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Walk training.

Alana

Well-known member
Just wondering how you trained your dogs to walk beside you and not pull on the leash. I have been holding treats beside me and saying "back" and when she does it she gets a treat. She only does it for 2 seconds though.
 
I'm still in the process of training Jessie, as he is easily distracted and will yank on his lead and take off if he sees a butterfly,
or even a familiar face. I keep him on a short leash until he calms down, but it doesn't always work.

It's hard when you have an overly excitable pup, especially as our guy doesn't listen unless there is a treat involved.
 
Have you downloaded Ian Dunbar's free book? This goes in detail into a good walking technique. :) You need to be patient and persistent and gentle.
 
Start training in the house with no distractions - then maybe add the distraction of a person, then go just outside - then a few feet down the street add distractions gradually - reward the dog heavily whenever it is at your side. I've done this for both Max and Rylie and they both walk really well 90% of the time. Eventually you can phase out the rewards but IMO I wouldn't ever phase them out entirely. My training mentor says reward average or better as the dog gets more understanding of their job their average will get better.
 
One mistake a lot of people make is to say "heel" (or preferred command) whilst the pup is pulling and jerking the lead. (not assuming this is what you do!) All that reinforced to the dog is that when you say heel they'll get a yank of the lead.

I trained Howard to walk on a loose lead not by using any command, per se, but by teaching him that he only got to move forwards on a loose lead. My theory is that dogs don't need to learn that the word "heel" means they have to walk by your side, but should learn that they don't get to walk anywhere on the lead without having it loose.

When he got in front of me, I'd take a few steps back and then start again. Soon your pup will always be paying attention to you as they'll always be wondering whether you're about to change direction suddenly Couple this with treats and praise when the lead is loose then they're far more likely to walk on a loose lead. (I'm sure that makes no sense, written down....!)
 
One mistake a lot of people make is to say "heel" (or preferred command) whilst the pup is pulling and jerking the lead. (not assuming this is what you do!) All that reinforced to the dog is that when you say heel they'll get a yank of the lead.

I trained Howard to walk on a loose lead not by using any command, per se, but by teaching him that he only got to move forwards on a loose lead. My theory is that dogs don't need to learn that the word "heel" means they have to walk by your side, but should learn that they don't get to walk anywhere on the lead without having it loose.

When he got in front of me, I'd take a few steps back and then start again. Soon your pup will always be paying attention to you as they'll always be wondering whether you're about to change direction suddenly Couple this with treats and praise when the lead is loose then they're far more likely to walk on a loose lead. (I'm sure that makes no sense, written down....!)

This is exactly the method we have always used. We would just stop..and quietly stand until everyone was calm & not pulling..and then like you said..proceed. ( Also..we never kept treats in our hand..as that is just a distraction). Treats come after the walk is over..but that is just us ( do what works best w/ your dog).
Teaching a pup to walk on lead..takes "time"..but worth the effort.
You enjoy the walk..and so does the dog. It also helped w/ our Cav ~ Wrigley that we had our Labrador~ Zeb along. Just seems that when he saw what Zeb was doing...he seemed to want to imitate it. He still tries to get ahead at times and sort of zig-zag..haha..but he is learning.
 
Fletcher and I almost have this down......(touch wood as soon as I say it) The stop walking and ignore thing works for us, but I have 2 problems going on at once, Fletcher would pull on the leash AND try to get my shoe laces, pant legs. When he bit at my feet, I would stop walking and ignore him until he would be sitting there like Mom what's going on.....when he pulled on the leash I would sit down on the ground and ignore him......I switched to a harness I would not want a dog pulling on a simple collar. However, at first I would have to bring him closer to me (pick him up then sit and set him down) because he was so focused on whatever he was pulling at I needed his attention. In both I would just wait until he was ready to ....this way. Again I have a limited dog training education myself. I have read a lot about this but since I was having 2 problems at the same time.....I just decided to wing it. After all I wanted to do was walk my dog, with not being tripped or have him pulling me down the road. I'm sure I looked like a freak stopping and sitting down all over the neighborhood!!!! I knew I needed to come up with a plan and stick to it. I won't say yet we have this down after several weeks, but this morning I didn't have to stop at all and I only had to sit once....

Since getting Fletcher I have wanted to limit the treats...I know training treats are part of training, however I would much rather get into the habit of giving treats too much.

Melissa
 
The harness for dogs I have to agree with as well. Soooo much better than them pulling around their neck.
 
Start training in the house with no distractions - then maybe add the distraction of a person, then go just outside - then a few feet down the street add distractions gradually - reward the dog heavily whenever it is at your side. I've done this for both Max and Rylie and they both walk really well 90% of the time. Eventually you can phase out the rewards but IMO I wouldn't ever phase them out entirely. My training mentor says reward average or better as the dog gets more understanding of their job their average will get better.

I do the same as mindy'smum.
Your mentor wouldn't be Susan Garrett by any chance would it?
I love her :)
 
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