Hey all, My boy is 7 months old now and I am having a difficult time with him walking on the lead. Sometimes he walks wonderfully, but other times it is hell and embarassing. When he is bad, here are the things he does - Walks from side to side - Walks with his head down, constantly sniffing and putting whatever he can find in his mouth - When he tells himself "I want to go there", he stops at nothing! and if he doesn't get his way, he abruptly stops walking, sits and refused to move (something new) It is impossible to move him since he is now 55 pounds. He will look at you with those eyes and say "Well if I'm not allowed to go there - I wil stop walking" I have tried everything imaginable to keep his attention during walks, treats, clicker, sounds, singing to him. I walk with him on lead indoors and he his flawless. Outdoors is a different story and has a mind of his own. Some days, he is perfect, then everything goes out the window and it IMPOSSIBLE to go for a normal walk. Any tips or suggestions? I am running out of ideas Thanks
Ahhh 7 months old and he has hit "that" age! It can be very challenging! Our chocolate boy Benson was dreadful! We had to go right back to basic loose lead walking and retrain, and train and train, boy was it tedious! The world becomes a very exciting place for a boy so you see a lot of intense sniffing, urge to explore etc. Which is probably why you are doing so well inside, he manages really well with low level distractions. To sit and not move on a walk is usually a sign of anxiety, or not too sure what you want from him so he just plonks himself dowm. Dogs don't really have a concept of "OK I will sit because I can't go there" attitude. It is a very frustrating time for both dog and owner and I can really sympathise. I can take the I am a tree and won't move approach, although this tree was scowling with annoyance and often had steam coming out of it's ears!!! Do you mind be asking what do you do when he pulls outside? It sounds like back to the drawing board outside and in familiar areas for now with very low levels of distractions.
Oh they try your patience at this age but patience is exactly what you need by the bucketful!!! Go back to the beginning and work in gradually more exciting areas. Trust that all your hard work will come good again in time. It really will you just have to keep working and keep the faith
Hi there,I started right back to the beginning with my dog at around the same age as I'd completely wrecked any kind of loose lead walking,we were a mess and I was despairing. Pippa's advice was get 2 steps and work up from that,I used a clicker and treats.obviously you can't get anywhere on a walk like that so he was driven to off lead walk areas and if I really had to take him on his lead he was walked on a harness and there were times I used a gentle leader head collar if I really wanted to ensure no pulling happened. If I was sole owner of Dexter I would have an excellent rather than decent heel and loose lead but my husband walks him as well and he isn't consistent with him.With hindsight I should have probably insisted Chris didn't do any lead walking ,that sounds mean and wasn't really practical.Do consider this though,like for everything you need everyone that is involved to be doing the same thing x
http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/the-s-walk.14266/#post-217149 Did you try the suggestions at your first thread? Are you taking any training classes? It can be hard to train on your own, an instructor can observe and give you tips as to when to apply some of the many techniques available to you. Plus, in class you usually also have what are THE most powerful distractors, other dogs. And those other dogs in class are in control (hopefully) whereas the ones you meet out in the great big wide world may not be.
I have tried every trick from every book, every video, every tutorial, every dogowner, every friend, etc etc.
Lately what I have been doing it just planting my feet and not move. Most of the time he will stop, come back a few steps and sit beside me until I say "ok lets go". He fine for a few steps. The pulling forward isnt the majority of the problem. If we are walking on a sidewalk, with grass yards to our left, and he will walk and pull towards the left to go sniff every inch of that yard. Unfortunately the yard isn't my property Sometimes he can actually sniff 1 area for a long as a few minutes (which i let him be a few times not to restrict everything)
He doesn't understand (by the sounds of it) when he can sniff and when he can't. Maybe try putting 'go sniff' on cue.
He is a "teenager dog", so he has flying butterflies in his head... Dana, is 8 months and some days she has a "bad day", that day, just keep calm and be constant. Sometimes when she is in front a friend's door, she just sit and wait for her friend, to come. I use some roast chicken to lure her to the start of walk, afterwards, reinforce whith "yes" and reward (not always with premium treat). This, has decreased the undesired behaviour frequency of "dead sits". It has been reduced to a minimum. I never try to start walking by pulling the leash. I agree that, sometimes they can challenge your "zen mode". By the other hand, other days, it is just a pleasure to have walk wiht her, and you see that previous work, has nice results. Good Luck and keep constant. Pedrolo.
Love the idea of "flying butterflies in his head" @pedrolo in English we have an expression "butterfly brained" but I think yours is better
Sorry, if sometimes I do not use good English, ... I just keep on learning... Best regards... Pedrolo.
Your English is very good. I just love the mental cartoon type picture I get every time I think of "flying butterflies in his head"
I have a dog who will plonk himself down if there is a direction he wants to go and I'm not going there! Sometimes I wait him out, sometimes if I go back and stand beside him and then start walking he will just continue on like nothing happened, sometimes my clicky tongue noise will get him going - in all cases when he starts moving again he gets a "good boy" and a treat. And once and awhile I will just go the way he wants to go. Which probably doesn't help to stop this but hey ho, whatever...
I also let Juno decide which path we take at different times, admittedly she doesn't sit but she will look at me and look at a certain path and then back to me - a clear can we go this way . I view our walks as her walks, so why not let her have some input
