Training to walk on a leash

[goldie_locks_2000]

I have a 3 year old rottie rescue that does not walk well on a leash. We began obedience classes with her 3 weeks ago. She can sit/stay on command, down/stay on command and is now learning stand/stay so that we can lift her feet, look in her ears, and open her mouth. She just doesn't seem to be doing well with heeling. We have been using a pinch collar as suggested by our trainer, and using the heel command. Although we work with her 3 times a day on the heel command, she does not seem to get it. She pulls and pulls! We have mostly been training in the back yard and the basement (and sometimes the leash free park) because there are too many distractions on our street for her at this time. She is very sensitive to correction (which suggests she may have been abused). We have tried treats, love etc... When we use treats she starts to jump at our hands for the treats.

My question is theoretically, how long will it be until she walks nicely? I know it won't happen overnight. Does anyone have some advice? How do we progress her to walking nicely in our neighborhood, and other public areas? She is too big and too strong for this to continue! I would hate to have to only let her play in the backyard becuase we can't walk her.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

[Rott-Wiley]

Heeling is going to be the hardest thing you will have to teach her and you really haven't been working with her very long. Be consistent and try to figure out what motivates her to do what you ask of her. It sounds like she will work for treats but is a little greedy about them. Try to develop that with her. Don't give her the treat until she does take it nicely. Once she learns how to take the treat nicely move on to requiring more to get the treat and keep being nice about it. Just keep working with her, she'll come around.

[RottiMomCT]

If she is sensitive to corrections, what is her reaction to a 'pop' from the leash when she has the prong collar on??

Just curious. I have a 4ish yr old male who was a nightmare on lead...on goes the prong, minimum 3-4 good solid corrections and he learned that when that collar goes on, it's time to work and time to behave. I am waening him off the prong on our walks but occassionally he still wears it. I carry it with me at all times just in case he decides to be a butthead.

If after 3 weeks she's not getting it - change it up - make it worth her while to stay at your side - use fabulously yummy treats (I used string cheese or hot dogs cut into mini bite size pieces). I only used these treats when I wanted him to stay by my side. Once he got the message through treats and a ton of praise, I started weaning him off the treats all of the time and now he only gets treats when we are done, unless we are re-inforcing the learned or working on new behaviors.

As for taking treats roughly - I had a foster dog who did that. Several times I would joke and count my fingers after giving him a treat! I then held a chunk of hot dog in my closed fist and let him sniff it. The second he STOPPED sniffing, he was rewarded with a "Good boy!!" and the treat was offered. I opened my hand, very close to his mouth so that little effort was required by him to get it......and then did it again. It took 3-4 times before he would sniff my hand for only a second and then look at me. Bang - reward and a ton of praise! I then started telling him "Gentle" or "Easy" and then opened my hand when he stopped sniffing. I did the same with my boy - he now only nuidges my hand as if to tell me "Mom, just give it to me...I know you have a treat in there!"

Have patience, have fun, and always end on a good note!!

[goldie_locks_2000]

Thanks for the advice. When we were giving a correction with the prong collar she would lay down and cower. Very embarrassing and it was obvious that it wasn't going to work for her. I guess knowing your dog and what works is a key part of training.

Funny you should mention the hot dogs. She is very gentle when taking food from my boyfriend and I (part of the training is that all her food comes from either one of us). So I began training with hot dogs on Monday night (she's very picky with food and wouldn't take treats when we were outside - but hotdogs seem to be a completely different story). If she pulled on the leash even after I told her to heel we would stop walking and I would make her sit for a minute or longer. Then I would say heel and begin walking again. If she didn't pull, or if she slowed down after I said heel, we would continue to walk and walk and walk. Then I would stop and reward her with either love or a hot dog bit. She is starting to walk for longer periods nicely on the leash - big sigh of relief! I'm hoping that soon we can make it around the whole block without stopping every 20 feet. Should we practice with her more often (currently we are practicing for 20-30 min 3 times a day)? This is my first dog, how long does it normally take for an older dog (she's 3) to learn this?

On another note - I have learned that spraying her with water (only after she doesn't respond to a command) such as "no window" really has helped to train her from running to all my windows whenever a dog walks by. After a spray she leaves the window to see where the water came from - at that point I go up to her, pet her and give her a hot dog piece and say "good no window". I started this yesterday and it has really worked! This morning she had that look on her face she gets before she runs to the window (ears pricked, head cocked listening for dogs walking by) and I said "no window". She immediately relaxed and laid back down - I gave her lots of hugs and pets and said "good no window - good girl!" repeatedly. I'm just so happy that this is working, because the prong collar with a leash tied to her in the house wasn't working to correct the behaviour. My next goal? No jumping on guests! (She's very happy to see people and jumps to lick their face!).

[Rott-Wiley]

20-30 minutes per day, if you can keep her interest is very good for training. If you see that she becomes bored is starts to look for other things to do while she should be working I would suggest cutting that time back.

Timing is everything when training them to heel. Try to work with your trainer and have them point out when to give the corrections and when to praise the dog.

[Beckysmom]

Do you mean "heel" (formal obedience walk usually on left, close to your leg etc....no sniffing ground allowed) or just a nice walk with no pulling? I usually use a nice walk (where anywhere by me is fine as long as no pulling, and no tripping me) and only rarely a formal heel in real life. to me it sounds like your basic real life problem would be solved with a nice walk. You can take more time for a formal heel.

I worked on a nice walk with no pulling with my dog (big strong rescue) before a formal heel. I have to be attentive because he can lunge at trucks and other dogs, but other than that--which I now solve, so long as I see the problem first, by switching to a formal heel which he now does know--he walks very nicely on a leash but not a formal heel. Mastering the nonformal nice walk should not take more than one day to learn and the rest of all walks to never allow slipping back.

I like the system in April Frost's book Beyond Obedience, and recommend that book to you.

I also suggest general approach that pulling by dog means you stop or go in opposite direction. Loose leash means you go forward. Give it one long day when you resolve not to move forward except when leash is loose--adding also prompts of a treat, praise, etc. for getting into a reasonable non-pulling position. Try that and if it doesn't work, report what happens for more ideas. You may find some collar (regular choke chain, or that plus head halter, perhaps) other than a prong to be better as you work on training to give some more, or different, control in the meantime...or maybe assessment is that for your dog and you prong is it and best.