My 13 month lab has always pulled on the lead despite training classes (where she walks perfectly) and various attempts to cure this problem, including stopping as soon as she pulls, reversing and walking backwards and keeping her attention with treats. Does anyone have any better ideas before I am pulled over on icy winter pavements or have to resort to a halti type head collar?
Re: Stopping a dog pulling on lead Hi there, Welcome to the forum, sorry to hear you are having problems with your dog. I will put some information on heelwork up for you tomorrow Pippa
Re: Stopping a dog pulling on lead Hi there, Please do not despair! Heelwork can be a stumbling block for many owners but it is always fixable. There are several different methods which can be used to get dogs walking nicely to heel. I will put a bit of information about each of the main methods below. But whichever method you use, the most common cause of slow progress is the handler attempting to go too far in one direction before the dog is ready. Increasing distances gradually So if your dog can walk three steps at heel on a loose lead, you are ready to attempt four or five steps, and if your dog can walk ten steps you are ready to attempt fifteen steps. What most people do is get the ten steps right, and then try to go for a half mile walk with the dog on the lead. Some dogs might make it to twenty steps before they fail, but most dogs are doomed to failure with this approach. Try to keep any increases to below one-third The answer is to avoid walking more than 30% further than the distance you know your dog can manage reliably in any given situation. So if your dog can manage thirty yards at heel around the garden, don’t attempt more than forty next time. And if the dog can manage three yards out in the street, don’t attempt more than four yards next time. Bear in mind that you need to shorten distances right back to a few steps when you introduce a new distraction. What do I do when I stop? So if you can only walk four yards in the street, what are you supposed to do when you reach the end of the four yards, which lets face it, is only going to take you a few seconds. The answer is you then turn around and walk in the other direction. Or, you stop, make the dog sit and wait for ten seconds before setting off again. I prefer the about turn method as it is less boring. But how will I get anywhere? You will quite rightly see problems ahead in that it is very difficult to get anywhere during the early stages of heel training. Most serious trainers get around this by driving the dog to an exercise area and driving him back again, so that the dog is never put in the situation where he is forced to walk more than a few steps in any one direction on the lead. I can see that this is annoying for those that want or need to walk the dog to an exercise area, or that want to take the dog whilst walking children to school for example. The trouble is, this is the only way to get a hardened ‘puller’ out of the habit of pulling without using some seriously forceful methods. I will add a bit about the most popular methods in another post Hope that helps Pippa
Re: Stopping a dog pulling on lead Thank you Pippa. I see I must be more patient and not heel walk to my normal "off the lead area" each morning to break the cycle of pulling - I will drive there instead and let her off, then try some lead work later in the garden and street. Will let you know how it goes...
Re: Stopping a dog pulling on lead Hi, really interesting stuff and I'm keen to try this myself with my 5 mnth lab... can I ask how long you would make the training session last each time please? thanks
Re: Stopping a dog pulling on lead Hi there Welcome to the forum At five months old your lab still has quite a short attention span, so a few minutes (five to ten minutes) at time is fine to begin with. The objective is to keep it fun and upbeat. Pippa
