pulling on the lead

[amandawhitelaw]

I am new to this forum and new to the class. I have a chocolate lab she is 15 weeks old. I am already finding it hard to cope with her pulling on the lead. Can anyone give me hints for when we are out walking how do i manage her on the lead.

thanks so much

amanda & Yoda

[Janice]

i know the problem

I got some ideas from a little book 'My Dog Pulls. What do I do?' by Turid Rugaas. I can lend it to you if you want.
Basically you don't let the dog get used to the feeling of a tight lead.So no Flexis. Use something like a harness when you want to get somewhere on time and use a flat collar and lead when you have time to train. Then when the dog pulls you STOP and wait for the dog to realise its not getting anywhere, change direction and reward the dog for following you. It took me ages but it does seem to be working.
Now my arms are more or less the same length
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Janice and Dale

[Nicola]

How about fitting her with a Halti. Gentle Leader or Canny Collar?

All three devices require patience and perseverance. The dog will probably object at first but you just have to let her know who's boss and teach her that, no matter what she does, the head collar will be staying on.

Have a read about all three:

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

http://www.canineconcepts.co.uk/ccp51/cc/dog-training/head-collar.shtml

http://www.dog-toy.co.uk/dogproducts/?product=77

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

Good luck.

[Eleanor]

Amanda

I agree with Janice

It takes time and patience

Have fun


Eleanor

[Suzanne H]

My mother in law wanted to take Otto for a wee walk so I told her to keep him on his halti as he's very strong.

He gave her the puppy dog eyes and she took it off him saying it was shame and it didn't look comfortable - that's what he wants you to think woman! And he almost pulled her arm out the socket. Would have served her right.

I can't walk Otto without it - tried everything to get him to heel, but to no avail.

Strangely, he will walk fine between two people without it, but not to the side of people - too near to things that smell interesting.

[Fiona]

I used a prong on Star twice and he has never pulled since. Now I just use a flat collar.
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Dogs are like Chocolate, you just can't have one!

[Nicola]

[Fiona]

Sorry Nicola I disagree. A choke collar should be a last resort not a prong.
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Dogs are like Chocolate, you just can't have one!

[Nicola]

[Phoebe]

[Nicola]

[Fiona]

Yeah I wouldn't worry about using anything at this stage, time and patcience should be enough just now, it will take time tho. Don't expect to much from your puppy to soon.

I would only us a prong/half check on a adult dog.
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Dogs are like Chocolate, you just can't have one!

[John Thomson]

IMO the pup is far too young to have ANY kind of training collar.

A flat collar (possibly a half check) should be used.

Treats and encouragement are the best tool at this age....I took Yodas lead last night and managed to get her to walk on a slack lead in the hall using treats and my voice......the puppy is very high energy and full of life ( possibly worse in a class situation?) and this should be used to teach her to walk to heal.

A prong is an extremely effective and humane way of training an out of control dog, as most of you know I am very much a fan but only on certain dogs. A prong should never be used on a dog less than 6 months old, likewise a halti on such a young dog is also something I would personally discourage incase some muscle damage occurs with it's use.......there is also the danger of it sliding up into the pups eye.....difficult to get an exact fit when a puppy is growing quickly.

Personally I would NEVER use a full check (choke) chain.........if you want to know why just put one on your arm or leg.......give it a yank and wait to see the damage you cause...... you will think twice about using it on your best friends neck!
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John Thomson
www.cumbernaulddogtraining.co.uk

[Nicola]

If a Halti is fitted properly, it won't ride up on to the puppy's eye and checks should be made daily on the Halti on the dog to ensure it's fitted correctly.

Imo, a puppy pulling on flat collar could do more damage as the puppy pulling with the Halti on. In fact, the puppy is more likely to pull and cause itself damage if it has a flat collar as the Halti is designed to help stop pulling, the flat collar is not designed for this purpose.

As said above, the Gentle Leader and Canny Collar are also very effective if fitted and maintained correctly.I do think a combi collar can be effective in helping stop pulling as it's based on a tension and release system.

[carol]

Us humans are great at training all the things that we don't want as well as what we do want.
I use a halti on my Collie bitch age around 14 months, (she was locked in a barn for the first 8 months of her life, I have had her for around 6 months) but only when walking around at agility show rings as she gets excited and pulls. In this situation she is too distracted to listen.

I do like the halti, however when the halti/ gentle leader is removed the pulling is still there, it only acts as a temporary solution to a problem we have created.
While using the halti, I also work away in the back ground training my dog to work with me.