Loose Lead Walking With A Clicker

[LoveMyLabEva]

Hey everyone,

just a quick question on clickers, I'm very new to this so was hoping you could help me out

I have a 16week old Lab who is doing very well with her training with the exception of pulling when on a lead. I have been clicker training her from the start with all her training and she responds very well to it.

So with teaching to walk on a loose lead, I have been using the clicker to "click' everytime shes on my left and walking how i want as well as verbal praise, she picked it up really well inside so i started to take her for short walks outside with clicker and treats. she still pulls but i stand still as soon as she pulls, this seems to work and she comes back to sit position. this just seems to take forever sometimes to go even a short distance with all the stops.

my question is this.......should i keep going like this or should i be doing it differently?? her attention span is still quite short so i dont no how much i should expect from her at this age. long long should i expect her to be able to concentrate on me before i end the session ( with a play ofcourse :D )

Edited October 17, 2010 by LoveMyLabEva

[aussielover]

Keep going, you are doing the right thing!

My 6 month old recently started pulling as well and this is the same as what we do and she seems to have improved.

I like to walk her after she has had a bit of a run around in the yard or at the park so she is not full of energy at the start of the walk.

Is the pulling all the time or is it more "lunging" type behaviour?

[shelby-001]

We adopted an 11 month old male (boof) and 4 month old female (lilly) amstaff, they hadn't really been 'taught' to walk on a lead at all, however they weren't unexposed to them as they were quite happy to be put on a lead.

Lilly will walk beside me loose lead no pull already (just got lucky with that one I think) Boof on the other hand always wants to be in front. If I let him walk in front of me he doesn't pull, but he does try to set the pace. I was advised to 'tire' him a little before starting our 'walk' so the urge to be so fast and in front isn't so high. This helped immensely so I would recommend a bit of a play before going out as well.

We went with doing this as we noticed half way through his walk he would settle and happily walk loose beside me and that's when he gets praise and obviously no correction.

We are due to start obedience in a few weeks with them so that should also help us!

[B-Q]

I found this one quiet helpful, it makes sense to me and its how I'd prefer to train but I've been struggling with it.

The classes I'm taking her to start us off with just luring them beside us for one step, then slowly work it up distance and sistration so I'm going with that now to see if she catches on faster, it seems to be easier to explain to her to stay beside me this way but I do wonder how easily it'll be to fade out the lure because she's so focussed ont eh food.

[SmoothieGirl]

Sounds like you are doing a great job. It may seem like hard work now, but she'll be learning at such a fast rate she'll 'get it' and 'stick it' fairly soon. Better to persist now while she's little than battle later. Perhaps stick to short 5 -10 minute sessions, but break them up too. 10 mins is a lot for a pup, but if you add games (like the focus one below) they will just love it.

Eventually you will be able to phase the clicker to just your marker reward word and then stretch that further and further out and before you know it you'll have a puppy the neighbourhood will be envious of, as their dogs drag them past you.

You might get some challenges as distractions are found, eg. dog down the road, so perhaps start some focus training. There should be heaps on the net about clicker training and focus or watch me type exercises, or how about a good book. There is a book called The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller and this particular exercise in that book is called The Name Game. In the absence of a good trainer, perhaps a book would help and this one has heaps and heaps about clicker training in it, including how to eventually wean your pooch off the clicker.

Good luck!

Edited October 19, 2010 by SmoothieGirl