How To Lead Train A 9 Month Old Staffordshire Bull Terrier Pup?

[Purple Diamond]

Hi,

This may be obvious but……I want to make sure I do this the right way. We have a 9 month of female Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy who has never been walked on a lead. She has worn a collar on a couple of occasions but not regularly. I put a lead on her and she just froze. I tried to tempt her to walk forward with treats but she would not budge. She looked a bit scared or unsure.

She has been in an environment where she runs around on a large property and spends time inside the house. She is fairly well trained in that she knows her name and will sit for a treat or her meal. She does not chew things and is not destructive in the house.

Can anyone please provide some advice on how to best to introduce her to the lead? It would be great to be able to take her out for a walk!

Thanks

[W Sibs]

Hi,

How long have you had her?

Emmy doesn't like the leash at first.. she didn't know what was going on. I put the collar on her and the leash and let her walk around the yard and house with it (total supervision, of course)... she is still in the clingy stage, so her wanting to be with me more was enough motivation for her to follow me around the house with it. After a few seconds, she was fine. She likes walking around the house with the leash in her mouth (the boyfriend always praise her for being so smart and walking herself!)

Every time we leave the house (even if it's to get mail).. I will put the collar and leash on her, because I want to show her that collar and leash means outing. She is starting to get the picture. I hold up the collar and leash now, and she runs to the front door.

Charlie and Emmy does not wear collar when we are at home. They get to run around the house naked

[sas]

I put a light collar on then and attach a light lead and allow them to drag it around the house whilst I'm home for about a week, this way they get used to the feel in a non-confrontational way.

Puppies don't like the tention they feel through the lead so by allowing the puppy to drag the lead and stand on it feeling tention they get used to it.

If the pup freezes in the initial process (in the house) just ignore it, just walk away.

After this week of getting the pup used to the lead and it still freezes have a motivator, a toy, junk mail, treats something to motivate the dog to move.

Edited May 11, 2010 by sas

[Kaz]

I had a couple of foster dogs that were scared of being walked and would drop to the ground at the sight of a leash and not budge for love nor money nor schmackos.

I got them going by walking another dog at the same time. This seemed to reduce their anxiety.

[dancinbcs]

Try teaching her to walk at heel with just a collar on and no lead. Use food rewards and make it fun. When she is walking happily at heel, attach a lead but leave it loose ( no pressure at all) while you continue the same heeling practice. After a coupke of weeks, gradually put a tiny bit of pressure on the lead intermittently until she learns it is nothing to fear.

This method teaches them to always follow you and walk on a loose lead so the lead is only there as a safety feature. It is not used to direct the dog at all.

[corvus]

You could try a harness. Sometimes dogs are less bothered by harnesses.

[Polgara's Shadow]

Hiya Purple Diamond, I'm no expert but I can tell you what we did with my SBT, now 8 months and still a work in progress

We were going really well when he was very young, then we went to puppy school . Being on lead and straining to get to all the other puppies taught him that pulling was the done thing. After puppy school he would literally throw himself to the end of a lead to get towards what he wanted, usually other dogs. I'm sure we could have done something different at the time, but we didn't realise that a problem was developing. Anyhoo after puppy school and we had a great little steam train on our hands I had to re-think what we were doing.

I tried a few things, but two techniques have worked wonders for us... Technique 1 - Long lead - I bought a re-tractable lead, the longest i could find (a really long lenth of rope would work too), found a very quiet bit of road to walk up and back where we were unlikely to be disturbed, and filled my pockets with treats. When I had him on the long lead I found that he didn't actually want to go very far, just that little bit further than he could with the other short lead. This meant we weren't fighting all the time as he had plenty of space to check out before he felt the need to get just that bit further. When he did reach the end and start pulling I'd stop walking and call him back to me, then treat him and praise him when he came to me. At the start he didn't want to come to me (he wanted that thing over there damn it) so I refused to move forward again until he did. Over time he realisedvhow to train me to move forward and that he could get a treat by coming to me when called . When he got good on the really long lead, I started adding distractions (I went to place with people and dogs) and started shortening the lead length (I've now got sereral leads of varying length). After five days of the above technique he was about 50% better.

Technique 2 - Short lead - Similar to technique one but much slower and more frustrating. it hasn't always been practical to have him on the long lead, so when I have had to have him on a shorter lead I'd refuse to move when he pulled until he came back to me. Again whenever a distraction came along (especially dogs and kids) I stopped, called him to me praised him for coming and treated. Once I found the ultimate treat we had rapid progress with shorter leads. Using shorter leads is very frustrating because there is more fighting and less opportunity for your dog to have a 'win' and thus learn what 'winning' is like and that it's much better than pulling. Plus you feel like an idiot walking down the street at snails pace with your dog pinging off the end of the lead whenever you take a step.

It's taken consistency and practice over three or four months now. Currently he walks very nicely on a two metre long lead without treating when there are a low level of distractions. He's made usch progress that I was happy to give my re-tractable lead away to a friend with a 9mo SBT who pulls. However when there are irresistable distractions, usually kids or other dogs, he still wants to lunge towards them but with calling him back and treating him we continue to make progress.

I hope you find what works for the teo of you, theyre such strong little buggers - walking a pulling staffy is no fun at all . Consistency and practice.

Good luck!

Edited May 13, 2010 by Polgara's Shadow

[Polgara's Shadow]

Oops double post

Edited May 13, 2010 by Polgara's Shadow

[Polgara's Shadow]

IMO don't get a harness (sorry to contradict you corvus). They make pulling comfortable and even more fun - not good! My friend I mentioned before tried a harness because she didn't like to think she was choking her staffy (and they do pull till they start choking and coughing ) but it didn't do anything to teach her how not to pull - it just lessened the guilts.

If you like the look of staffy harnesses, wait till you got the pulling under control.

By the way you must post us a pic!

[Purpley]

You could try a harness. Sometimes dogs are less bothered by harnesses.

I wouldn't use a harness on a SBT unless you want it to pull you down the street.

[bellastaff]

You could try a harness. Sometimes dogs are less bothered by harnesses.

I wouldn't use a harness on a SBT unless you want it to pull you down the street.

I have a 6 month old SBT who was walking beautifully with a harness. After having a week off from walking due to her being desexed she now goes absolutely nuts when it's walk time and gets really agro when I try to put her harness on. I feel like I am back to square one now and am trying to walk her with the lead only. Next weeks puppy school should be interesting without the harness. :D