Hello, I have not posted in a while but have a question and wanted to see if anyone has any good advice. My lab is now 3 years old, her name is Gabby. She is very good in the house and for the most part on walks. She does not chew anything anymore and her excitement level has definitely toned down. When she was about 9 months old and we would be walking, she would start jumping up and grabbing the lead almost pulling it out of my hand. At that time, I would turn my back to her and she would eventually stop. She eventually stopped doing the behavior. Recently, in February, I broke my ankle and she was not getting the normal amount of exercise. A typical day of exercise for her is 75 minutes of walking on lead and then about 1 hour of off lead fetch. I was cleared from my doctor about 1 month ago to start my normal exercise routine. Gabby has now started jumping up again and grabbing the lead. Yesterday, she started jumping up and grabbing the lead on a busy road. It was all I could do to hold onto the lead, it was very scary. She also bit my arm while trying to grab the lead and I now have a really bad bruise. I have tried several things including turning and ignoring her, asking her to sit and stay for several minutes and then rewarding that behavior with her favorite treat. I am at a loss as to how to control this behavior. She is about 75 pounds and is very hard to control when she starts doing this. I am afraid she will get loose from the lead on a busy street or injure me more severely than a bruise. Any advice or help is appreciated. Thank you!
Sorry to hear you are having problems , Can I ask when walking Gabby does she wear a flat collar and lead or a harness ? The reason I ask is that my dog Bella now nearly 2 years old does the same thing when she is being walked on her flat collar and lead however if we walk her on her harness she does not , needless to say she is now never walked on a flat collar ! lol So maybe it might be worth while seeing if a change helps .
Hi Dalliance, she does wear a harness rather than a flat collar and lead. The one thing about her harness I don't like is the lead attaches in the front near her chest so she has easy access to the lead. I may try a different harness and have also thought about buying a dog back pack. I think the back pack would really give her a workout as well.
I would train a good 'sit' with high value treats. Then you will be asking her to do something rather than just hanging on to her lead. ...
I would skip the backpack. Dogs aren't designed for carrying loads and it could potentially cause her joint problems.
I think a back fastening harness would work better as the lead won't be in front of her face so would be harder to grab. Hope the ankle is ok now
Yeh that was my train of thought as Bella has a harness that attaches from the back and that seemed to cure it for her .
My Aileron can not use a back harness, it makes her pull even stronger. I resorted to buying a metal chain leash. After about two attempts at grabbing it, she stopped.
