Pulling On The Leash!

[dee lee]

Lablover,

At home she is very well behaved- will come, sit, drop, stay, shake, catch, plus will follow directions (ie: get downstairs, on your bed, leave it etc). I have been consistent at reinforcing leadership and she is submissive with me.

Step out the door and she is so easily distracted. Her recall, i would imagine, is appalling by now since she has not really been offleash for about 4 months (due to some antisocial behaviour towards other dogs) and i have not worked on it at all in that time.

She has gotten better outside since i have been working on her attentiveness. Now the major hiccup is just distraction with other dogs or cats.

She still is not consistently loose-lead walking but its a work in progress.

I would agree all is not perfect- I have plans to go to a behaviourist/trainer when i can but til then am doing the best I can with lots of good advice.

[kateykateykatey]

deelee I am by no means an expert, but at dog school with my dogs we practice "watch" (which we teach initally by taking a treat to the eye, and later replacing that with a hand signal that is something like tapping next to the eye).

You could also practice targeting (nose to closed fist) as a way of getting the dog to stop and focus while on walks.

As for recall, at dog school we learn (and practice) this while on leash, by walking the dog (with a loose leash) and running backwards, saying the dog's name and "coooome" when the dog looks at us and rewarding when the dog gets to us.

Great work on the progress, though! Loose lead walking can be a slow and frustrating process, but well worth it.