Hello, we need to buy a new harness / collar for max, he has grown so much in 4 weeks his original harnesses is a struggle to get over his ears and seems a but snug all over to be honest.looked at shops today but all too big or just about fitted him now. He does tend to be a but if a "puller" esp with daughter (7yrs) and likes to constantly changing from left to right side unless i have him on a short leash, which I don't like. He is fab off lead at the beaches and comes back really well, just struggling with on lead. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Now weighing 12.4kg at 14 weeks and no toilet breaks anymore at night
I use Perfect Fit because you can change elements of the harness as your pup grows. Online from https://www.dog-games-shop.co.uk/perfect-fit-fleece-dog-harness.html Pricey but comfortable, it reduced my pups lead frustration.
We used a Puppia soft harness for both our pups, very light and soft for puppies with a little room for adjustment as they grow into bigger pups Regarding lead walking, 14 weeks is very young to expect good lead walking, however it is a good idea to start training a pup to understand how to walk with a loose lead. This requires a lot of patience, and actually you don't really want to be going anywhere, probably best not to, then you remove any time pressures. Practising first in your home, garden is good, just for a few minutes at a time. Here is one technique you can use.. https://www.thelabradorsite.com/walking-your-labrador-on-a-loose-lead/ We like to train our dogs in a very similar way as above, but actually not using the lead in the first instance. So we focus on getting the puppy to walk nicely by our side. How we do this is simple.. 1. Puppy is encouraged by my side, I then walk a few paces and drop a largish treat on short grass, this is so the treat is easy to find. Puppy takes the treat and I mark this with a clicker or a verbal marker. Walk a few more paces and repeat, drop the treat. This is very much "luring" the puppy into the correct position. 2. Once puppy understood it was rewarding to be by my side, I then C&T WHEN the pup was in position by my side. 3. Lengthen the time in between C&T's. So going from 3/4 paces to 5/6 and eventually to 10. Puppy walks 10 paces nicely, C&T. I would probably add a cue before we got to consistently walking 10 paces. So give your cue..could be "heel" or anything. I use "walk" because "heel" means something else. Use you cue when you pup is walking nicely beside you, so you are rewarding the correct behaviour. Pup then associates the cue with the behaviour. 4. Drop the difficulty level when in a new area, or lure ( treat on nose..) to get from A to B. This avoids the pup pulling. This is just my approach, they all walk fairly nicely on a lead, although very rarely are they on leads for more than a minute or so as most of their walks are off lead.
Yes, as @Beanwood has said, this is perfectly normal. Walking on a lead at an unnatural pace is really difficult for a puppy (or even dog) to understand, so it needs a lot of work on your side to make it rewarding enough that he chooses to do it. Investing time in this now will pay dividends in the long-term; your puppy is only going to grow in strength and a dog that has learnt to pull is far harder to change than teaching your puppy properly in the first place. If you do this now, you shouldn't have to resort to anti-pulling devices later.
