With the new puppy i thought i would teach her not to pull from the start out. i'm doing the walking with treat and just getting her used to it. it looks massive on her. she's 4kg of dog and that's a mighty big slip lead ;D when she got to the end of it, she fell over so it's certainly not hurting her. it looks like it's the wrong way round on her but that's honestly because it slipped round. really hard getting them to look at the camera at the same time . http://i1320.photobucket.com/albums/u534/honeydog1/photo126_zpsf4d716a5.jpg is this worth the effort? Is curing it before it's occurred going to be very helpful long term or am i just going to need to get her into line in the same way i did with HD when she's 6 months odd? i read lots of things saying to stop it being a habit. with her being so tiny i can just pick her up more i suppose but it's going to be tricky when i'm trying to walk two. Also those that have two, would you recommend two on one side or one on each? A friend of my parents did each side and his walked immaculately but he was much cleverer than me (and a long term old school gundog owner). the way i did it with honey dog was with just a slip lead, nothing technical, nothing complicated. she's still not a1 perfect. somewhere new when she's been cooped up in the car and i have to go back to first principles but honestly this one is so worth the hard work. i went to a couple of different trainers about it. one (the one who sorted it) seemed to spend her life in a field teaching people not to get pulled by their dogs. she was as pleased as i was at the transformation in a fortnight. one trainer tried to get me to stamp my foot, hit her on the backside with the slip lead end and do a lot of firm voice action which was only one second from shouting. this didn't sit well with me (so i didn't do it properly) and the dog got anxious. nothing got fixed. dog barked at strangers in field so i knew it didn't sit with her and made her nervy. second trainer told me to walk (no stopping, no looking back) and when she went out of position to do an about turn, give the lead a firm tug and when she got in position to say heel good heel and take no prisoners. so no shouting or foot stamping or end of lead hitting. this one i could do without feelings of discomfort. within a week of lots of practice in different places she was a different dog. now, i can turn left or right, stop and do all sorts. i can do this on the street or in the garden. i can't heel past other dogs. i can heel past humans. she isn't in absolutely perfect position because she isn't head or shoulder next to knee. sometimes she's head, sometimes shoulder, sometimes in between. i don't care but as long as when i want to turn i'm not turning into no dog or dog stomach i'm happy. it's also stopped all that god awful rasping noise she used to do when being half strangled. this got lengthy!
Re: Loose Lead walking with a puppy Oh yes there was a question.....got distracted by the cuteness We started walking to heel as early as we could and we've been lucky Riley's pretty good. We started with a puppy collar first then went to a slip lead. He's our only dog so I can't comment on how to walk two. I know one person who walks one either side, the others I know with more than one rarely walk on leads as they have enough land not to worry.
Re: Loose Lead walking with a puppy the problems we had with honey were entirely our own making. nothing to do with the dog. we'll try it the no pulling from the start system and then see whether it was worth the extra effort or not. i'm a natural born pessimist but personally i reckon it won't be. if i do both the same way though i'll never be able to compare! it's a mighty cute picture. interesting to see how much they've changed in 6 months time. Thanks Sarah
Re: Loose Lead walking with a puppy I think that your main problem is that somebody shrunk your dog.... So cute! With lead walking - start as you mean to go on, I say.
Re: Loose Lead walking with a puppy I can't get Murphy to walk on a lead at all! He will be fully vaccinated and able to go out from next Friday and so iv bought him a harness and have been trying to get him used to it but to no avail. As soon as its on him he writhes around on the floor and chews it and with the lead on as well he lies on his back and chews the lead! How can I get him used to wearing them?
Re: Loose Lead walking with a puppy Charlie is still not used to a harness at 5 months (although that might just be Charlie) and still tries to "rub off" a collar. So on the one hand I'm not the best person to be giving advice but on the other have struggled with it for a while! Take it really slow - harness/collar on for a few minutes, gradually getting longer. Put the lead on but don't pick it up, start picking it up for a few minutes etc. It takes a lot longer than you think, or at least in my case it did. My best tip would be drive to somewhere you can let him off for his first walks and then work slowly to get him used to the harness and lead, and set out to clicker train walking nicely (without a lead) before putting a lead on him outside the house. I know it sounds obvious, but it was a bit of a break through for me to realise I had to actually teach lead walking, not just prevent him from pulling.
Re: Loose Lead walking with a puppy Personally, I'm not a massive fan of harnesses on puppies, I would just prefer to go through the steps to get them to walk without stuff. I know it's more work but it's massively rewarding. I would just start with a soft collar and a light lead. Arm yourself with treats and they will see this as a way to get food. Maybe it's just my two but to them food is the best thing ever. treats tend to stop my pup getting to the end of the lead but if she does, I just stop and get her back in. It means that she's skipping around in front of me, and not at the side but she's a 12 week old pup with exuberance. I would rather have that than pulling or confining her in a harness. I hope this helps, I honestly see this as the best thing I've learned to do with the dog and I feel very much more in control and proud of the two of us. I wouldn't have got a second puppy without having fixed this as it allows me to go anywhere, do anything. She can now heel past other dogs. Well, heres hoping its not been affected by the bite. Keep trying, you'll be so proud of the two of you. Sarah
