Chronic Puller! Help!

[Aidan]

I have been using the same training techniques (all the ones that the original poster mentioned) with her when they are together to try and solve it but no luck.

I believe it is a result of her competitiveness/jealousy

Regardless of her motivation, you solve the problem the same way you would if she were on her own. Wanting to be out in front might be making it worse, but there is nothing you can do to stop her feeling that way except give her a reason not to be out in front and my preferred way to do that is to - never let a dog get anywhere on a tight leash, reward when in position. Nothing magical.

Thanks Aidan. Patience and perseverance!

Yup. Unfortunately...

[corvus]

My preference is to click as soon as they see the other dog, so they are still in position, haven't lunged, right where you want them to be. At an appropriate distance you can get a lot of reinforced trials in this way, when it starts to become anticipated that you will pay this you hold off and see what happens, if it goes "see other dog, head whips around back to you" then you can start clicking then, when they have looked back towards you.

This is what I did with Kivi and it worked like a charm. He had stopped lunging in a matter of about 3 or 4 trials over about a week. I didn't do any setups, just worked on our normal walks. It helped that he wasn't wildly aroused when he was lunging and he was already pretty excited about his marker. I didn't have to use distance particularly, but I did with Erik, who gets more aroused than Kivi.

When that is all good, we then work on on-leash greetings with no pulling.

Ha, this is where I'm STILL at. Kivi will sit or he'll be okay on a loose leash until the very last moment when the owner is bringing the other dog to him and he is within range of greeting. Then he pulls and he gets rewarded EVERY time because the owner of the other dog keeps coming on. It's so annoying! It takes too long to try to tell a person nicely to please wait where they are and we'll come to them. I've changed tactics and am working on a really solid "come to heel" instead. If he's in heel he is quite good about staying there, but I never used to ask for him to come back to heel from a position ahead of me, so that's what I'm teaching him. Anyway, if I can get him in heel before the dog gets in range I've got his attention and he'll actually forget about the other dog until it noses him and then he's like "Oh! Other dog. Where did he come from?"

[Aidan]

When that is all good, we then work on on-leash greetings with no pulling.

Ha, this is where I'm STILL at. Kivi will sit or he'll be okay on a loose leash until the very last moment when the owner is bringing the other dog to him and he is within range of greeting. Then he pulls and he gets rewarded EVERY time because the owner of the other dog keeps coming on. It's so annoying!

Yup, that's why we drill it with controlled setups first. The dog has a choice, but the choice that has paid off over and over and over and over is not to pull.

[K9Nev]

My preference is to click as soon as they see the other dog, so they are still in position, haven't lunged, right where you want them to be. At an appropriate distance you can get a lot of reinforced trials in this way, when it starts to become anticipated that you will pay this you hold off and see what happens, if it goes "see other dog, head whips around back to you" then you can start clicking then, when they have looked back towards you.

This is what I did with Kivi and it worked like a charm. He had stopped lunging in a matter of about 3 or 4 trials over about a week. I didn't do any setups, just worked on our normal walks. It helped that he wasn't wildly aroused when he was lunging and he was already pretty excited about his marker. I didn't have to use distance particularly, but I did with Erik, who gets more aroused than Kivi.

When that is all good, we then work on on-leash greetings with no pulling.

Ha, this is where I'm STILL at. Kivi will sit or he'll be okay on a loose leash until the very last moment when the owner is bringing the other dog to him and he is within range of greeting. Then he pulls and he gets rewarded EVERY time because the owner of the other dog keeps coming on. It's so annoying! It takes too long to try to tell a person nicely to please wait where they are and we'll come to them. I've changed tactics and am working on a really solid "come to heel" instead. If he's in heel he is quite good about staying there, but I never used to ask for him to come back to heel from a position ahead of me, so that's what I'm teaching him. Anyway, if I can get him in heel before the dog gets in range I've got his attention and he'll actually forget about the other dog until it noses him and then he's like "Oh! Other dog. Where did he come from?"

Hi Corvus,

I understand what's happening from your description of the circumstances which sounds like you have done a fairly good job with Kivi but he lacks that little polish to tidy him up. I would personally add a correction into that moment where he takes it upon himself to break away and greet the approaching dog. I don't see that commanding a heel as a diversion in that instance is actually fixing the problem and boils down to the conditioning of a double command to eliminate the behaviour..........sit, then heel to prevent him from taking the greeting break away. It's workable to implement a double command, but ultimately, sit does mean sit and the dog must obey until you as the handler commands a release.

Purely from picturing the scenario provided, I would be inclined to give him a leash pop and an "aagghhh" the moment his bum leaves the ground then reward him when he remains in a sit under the distraction of the approaching dog until you release him. Personally I don't think the behaviour you are working at correcting is difficult to achieve, but I see an aversive necessary in that instance to help speed up the training process and teach him more firmly what is required from the sit command.

Cheers

Nev