Going to try a Halti and feeling sad

Ok, that sounds a bit odd, to be honest. You can't keep a dog by your side by 'holding' him on a short lead - well, not unless it's an emergency or special situation. It would be physically exhausting for you and the dog. Yes, let's see what you are doing....

 

I thought people used shorter leads when out on the roads. Taking forever to download.

 

I use the same lead on roads (recently bought the 2m double-ended Halti leads) but hold the slack in my left hand (other end in my right hand) so the dogs can't use the full length.

 

I use the same lead for all walks. I've got some 2m Wolters which you can adapt. Creating a handle loop the lead is around 1.8 which I hold in my right hand and pick up any slack as necessary in my left but the length between left hand and Jun has to be long enough that she can walk comfortably n a loose lead still.

 

This is yesterday taken on my phone, this was a good walk. Unfortunately my videos from today taken on my Gopro, will not load onto flickr or my laptop isn't allowing it. I'll keep trying as I can play them on my laptopWALKING TO HEEL TRAINING 22/2/16 by Donna Cruise, on Flickr

 

The lead keeps slipping though but I suppose that's when he's pulled

 

I suppose when he's not pulling it all works much easier

 

I thought I'd read on one of your posts that you had a shorter lead for around town. It may have been an old post as I've been looking back on the forum to get ideas.

 

Well, the video shows a dog that seems to be walking along reasonably nicely! Which doesn't really show why you are struggling.....

All I can suggest is this:

Eventually, your dog should not pull whatever length of lead he is on - he adjusts himself accordingly. So if you shorten your lead, he should respond. He shouldn't act differently depending on the length of lead.

At first, it is easier on the dog if you keep the same length of lead. I think the shorter that is, the harder it is on the dog because you ask for a more precise behaviour.

So, I'd chose your length of lead and one walk. Try to choose somewhere that is not too challenging - ideally where you can stay a little distance away from smells, trees to pee on, and so on.

Decide your criteria. Mine (at this stage) was I held the lead against my jacket, as soon as he pulled hard enough for my hand to leave the cloth of my jacket, I stopped my feet. I would just concentrate on the feeling of the cloth of my jacket against my hand - as soon as my hand moved, I stopped my feet. Repeat until you can do that walk without your hand leaving your jacket (or whatever your criteria is).

There was no other criteria - only that single one. Apart from that, he could do whatever he wanted. This became (eventually) my 'go sniff' loose lead. (No sniff, close, walk in line with my knee came later).

Then repeat that criteria on another walk. And another, and another, and another....

In the meantime, up your criteria on the first walk - shorten the lead, so the dog has to be closer to you, then exactly by your side etc.

Obviously, give treats when they get it right, but for me the key was that absolute consistency about when I would stop moving forwards.

There are loads of different ways to do it, and I also used Turid Rugaas' techniques, but for me, just choosing a strategy and being absolutely consistent - day in, day out, regardless of where we were - won out in the end.

 

Non of my videos from my GoPro will download to Flickr, have no idea why

 

I do, yes, I wouldn't have him on his 2m "go sniff" walking along a highstreet, no. I'd shorten his lead (and indeed me shortening his lead is part of his cue to walk close) but that wouldn't have worked to keep him from pulling.

And when he was in his mad, 2 people needed to managed him, lunging phase (waiting for and after his first cruciate op) I had a handle lead on his back fastening harness and when he went into his crazy werewolf madness fits of lunging and pulling I'd hold him on the handle lead and stay still until it was over, and some semblance of less crazy could be rewarded....but I didn't think you were in those drastic circumstances...are you? I never walked him or trained him on that handle lead, it was to cope with emergencies.

 

It's the other videos that I really need to share as yesterday was fine. My concern is that all of our paths are narrow, I do try to keep him on the inside and me by the road whenever possible, so I do have to keep the lead short otherwise one hard pull and he would be in the road. I'll have to tie some knots in the lead as it slips so easily through my hand.
So as long as the lead doesn't have tension, it doesn't matter that he's sniffing the ground at this stage?
I can see my mistake now, I worked and worked on his walk up and down our road, upping the criteria but didn't go back enough stages when in new places. I've worked and got him settled but then carried on with the walk and it's been too distracting for him. So rather than carry on, I should spend more time going back over that area until he can manage it with ease then revisit and start again. Your rinse and repeat like I did when he was first out and about.

 

Yes, of course, if you need to walk him along roads where his lead needs to be short enough to stop him moving into the road, absolutely. That has to be your starting criteria for that walk. Maybe I've misunderstood - a short lead shouldn't be a 'control' (unless emergencies) as in you are physically using it constantly to keep him by your side, but of course if a shorter lead is part of the minimum criteria you can allow, absolutely.

