Our female black lab pup is now 7 months old. She heels/loose-lead walks quite nicely when I take her out on my own. If we do the same route with our whole family (3 children, 2 adults) she continually pulls at the lead, wanting to be up in the front with the children (unless I am in the lead with her). I'm not surprised as it's a huge increase of distaction(s). However, I am wondering if it's normal under these circumstances that she doesn't catch on a bit quicker that 'pulling hard on the lead doesn't get you anywhere'. We've started practice sessions with the family involved, and when she pulls (which is immideately) I don't move forward with her. When she slacks off, I praise her or even treat her. However, she seems so desperate to be up there with the kids that even her beloved chicken treats don't tempt her at times, and when she finally slacks off and I praise her and we start moving to catch up with the family it only lasts about 1 second before she tries to lunge forward again. Is it normal that 'the penny doesn't seem to drop'? (we can try this about 20 times and she'll still lunge forward after 1 second of getting herself under control). Is this normal behaviour? Should I rather be breaking it down to practicing with just one of my kids and gradually increase? Any input much appreciated.
Hi there. Yes, this is very normal. Walking with distractions is a skill that needs to be built up gradually from scratch, just like your original leash walk was. Your idea of practicing with one child is a great one. To make it even easier for her to succeed I would start by just learning to walk nicely while one child stands still at a distance. You can then practice having them stand closer, or stand in the original spot but shift about and move their arms, and then build up to them walking back and forth at a distance from you, etc etc. When you add another child, go back to the original distance, standing still, and build up again. It also sounds like your pup has some behavior chains set up that may be reinforcing the pulling pull -> stop pulling -> treat and (pull -> stop pulling -> treat -> get to move forwards ->) several times over -> reach destination Your question about why she doesn't realise pulling doesn't get her anywhere is a great one. Becuase if she does eventually reach her destination, she in fact does get somewhere (and in her mind she's done that partly by pulling). Instead, when she pulls we recommend you turn around and walk in the opposite direction with her. Pippa calls this principle 'ditch the destination'. It's much less rewarding for them And to help fix the "pull -> stop pulling -> treat" we recommend you keep streaming treats to her for as long as she's in position. So that most treats are for staying at heel, rather than for coming back into heel. I hope that helps! It's worth bearing in mind that at this age, the methods needed to maintain your training while walking the dog are not very compatible with family walks. It's okay to just walk the children and the dog separately, if needed!
