lead trained very well and was a nightmare to walk, this pup will be a big dog so I'm determined to have control this time and have to say, the stop when they pull technique works so far.

tk123

What stands out from your post is "walking to heel" - bear in mind he's part gundog so imo you have to allow for him to sniff etc as he's walking or where's the fun in him going for a walk with you?

What worked for us was to just stop and don't move while they're pulling. When the lead is slack click (clickers are brilliant for this), praise and reward every few steps so he gets the idea.
I used to use a front attach harness for my retriever and while it does cut down on pulling you still need to teach the dog how to walk correctly. I don't use the front attach any more and he walks perfectly on the back attach one because a lot of our walks were training sessions to get him to walk correctly. That said if you're finding him a bit too strong I'd go with the front attach so you have more control while you train him how to walk.