 

Sniffing the ground.....lots of people will say different things on this.....there is a reason why they say different things - because it depends what you are training for and how you are training it.

You need to make up your mind what the end behaviour it is that you want, that needs to be clear, and keep that in your mind - and you need to work out how you are going to get to that end behaviour.

1) My end behaviour was that on a 2m lead, and after a 'go sniff' cue, my dog wanders along on a 2m lead, he doesn't pull, he changes sides in a sensible manner, he doesn't lunge for stuff, but he can sniff, pee, poo etc. as he wishes. He should leave stuff if I tell him 'leave it' or 'this way'.

2) My other end behaviour was that he should walk (roughly) at heel on his 'close' cue, on a short lead, and that means roughly in line with my knee, no sniffing, no wandering, no saying hello to other dogs - he just walks along and that's it.

I worked on achieving 1) first, and I trained 2) off lead. Then I put them together on lead later.

Other people (who don't live in a city, or are training their dogs for a purpose or to work) might have stricter criteria - say only 2) above is acceptable on lead, in which case their strategy for getting there would be different from mine.

So there is no right or wrong answer to 'is it ok for now that my dog sniffs the ground' - it depends on what you want your dog to do, and how you are going to get to wherever it is you are going - there are many paths....

 

Only two or three times.

 

No I want one for more safety, not mega short but not 2m.

 

With this resent decline and it has only been the last month to 6 weeks, I've lost track of my goals and plan. It was such a whirlwind turn around, I forgot all the basics for the walk and lost my direction. I went into panic mode and thought I'd messed up big time.
From what you and others have wrote on here, I can see this clearly now. I over reacted and lost the plot. Dexter reached an age where the world gets more interesting and he himself more confident and i didn't go back enough stages. It's all part of the self control package that I'm building on with his training and sometimes you just have to wing it to get you out of over the top situations that you haven't trained or proofed yet, if and when they arise.
The walk yesterday was easy, it was raining and hardly anyone about, today Dexter couldn't cope so well but today there were more distractions with people, smells on the ground and no rain. It all changes the perspective of the same walk. Yesterday we completed the whole walk today 1/4 of it, I need to keep doing this walk over and over in as many stages as it takes until he can walk it calmly without pulling.

 

Lightbulb moment in the middle of the night

If the lead is so short that the dog has no option but to walk next to you, he/she can not learn to make the desired choice that you want. So by giving extra length (as safe to do so) and being consistent with training, how you hold the lead, amount of extra lead etc you help him to choose to do it.

I'd always used just my left hand due to my shoulder surgery and did so before he was even able to go out for a walk in preparation for my surgery. I had a knot in the lead that depicted where I held it.
I changed this at the time this difficulty started and that change to two hands could have been enough for me to upset the apple cart. Although I still had the knot, the rest of the lead was in a different position with my right hand. Even though my husband has always walked him with the lead in his right hand and slack taken up in his left, Dexter had got use to the two different ways from two different people.
With me changing this I in effect gave two differences for Dexter,the first being the lead position and 2nd being me. Not as a new person but a known person who had for six months been walking him differently.

Edited to add, by coincidence at the same time I'd stopped all ball games in the most distracting places where I was using them as his highest value reward. I had been giving him increasingly more difficult cues and sequences to do before he earned the ball and was building up steadiness. Sometimes he got the ball, other times he got a 'good boy' or a treat. By doing all this, I lost everything. I should have continued to do this but only throw the ball where Dexter would have to slow down and find it, not slam into it and chase it. I need to add this back into my tool kit, for emergencies when we are in a quiet field but then other people/dogs come along with their balls and chuckers, whilst I am helping him build up his self control to not need me to use it.
I changed too much all at once

 

Yes - this is how we are trained with the Guide Dog pups. They must walk ahead, with their back legs by our legs, so it's a different position.

But, to start with, we use a very short lead and make sure their heads can't go down to sniff. We only move when the lead is slack and if it goes taught again we do an about turn. Treats for good walking, every ten good steps, then twenty, then thirty etc. At first, if there is a distraction, we put the treat right on their nose to keep their attention. Lots of talking to them to keep them focussed and 'look at me' throughout the walk. Sniffing in never allowed on lead so that helps as it makes the walk completely unambiguous.

It doesn't happen quickly, both Gypsy and Twiglet were seven months old before they could consistently walk ahead and negotiate the route without pulling towards distractions or trying to go through too small a gap for both of us.

 

I've been thinking about this and came to the conclusion that the longer you leave the tension on the lead, you could unwittingly be encouraging it. If that makes sense.