Loose Lead Walking - What's The Best Way?

[poochmad]

I've taught Henschke to pull on the lead and he's very good. Up until recently he would pull you almost off your feet whenever you opened the front door, the front gate and then proceeded to pull you all the way on a walk until he got tired and stopped pulling. [The above is said in jest.]

In a over a week's time he's going to be staying with a friend and when she commented that she was going to train him to stop pulling, I realised it was not good that he was pulling, besides the fact it being quite dangerous. (I also didn't think it was fair for me to ignore his behaviour and for me to leave it to her to train my dog.)

So. I did a bit of research and one of the training techniques is to become a 'tree'. When the dog pulls you stop. When the lead slackens you go. Stop, go, stop, go.

So far so good. In only one day, Henschke stopped lunging out of the front door and would sit waiting patiently. When I got to the gate, he would stop and wait until it was opened and not lunge across the front lawn. In a couple of days, he's stopped pulling me up to his best friend's house. Sure I have to stop at least 6 times, but the lead is getting more and more loose.

The main problem I have is Henschke sits. As soon as the lead goes taut he stops and sits. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? When he sits, we move on.

Am I doing this loose lead walking right or is there a better way?

I was going to use the clicker to get him to walk beside me, but I want to focus on him walking loose on the lead before advancing to heeling. I don't want to confuse the two.

What have you done to teach your dog to walk loosely?

I should also mention that he's at his worse when there's another dog around. When we're just walking on his own, he's quite good and quickly slows down so the lead is constantly loose.

Edited March 5, 2009 by poochmad

[persephone]

There are many ways of teaching this.... each dog is different, and some methods work better on some dogs.

May I just ask first up WHY you taught him to pull???

have a read..

HERE

and HERE

and HERE

for some different views!

Edited March 4, 2009 by persephone

[Tilly]

I used to just change direction - so if he is pulling in one direction then I move off in the opposite direction. We used this mainly to take his attention off what ever he was focusing on (wanting to sniff etc) and basically forced him to pay attention to us - we also gave him a word.

Now when he starts to pull we just say the word and he refocuses. We also made a point of giving him a release word that allowed him to take the time to sniff around (when we are out walking).

So with one word he will walk properly on lead (for exercise etc) until we get to an area where we give him another word to allow him to go to the full length of the lead and take his time to explore, sniff, pee, toilet etc.

[dee lee]

With the tree thing- I make my dog walk back to me before I start again. I did this by saying "back" and pointing to beside me. You could use treats at first. Now I only use the command if she doesn't automatically do it.

I also have spent months of insisting she heel for the majority of her walk. With the heeling if she starts to get ahead I spin and turn, forcing her to follow me. This has worked better than anything.

*sigh* She's 2 now and we have been working on this for over a year- the improvement has been slow but noticeable.

"It wont happen overnight, but it will happen".

[claireybell]

I've started doing the change direction thing aswell and am getting really good results. Everytime Jodie pulls I say her name at the same time as turning in the opposite direction. After about 7 direction changes she picked up that she wasn't going very far and started to walk nice. I think it will take some time for her to get the idea completely but its a great start.

[poochmad]

There are many ways of teaching this.... each dog is different, and some methods work better on some dogs.

May I just ask first up WHY you taught him to pull???

Sorry, it was a joke. I read that when dogs pull, it's because we taught them...so I had successfully taught Henschke to pull...by not teaching him not to...

[huski]

I had lots of success with the change of direction technique too!

I also found teaching 'look' really useful.

[persephone]

Sorry, it was a joke. I read that when dogs pull, it's because we taught them...so I had successfully taught Henschke to pull...by not teaching him not to...

Ok

[poochmad]

I've started doing the change direction thing aswell and am getting really good results. Everytime Jodie pulls I say her name at the same time as turning in the opposite direction. After about 7 direction changes she picked up that she wasn't going very far and started to walk nice. I think it will take some time for her to get the idea completely but its a great start.

This sounds like a good idea...I will try this and see how we go.

How long did it take before she was consistently on a loose lead?

[Bjelkier]

Mistral has always been a shocking puller and he is very strong.

I have been using the turn in the other direction method too and so far its been working very nicely.

