BC Crazy Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Hi, My new BC puppy arrived last Sunday. so we had her for 1 week now & she is going really well. Very bright little girl, she has settled in here like she has been here before & we love her to bits . I have just started to lead train her. She is going O.K. very food focused but would much rather play tug-of-war with the lead, or just bite it & roll on her back & have a game. I encourage with verbal praise & treats when she moves forward, even 1 step but it's the lead chewing & pulling that I don't want to become a bad habit. I have sprayed some "stop chew" product on the lead to try & discourage her but she liked the taste of it : Any help / advice with this would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sallyandtex Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Hi, My new BC puppy arrived last Sunday. so we had her for 1 week now & she is going really well. Very bright little girl, she has settled in here like she has been here before & we love her to bits . I have just started to lead train her. She is going O.K. very food focused but would much rather play tug-of-war with the lead, or just bite it & roll on her back & have a game.I encourage with verbal praise & treats when she moves forward, even 1 step but it's the lead chewing & pulling that I don't want to become a bad habit. I have sprayed some "stop chew" product on the lead to try & discourage her but she liked the taste of it : Any help / advice with this would be greatly appreciated. I wouldn't be too hard on her at that age! She's only a baby You might like to take another chew toy to give her so she doesn't focus on the lead. maybe a lead that attaches behind her might help as well. When Sally (Kelpie now 18 months) was a bit older, we use "Uh-UH" for meaning no, and when she starts playing with the lead we say "UH=UH" and she gets it, give her praise for doing the right thing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I use a fine chain leash to start they don't enjoy chewing it much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussienot Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 (edited) My dog Tarot did this as a young pup but quickly grew out of it. When she started to grab the lead, I would face her and walk backwards, patting my legs and urging her to follow. She always did, and as soon as she caught up, I'd turn around and walk forward normally again. When she started thinking about following me, she forgot about grabbing the lead. This went on for a week or two, and I was thinking about how to solve it, then one day I noticed she had stopped playing with the lead on her own. With her, I didn't re-direct to a toy because I didn't want her in intense play mode when we walked. She can be a high drive little rocket, and I knew the solution lay in reducing arrousal. Edited February 21, 2011 by Aussienot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvsdogs Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Hi, My new BC puppy arrived last Sunday. so we had her for 1 week now & she is going really well. Very bright little girl, she has settled in here like she has been here before & we love her to bits . I have just started to lead train her. She is going O.K. very food focused but would much rather play tug-of-war with the lead, or just bite it & roll on her back & have a game.I encourage with verbal praise & treats when she moves forward, even 1 step but it's the lead chewing & pulling that I don't want to become a bad habit. I have sprayed some "stop chew" product on the lead to try & discourage her but she liked the taste of it : Any help / advice with this would be greatly appreciated. http://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup#p/u/22/IR7TvrUQ_1k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra777 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I wouldn't worry about the lead chewing/holding thing until she's happy and going forward reliably, get too caught up in stopping her touching the lead and you run the risk of making her hate the whole thing. Let her hold it, carry it, whatever just so long as she's moving forward. I have a 14 month old that still grabs the lead when she gets really excited, but a ah-ah stops her if she tries to chew it or pull on it, but she's allowed to hold it is she wants to at other times, she never bothers for long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BC Crazy Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 I wouldn't worry about the lead chewing/holding thing until she's happy and going forward reliably, get too caught up in stopping her touching the lead and you run the risk of making her hate the whole thing. Let her hold it, carry it, whatever just so long as she's moving forward.I have a 14 month old that still grabs the lead when she gets really excited, but a ah-ah stops her if she tries to chew it or pull on it, but she's allowed to hold it is she wants to at other times, she never bothers for long. Yes Sandra777, that's exactly what I don't want to do.I don't want Stella to sour of the whole lead thing. I have moved the very short lessons into the lounge room where there is less distractions & are pleased to report Miss Stella went extremely well today & didn't grab the lead once So we will remain indoors for a while cause I think she is starting to listen to me a lot more & it is easier for her to focus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BC Crazy Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 Hi, My new BC puppy arrived last Sunday. so we had her for 1 week now & she is going really well. Very bright little girl, she has settled in here like she has been here before & we love her to bits . I have just started to lead train her. She is going O.K. very food focused but would much rather play tug-of-war with the lead, or just bite it & roll on her back & have a game.I encourage with verbal praise & treats when she moves forward, even 1 step but it's the lead chewing & pulling that I don't want to become a bad habit. I have sprayed some "stop chew" product on the lead to try & discourage her but she liked the taste of it : Any help / advice with this would be greatly appreciated. http://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup#p/u/22/IR7TvrUQ_1k Thank's for the link, I will take a look at that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BC Crazy Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 Hi, My new BC puppy arrived last Sunday. so we had her for 1 week now & she is going really well. Very bright little girl, she has settled in here like she has been here before & we love her to bits . I have just started to lead train her. She is going O.K. very food focused but would much rather play tug-of-war with the lead, or just bite it & roll on her back & have a game.I encourage with verbal praise & treats when she moves forward, even 1 step but it's the lead chewing & pulling that I don't want to become a bad habit. I have sprayed some "stop chew" product on the lead to try & discourage her but she liked the taste of it : Any help / advice with this would be greatly appreciated. I wouldn't be too hard on her at that age! She's only a baby You might like to take another chew toy to give her so she doesn't focus on the lead. maybe a lead