Hi, We are about to adopt a boisterous 1-3 year old labrador (closer to 1 I think) from our local no-kill shelter. He isn't trained on the leash. He pulls, walks in front of your feet (nearly tripping everyone over) and crosses from left to right at will. When we bring him home tomorrow I want to immediately start leash training him (positive) and I have read the articles from this site (and ordered a couple of books too). My question is how do I give him the required exercise when I have to stop every time he starts to pull? I want to be 100% consistent with this but also want to give him enough exercise at the same time. Should I use a long line? We live next to a 1.1 KM beach and I was thinking that this could be an option as it won't reward him for pulling on the leash but give him exercise. We hike for an hour each morning but this might be difficult for a few weeks until he is leash trained as otherwise I think this might compromise his leash training. It will take a couple of weeks to get a long leash as we live in South Korea and I haven't been able to find either a dedicated long leash for dogs or a hiking rope with attachment. What would you recommend in the meantime? (I will get him in to swimming in the future but I'm assuming he might not be used to water. He is also currently scared of cars I think due to lack of exposure) Thank you, Ken
Hi Ken, and welcome to the forum. Do you have any areas locally where he can run off leash? We would normally recommend that you drive him to these areas to exercise him until you've managed to work on him walking on the lead. If you have him on a long line, it's imperative that you attach it to a back-fastening harness rather than a collar. The thing is, lines need to be managed quite carefully because they can be very dangerous for both dogs and other people, getting tangled around limbs. Dogs also often like to get to the end of whatever length tether they are on, so you may still have pulling issues. If you have nowhere to walk off-lead, I'd say just really focus on his lead walking full-on. Don't think about getting from A to B, rather just teach him how to walk up and down outside your front door, and then gradually extend the distance. You can make it fun by keeping your energy levels up, switching direction frequently, making a huge fuss when he's doing well and using lots of treats. Make it into a game where he has to keep pace with you whether you're going at a snail's pace or a full run. If you don't have any other options, you can look at a harness that prevents pulling. You need to use this alongside your training, as it will be a "crutch" for while you don't have a nice walk.
Well, the stopping didn't work for us. It does now but not when we were leash training. What did work was changing direction, BEFORE he pulls, erratically, left, right, about turn, reverse about turn. Even in my small village I was so all over the road I had to watch for cars. I'm sure my neighbours thought I was drunk or having a seizure or something. At first we didn't get far but soon we could walk to our off leash spot, taking the zig zag route, where I would ask for a short spate of good leash behaviour, a nice sit and then I'd let him off.
Do you have a dog park nearby? This is a great place for a dog to burn off some energy and you don't have to worry about leashes, etc. However it would be good to find out how he is with other dogs, first.
Hi everyone, Thank you for your responses. The shelter said unless the area you are walking is completely sealed off then I shouldn't walk him off leash until we have built up a close bond over a few months. There aren't any dog parks or locked in areas apart from our roof but the danger is that he could possibly jump over the wall so I want to keep him on a leash there too. We had ordered the Freedom No Pull Harness which was supposed to arrive before he did but it has been delayed and will arrive on Monday or Tuesday. He is great with other dogs and even when they growl he just stands there wagging his tail. He is great with strangers as well and just wants to greet everybody. He did very well the first night with his crate. I put his deer shank and a Kong in there. I will look for places to safely do some off-leash running but in the mean time get a long leash. We walk him at 6:30 a.m. and the beach is quiet with hardly any people or dogs. We also have a mountain behind our house where we usually go hiking but you have to walk over a couple of main roads to get there and at the minute he is very scared of cars and elevators. Getting him to be able to get to the mountain is a goal alongside loose leash training. Thank you for your advice. I will definitely start incorporating the direction changes and try to find some areas that he can't break out of. I have been hand feeding his Taste of the Wild kibble as treats (instead of feeding him in his bowl) when he walks with the leash nicely and he seems motivated by this but I will look for other treats for when he loses interest.
See if you can find some training classes, obedience or pet manners maybe. Encouraging him to Think isn't physical exercise, though there is some movement in class, but it does wonders to take the starch out and make him easier to live with. Remember how tired homework made you feel when you were at school? Well, it did me. And, classes tend to help form a bond between the two of you. Yes, it is a good idea to keep him on leash for a while. We did that with our rescue, even though she was obedience and gun trained she wasn't used to us. And I did a class too, at our Vet's urging. The dog was already trained but I didn't have a clue.
Good advice Snowshoe. I will look for a class. We are also following a few Youtube dog training channels to get some different ideas. Thanks everybody!