I find that Mistral will get very frustrated with me when I do this and quickly understands that if he wants to pee on that bush or say hello to that other dog there is no way he is going to get it unless he walks nicely.

Thankfully he picked it up pretty quickly. We are still having issues, more so in high distraction areas but we are getting there slowly

[Just Midol]

Change of direction and stopping takes forever.

I tried doing that with Gizmo but after 4 days he hadn't figured it out. I just used a correction collar instead and he had it in a matter of minutes.

Edited March 5, 2009 by Just Midol

[claireybell]

I've started doing the change direction thing aswell and am getting really good results. Everytime Jodie pulls I say her name at the same time as turning in the opposite direction. After about 7 direction changes she picked up that she wasn't going very far and started to walk nice. I think it will take some time for her to get the idea completely but its a great start.

This sounds like a good idea...I will try this and see how we go.

How long did it take before she was consistently on a loose lead?

Not sure exactly on the time frame but maybe a week of doing it? She will still pull to get out of the house when her lead is on but once we're off she's pretty good now. I'm finding that she only really pulls when she gets a scent (she's a beagle) and then I do the direction thing and she forgets about it. Before though she just pulled like a freight train the whole time!

[poochmad]

Last night when I walked Henschke, he walked in front of me, but the lead was loose. Not as loose as I would like, but not tight.

When the lead did go tight, I'd stop (I tried to call him back but he doesn't even look back) or wait until he was side tracked (meaning the lead was loose) until I resumed walking.

When we picked up his little mate, he pulled like a trooper...until I walked him in front and then he walked beautifully on my left and on a loose lead. Whoo-hoo.

My next step is to get him walking on my left on a loose lead at all times. From now on, I will click (make noise in my mouth) and treat when he's at my left and walking where I want him to be.

Hopefully it won't be too long before I have a great-loose-lead-dog to walk.

Edited March 5, 2009 by poochmad

[B-Q]

I tried the "be the tree" method with Buster, aswell as the "turn around and go the other way" method and neither relaly helped too much.

I ended up with a clicker, a couple of small steps C&T and working up over a couple of weeks. Now he is a pleasure to walk, I'd prefer him walk closer back beside me but seeing as he still genuinley seems to enjoy pulling on the leash, he seems more comfortable out ahead of me and I can live with that.

[LeeJane]

I have the opposite problem, I have to PULL my pup to walk. Whenever she hears noises/kids/dogs, she will stop and refuse to move forward. She will literally sit on the road and watch the distraction, with a tilt head, looks very confused, as if "what are they doing?"

And i have to drag her forward....

[Just Midol]

I have the opposite problem, I have to PULL my pup to walk. Whenever she hears noises/kids/dogs, she will stop and refuse to move forward. She will literally sit on the road and watch the distraction, with a tilt head, looks very confused, as if "what are they doing?"

And i have to drag her forward....

Don't drag her forward.

Encourage her forwards, praise, act stupid. Do not pull.

[poochmad]

Well. Good news! Henschke for the first time ever walked with his mate (a Cocker) for almost the whole walk (40 mins) without pulling! Whenever there was a little bit of tension we stopped and then proceeded when the lead was slack.

This is the first time ever, that I've been able to walk him a) next to another dog and b) without pulling.

I'm so thrilled!

Yahoo! :rolleyes:

[Just Midol]

Good work!

Such simple things make life so much more pleasurable with a dog.

[LeeJane]

I have the opposite problem, I have to PULL my pup to walk. Whenever she hears noises/kids/dogs, she will stop and refuse to move forward. She will literally sit on the road and watch the distraction, with a tilt head, looks very confused, as if "what are they doing?"

And i have to drag her forward....

Don't drag her forward.

Encourage her forwards, praise, act stupid. Do not pull.

ooops.... ok will try to lure her forward then

she will start moving again once i start running, then she will get excited and run with me. what a way to loose weight, i run around the block with her now, we do it everyday....

[Erny]

she will start moving again once i start running, then she will get excited and run with me. what a way to loose weight, i run around the block with her now, we do it everyday....

Ok - so break it down into smaller increments. Run to 'gee' her up and then throw in a couple of normal walk paces, back to a run/jog before she has a chance to lag, then throw in a couple of walk paces. Work to increase the number of walk paces you can do without her lagging until you can predominantly walk rather than run.