that attaches behind her might help as well. When Sally (Kelpie now 18 months) was a bit older, we use "Uh-UH" for meaning no, and when she starts playing with the lead we say "UH=UH" and she gets it, give her praise for doing the right thing! Don't worry Sallyandtex I wont be too hard on my little Miss Stella, I love her tooo much for that LOL. I think we are making progress today & I am ignoring any biting/pulling on leash & only praising the good stuff, like crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCPuppy Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 My girl still enjoys a tug of war with her lead occasionally But as soon as it is clipped on she behaves as she should. Early days yet as the others say, lots of good advice on DOL, sounds like you are doing everthing right! It is so much fun seeing them learn and achieve. Best advice I can give is enjoy her and take lots of photo's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 (edited) Elbie, our Kelpie/Border Collie cross went through two phases of leash attacking. The first phase was when he was a very young puppy and seemed to see the leash as yet another toy. He grew out of that on his own. The second phase was when he was older and it drove us absolutely bonkers for a while – he'd start attacking the leash as soon as we got back to our street. See this post. We tried a range of different solutions – treading on the leash, stopping, dipping the leash in yucky tasting stuff, distraction … we tried a chain leash but that's quite uncomfortable for our hands and we really didn't like using a chain leash. He's grown out of it now – from memory, the thing that eventually worked for us was what stopped his nipping and biting of our heels when he was a young pup – we used a spray bottle. The first time, I actually sprayed him in the face and he let go. The second and third walks, I just held up the spray bottle in the air without spraying and he backed off from the leash. After that, I stopped bringing a bottle along and he just got out of the habit of attacking the leash so no longer does it. I used to read about non-mouthy pups with great wistfulness and envy but then our second pup Hoover came along and he has never been mouthy at all! He hasn't gone through any nipping/mouthing phase and the only time he's ever put his teeth on us was by accident. Elbie was a LOT mouthier growing up so it's been a relief to us that he has grown out of it and shows no desire to nip/bite/mouth at us anymore. I'd chalk his early puppyhood mouthiness up to the fact that he is a crossbreed but a lot of purebreds mouth as well so perhaps it's just luck of the draw. Good luck – I know how frustrating it can be. At the time, it feels like it's going to go on forever!! Edited February 21, 2011 by koalathebear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMAK Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 i have a young 12-13 week old pup atm we don't do any walking or anything outside but when the lead is attached around hungry time aka dinner. she gets hand fed yummy chicken and we do a bit of training around the yard or house. She doesn't even know it is attached and she behaves perfectly and we let her drag it as it is a light cord and we are starting on lifting the lead up and down while treating her and doing some clicker training. she is more focused on the food then a light lead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancinbcs Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Most Borders will grab the lead at first if you let them, that is why the "let them drag the lead" technique is useless. They just eat the lead. I train my babies to heel in the yard and in the house, with no lead on, just using food rewards, praise and body language to help position them. Once they are heeling nicely, add a loose lead but train exactly as before. The lead becomes incidental and they ignore it. It stops them ever learning to pull on a lead as well. You do not need a lead to teach a Border Collie to do anything. The lead should only ever be a safety device, not something to steer with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bedazzledx2 Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Do you plan on doing any dog sports with her? Agility or Obedience? If so don't worry about the lead grabbing at all! You don't want to reduce drive at this age and when you learn to harness the drive you won't be using a lead anyway. My 14 week old kelpie is occasionally grabbing the lead still but it is naturally reducing and I don't mind anyway. Later on I will encourage him to tug on a purpose made fluffy agility lead. I wouldn't worry about the lead chewing/holding thing until she's happy and going forward reliably, get too caught up in stopping her touching the lead and you run the risk of making her hate the whole thing. Let her hold it, carry it, whatever just so long as she's moving forward.I have a 14 month old that still grabs the lead when she gets really excited, but a ah-ah stops her if she tries to chew it or pull on it, but she's allowed to hold it is she wants to at other times, she never bothers for long. Yes Sandra777, that's exactly what I don't want to do.I don't want Stella to sour of the whole lead thing. I have moved the very short lessons into the lounge room where there is less distractions & are pleased to report Miss Stella went extremely well today & didn't grab the lead once So we will remain indoors for a while cause I think she is starting to listen to me a lot more & it is easier for her to focus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 (edited) Do you plan on doing any dog sports with her? Agility or Obedience? If so don't worry about the lead grabbing at all! You don't want to reduce drive at this age and when you learn to harness the drive you won't be using a lead anyway. My 14 week old kelpie is occasionally grabbing the lead still but it is naturally reducing and I don't mind anyway. Later on I will encourage him to tug on a purpose made fluffy agility lead. I don't mean to hijack the thread but may we see photos of your Kelpie puppy - on another thread of course ? I adore Kelpies and we don't see enough photos on DOL Edited February 24, 2011 by koalathebear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bedazzledx2 Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Not having any luck uploading photos at the moment. Have a look in the kelpie thread here http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...5&start=105 I will have some ripper photos coming soon...a very talented friend took some as part of a fundraiser for the Qld floods Do you plan on doing any dog sports with her? Agility or Obedience? If so don't worry about the lead grabbing at all! You don't want to reduce drive at this age and when you learn to harness the drive you won't be using a lead anyway. My 14 week old kelpie is occasionally grabbing the lead still but it is naturally reducing and I don't mind anyway. Later on I will encourage him to tug on a purpose made fluffy agility lead. I don't mean to hijack the thread but may we see photos of your Kelpie puppy - on another thread of course :D ? I adore Kelpies and we don't see enough photos on DOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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