Dog training lead etc

[ELBOW2HEAD]

Hello,new member here,

Anyway,this maybe a long story but stick with it.

Me and my g/f adopted a puppy from a dogs home about 5 years ago,he is a mongrel breed and as a puppy (before we adopted him) he was apparentley run over and his left leg was ****ed and set at an angle. He is fine and is able to run and walk but when he's tired or over excited he'll start to limp.

Since we got him when he was roughly 1 year oldish he has always kept pulling on the lead. I mean when i get the lead out his eyes light up and he's like soooo excited and he starts to bark etc. After getting the lead on he pulls the **** outta you in excitement while barking etc. We haven't trained him or really dissaplined him as we thought he's had a very bad early year or so with getting run over and being sent to the dogs home twice apparentley.

He is very bouncey and we have treated him as a child but we need to start to train him since we have a 1 year old baby daughter now. The dog is fine with my daughter and doesn't seem to be fazed by it all and is quite good with her except for the occasional low growl when the baby is climbing on him which we always quickly tell them both off in a way.

So,is there anything you can help me to train him not to pull on the lead as i've tryed to yank it back and say "heal" etc.

Many thanks.

[Becky]

One method is, when he starts pulling, for you to stop walking and stand stiff as a tree. You do this until he looks back at you and lets some slack on the leash. Once that happens, start walking again... with this, expect to be stopping every couple of feet for a while.

You can also buy an Easy Walk Harness or Gentle Leader Head Halti. I have the gentle leader, and, honestly, I wish I'd bought the Easy Walk.

Keep in mind that "heel" means nothing to a dog that hasn't been trained to do it. Heeling is also not a natural behavior for a dog, so they need to be taught how to do it completely.

For training, I highly recommend at least basing most of it on positive reinforcement training. That means not punishing the dog for bad behaviors, but rewarding all the good behaviors that you want so that your dog will use those behaviors to be rewarded. I just started clicker training (by myself) with my dog, and all I can say is that it's awesome! You might want to check out www.clickertraining.com for more information on how to do it.


Finally, I really, really think it would be a good idea to stop letting your daughter crawl on the dog. It's important to train children how to behave around dogs, just like its important to teach dogs how to behave around children.

[ELBOW2HEAD]

Thank you for your help,what i did start to do was the stop and act stiff approach but i felt like an idiot just stopping. Just to clear something up is that i don't encourage or allow her to climb on the dog. The dog sleeps in our bed (girlfriends idea) so when the baby wakes up she climbs into bed with us. Bad idea i know.

Many thanks for your help.

[nancy]

Hi I have a young Rotti and she can be very strong on the lead so I bought a Gentle Leader for her so I can take her among crowds of people and dogs and she will stop if someone comes to her but will not pull towards them. I could not believe the differance the first time I took her out on it. The best £10.00 I ever spent.Takes a wee while for them to get used to it but once they do you are in total controll.

[MrsRottie]

Hi :)

I really think you need to enforce your dogs position in the household, particularly with the baby around.

With the dog sleeping on your bed, he thinks he is at the same 'level' as you in the management scheme of things in the house. If he is thinking this, and your daughter climbs up and tries to displace him, then you could be looking at a very nasty incident.
He is showing his position in the pack when you walk him - he pulls. He wants to lead the pack in the hunt. Yes, carry on with the stopping and starting, that remains good manners for a dog to learn that, but I really think you need to address the underlying alpha status too.

I personally would immediatey go to NILIF (nothing in life is free) he earns everything - even a fuss. Read a good book about alpha dominance and put it into place straight away.

Good Luck and let us know how you get on. We'll all be pleased to help :)

[Becky]

I really don't think pulling is a sign of him wanting to be alpha, and I think too many dogs are labled with "dominance" problems (otherwise, my dog would have "dominance" problems but I'm 99.9% sure that she doesn't). Everything I read is simply a lack of training.

But, to gentley show your dog that you are the pack leader (never be physical with the dog), I would practice the "Nothing in Life is Free" program. That means that he must do something to get/do what he wants to do. So, want food? Sit. Wanna go out the door? down. Wanna get on the couch? Shake.

If he doesn't do it, walk away without giving him what he wanted.

[ruffian]

I also tried the Halti, or head collar, my male Shiba Tonka pulls all the time, it didn't work for him, he would claw and dig until his face was bleeding no matter how many times I tried to get him used to it he would run and hide under the bed if I took it out, but my Chow Chow,Pippin, work really well on it and the diference is imidiate. I now use a pinch or prong collar for Tonka, it causes less stress on his throat than a chock or martingale does becsue he doesn't pull. The no pull harness didn't work for him either though. i only use the prong collar for walks not for pee times and never tieout, infact he wears 2 collars on walks so I can tie him up on his martingale. It works well, but cal also be easily abused.

[retriever crazy]

Hello,new member here,

Anyway,this maybe a long story but stick with it.

Me and my g/f adopted a puppy from a dogs home about 5 years ago,he is a mongrel breed and as a puppy (before we adopted him) he was apparentley run over and his left leg was ****ed and set at an angle. He is fine and is able to run and walk but when he's tired or over excited he'll start to limp.

Since we got him when he was roughly 1 year oldish he has always kept pulling on the lead. I mean when i get the lead out his eyes light up and he's like soooo excited and he starts to bark etc. After getting the lead on he pulls the **** outta you in excitement while barking etc. We haven't trained him or really dissaplined him as we thought he's had a very bad early year or so with getting run over and being sent to the dogs home twice apparentley.

He is very bouncey and we have treated him as a child but we need to start to train him since we have a 1 year old baby daughter now. The dog is fine with my daughter and doesn't seem to be fazed by it all and is quite good with her except for the occasional low growl when the baby is climbing on him which we always quickly tell them both off in a way.

So,is there anything you can help me to train him not to pull on the lead as i've tryed to yank it back and say "heal" etc.

Many thanks.
try taking him or her to obedienent classes. it helps alot

[ELBOW2HEAD]

Many thanks for your help,i'll let you know how i get on.