Hi all, I have a golden lab, who will be 2 years old next week. I continue to face difficulties with her pulling. She has her ups and downs when it comes to walking on her lead. Some days she listens relatively well and other days she will happily pull the whole time. Our walks tend to be road side until we reach the local tracks and country parks and when away from the roads she can come off her lead and plays with her frisbee. This is clearly the most enjoyable part of her walks and she absolutely loves playing fetch. I suspect she is self rewarding by effectively trying to pull me to places that she has played with her toys before. It can be hard for her as she spends the week days with my parents as I work full time. We hated the thought of her being at home all day so she goes out walking with them. I suspect she finds it confusing walking with different people at different times and might test it all a bit, especially if we aren’t consistent at times, which is possible. I have struggled to find food rewards that really appeal to her. She doesn’t tend to want a food reward during a walk, her thing is more toy related. This causes some difficulties in terms of trying to reward good walking at the road side and areas she can’t play. Pulling tends to subside towards the end of a walk so when she has burnt off a bit of energy, which is unsurprising but she still has her moments even then. I have attempted stopping whenever she pulls and waiting until the lead is loose to then go again. I also tried changing direction and trying to mix it up for her so she isn’t just pulling me down the road towards fields. When ever I do, she gets it for a few moments and then reverts back. I know the flaw is with me and not her. Other aspects of her training have been great and she has picked everything else up so well. I wondered if anyone had any tips or ways to improve? She is a really good dog otherwise and I want to put work in with her to resolve it. I am certain we could improve it. Thanks
I have the same issue if walking along a country lane and Willow is pulling I have a no pull harness with a ring at the front and ring at the back most of the time I have the lead attached at the back, but on the road when I need more control I attach the front ring. It's impossible for her to pull from the front and now only use the front on the odd occasion.
Hi WillowA Sorry, I should have clarified when I first wrote the post - she has a ruff wear harness with the front and back D ring. We use a halti so we can connect to both the front and back to give more control. Initially this helped and we were working with it to try to resolve the pulling but still haven’t got there. Irritatingly the harness on occasion pulls to the side so we end up having to adjust it but clearly if we could rectify the pulling issues then this wouldn’t happen. Do you tend to only connect to the front ring? Not both? Thanks for sharing your experience. It’s greatly appreciated
Yes I only use the front ring when on the country lane as it's quite busy and no pavement. She walks nice most of the time I do train her on a loose lead when she is calm. She still plays on the lead picking sticks and stones up but is getting better. I have a double ended lead but use a flexI lead so she has more freedom when on the lead I only let her off in quiet places with no other dogs around she tends to get spooked and runs.
Flexi leads should never be used if you are trying to teach a dog not to pull. Such leads actually teach a dog to pull. They truly are the work of the devil. The thin line ones are also very dangerous--it can cut open a person's leg. I realise some members here like such equipment. But I would never attempt to handle a dog with such a line. If you want the dog to have freedom with constraint, then buy a 10 metre long line, made from biothane material.
Woody was adopted at 3.5 and pulled like a train. We have spent six months on this and slowly starting to get somewhere. The first thing I did was get rid of the flexi line and bought a short lead as when he needs to be on lead I want him close. Then it was just a matter of being consistent, which we have struggled with at times as my partner walks him in a different way to me! But as I do the most walking it is me who has seen the most improvement. I made my own treats just for walking training, dehydrated chicken and also established a look cue which allows us to walk past people and things without any lunging but my timing has to be just right. The biggest thing to avoid is frustration as I've found this really sets us back so I try and remember the times when people comment on how good he is and in my head have a little chuckle I didntdidn't to use a head collar but can see their use to break the habit. I always have a front fastening on any harness (currently have a ruffwear and perfect fit) for when we go new places as we are likely to take some steps backwards. There is only one place we now go regularly and expect him to pull and that's funfswimming at the hydrotherapy pool. This is just because he is so excited about going that nothing will get him under threshold to think Last thing I have done is channeled some of the pulling into canicross which he has really enjoys and he does know the difference between this harness and others and that he is allowed to pull in the canicross one. Such a long reply but hopefully a little help from someone with no dog training experience other than having my own first rescue doggo. X
Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate you sharing your experience too. I haven’t heard of a flexi lead before so don’t use one. I use the double ended halti lead but not as a head collar. I really want to be able to work with my dog to train her to walk more sensibly, not to try to offset the pulling if that makes sense. I don’t personally like the idea of the head collar. I think I should try a look at me cue, that’s a good idea. When you say you were consistent, what did you specifically do? I wondered if you had any tips as to the techniques you used. I completely agree that frustration is a big part of it and it’s really hard. Sometimes I feel like I don’t appreciate all of the positive things she does because of this one difficulty. It’s hard when walking is such a big part of your life with your dog. You get daily reminders! Oh and I probably need to find better treats. Not sure if there is such a thing for her but will certainly give it a go. Thanks!
I use a normal lead for training but Willow is doing really well now if she does start pulling I stop and she turns towards me when she is calm we carry on walking. When we go to training classes I will use the either the double ended lead or the normal single ended not the flexi lead. I like the flexi lead as I can't let her off in the housing estate where we walk I only let her off accross the fields and quiet places. With the flexi lead we are working on recall with distractions.
Hi @Bonza At this very time Elsa Blomster of Retrieving for All Ocassions is running an online 30 day set of tips and challenge on heeling. Really well done [so far]. I'm expecting the next two odd weeks to be equally informative and inspiring. Yes, a discussion of heeling can be inspiring.
Here is the link to day 13. One should be able to find the other days. https://www.retrievingforalloccasions.com/leash-off-means-walk-to-heel/
I'd recommend @Jo Laurens "Walk with Me" online course. Go to her Dogworks website and take a look. We have a "puller" and all the tips in there are really helping. It's really good value for money too.
The technique which worked for us was stopping and waiting for the loose lead before carrying on with loads of treats. Also having a treat or squeaky ball in my hand to get him moving also helped. Over time I had him walking further and further looking at me because of the reward before I had to share It does take lots of patience.l
Hopefully this video will work of me walking earlier. I have the chuck it ball over my shoulder which I don't play with very often so a much prized reward! And having a rest at canicross
Try again https://www.flickr.com/photos/155143552@N06/32256839047/in/dateposted-public https://www.flickr.com/photos/155143552@N06/29637964257/in/dateposted-public It's hard taking a video 1 handed but hopefully you can see he is just on my foot. I have no training experience just lots of reading, patience and perseverance. PS: He's not always like this
https://www.flickr.com/photos/155143552@N06/shares/RG70Td Third time lucky, I'm really not social media savvy!
Hi @AlliumPurpleSensation Well done.. What I saw towards the end of the video was that the dog was moving away from you. If the lead became taut, then I think you should have marked and treated the dog before that happened. Two problems with using a ball with throwing stick. If you throw it, then the dog may anticipate the throw and forge ahead. You need to be careful with timing. Make sure you mark the desirable walking before any forging in anticipation occurs. Second, you need to be able to move to intermittent reinforcement, which is easier to do if you can hide the treats on your person before bring them out for the reward. Otherwise very good idea to use a range of different reinforcers, especially ones the dog really likes.
I haven't read the whole thread so forgive me if this has been mentioned. There are two aspects of attention. 1. is giving it, and 2. is withholding it.Check yourself to be sure you are not talking, or touching your dog when they act in an undesired way. Even negative feedback can be seen as attention to her.
