This is an ongoing thing I'm having to train Coco for. He's so much better than he was. Just sharing some ideas that I've picked up on the forum & I'm trying out. This week I've introduced "change direction" to his road walking. We're on a quiet road with no pavements and I'll do a big circle across the road, or a zig-zag back & forth, maybe going back the way we've come a little. It's definitely increasing his attention. When we get on the main road, along the pavement with less room to circle - as he drifts ahead I'm walking backwards..then forwards, then backwards on so on - with lots of squeaky chatter to accompany the direction changes. I also do some sit/heel using the length of the lead. I look and sound a right nutter, but it's really helping Coco to pay more attention. I've got myself out of the mentality that lead walking on a road is just plodding on ahead. Have fun, act like a loony and care not for what passers by think.
I so agree with this. I do it all the time with Vanilla and it drives my wife nuts, but she gets it. She can't get a clear long walk in, so does her mindset is this is 'not my walk but Vanilas'. Took her a while. One thing that works for us is a sharp U-turn, then a few steps and then a sharp U-turn again. It makes Vanilla stay close to heel and I am gradually introducing the distance. One thing I read yesterday regarding loose leash walking. Walk/run at the pace the dog is, then over the weeks reduce your speed until you get to desired pace. This was aimed at heel walking. No idea if it would work? But am going to try it especially around other dogs.
For my two older dogs, that wouldn't have worked at all. Going faster made them go faster still - and they can run a lot faster than I can! I found the opposite to help - walking at a snail's pace when I started kept them engaged with me, and gradually building the pace. If they started moving ahead, reduce the pace again. Mixing the pace up really helps keep them interested anyway. Some people think you should try, especially when they are learning, to try and keep them in a natural pace for them, so walk fast enough they can trot, for example. This is going to be far easier on their joints and they will find it easier, but it's a lot harder for you
I find altering pace works for us too - I'll say "fast pace" and quicken up for a few yards, then "slow pace" and we go really slowly for a bit - so we alternate fast/slow/normal pace - with an announcement for each one . Coco seems to really love this. Again, we look like a pair of fruit cakes to folk passing by.
We play the same speed up, slow down game, which works really well for getting past distractions because Lucky really likes it and has a lot of focus. I use "quick quick quick" and "sloooow" for my cues. At the moment, Lucky is really good at not pulling, but we have the opposite problem, on our way home he lags behind and wants to go really slowly and sniff everything - I've been using the speed up cue for this, and it has helped. I'll try adding in some zigzags and about turns to keep him interested and make it more fun. At Lucky's pace a 10 min walk home from the park would take 30!
