They walk perfectly alone, but together a nightmare!

We are currently working on obedience training with the two boys, Ollie & Winston. Casey is an angel on the leash! *ng*l

My question is this; the boys walk perfectly when it's just me and ONE of them. But walk them all together and the two boys pull ahead and are generally unruly with the pulling and the back and forth. I cannot get them to walk beside me when we all walk together. It makes walk time not all that enjoyable (for me, or Casey).

How do you train A PACK to walk nicely on a leash? Will this just happen naturally as I continue to train them individually at times (in class and in home sessions in the yard)?

Hi Trisha

Easiest way to walk with two dogs is to get a coupler (they may be called something different in the US) - this is two short leads joined together by a ring. The clips that fasten on to each dogs collar/harness swivel so that the dogs can manoeuvre round each other without getting tangled up, and you only have one lead to handle, clipped on to the ring. The only downside is that when both dogs are excited, you do feel a bit like a sledge drawn by two huskies! But generally the coupler makes them very easy to control. And my two look really cute, and make people in the street stop and smile, as they trot along side by side - one ruby, one blenheim - practising their synchronised tail wagging!

Kate, Oliver and Aled

Well, you have the same problem I do. Bandit and Lizzie get all excited together and pull all over the place, but seperately, they stay nicely at heal and watch my every signal. If you figure out a solution, let me know. I don't like the coupler leash on them because Bandit yanks Lizzie if I use it, so I keep them on seperate leashes. I can use the coupler when I walk Lad and Kaya and they walk fine, it is just the cavs.

Hi all....i share ur pain!
My 2 pull/compete as soon as we have left the house however after 10 mins of fast walking they both settle down.
I have mine on seperate leashes with a sensible harness on and collar with tags on.
I tried the coupler.....but when one did the loo the other would stand in it,or while one does the loo the other drags them during it!
It just didnt work for us....but its def worth a shot if u havn't tried it.

In the past I had to walk my dog and my roommate's dog at the same time. I had the same problem! I just held treats out and they followed me. It only worked when I had the treats, so it wasn't a long term solution. As I didn't walk them together often it worked at the time.

Jen and Ilsa

It can be very hard to get more than one dog to walk politely. Even a well trained dog can transform when alongside another. Basically this is a training and/or management issue. Each dog needs to be separately trained to a high level of response and then you have to work further with both together. I find it easier to manage walking three together by having them on Sense-ible front clipping harnesses on a triple coupler lead from Larz -- they cannot pull on these harnesses.

What Karlin said, but I would like to add, putting alot of stops in the walks...Walk ten paces and stop and do not move until they are all sitting again. You have to remain in control so whenever they start pulling just stop. Remind them who is in charge.