Pulling while walking

[RJS30]

I'm having problems with Champ pulling while on walks. He is 9 months old and about 100 lbs so it is a pretty strong pull. I use a slip chain collar and when he pulls, I pull and give him a correction. My wife will not walk him until I fix this problem. Should the correction be different or should I be using another method? This pulling method usually comes when he sees a bush or a fire hydrant or something he can mark.

[Rott-Wiley]

Are you working with him in an obedience class? They could show you the proper way to give a correction for a dog that forges or pulls. You said that when he pulls, you pull and give him a correction. You should keep him on a loose lead and when he pulls, don't pull back but set the leash up to apply a serious yank on the leash with both hands in an upward across your body motion. It is much better to give him one meaningful correction the a bunch of annoying little ones that don't accomplish much of anything. Also don't forget to praise him when he is doing well and offer plenty of treats if you're working with them. And there are other types of collars that can correct this behavior too. The gentle leader or a prong are two alternatives, I don't know which would be better for him - you should have him evaluated by someone who can see him in person to make that decission.

[RJS30]

No, he hasn't been in formal training but I know a personal trainer who has been giving me tips but he is out of town. I do plan to get him in an obedience class at Petsmart after the holidays. I haven't been giving him slack in his leash though because I want him to be right next to me when walking. I'll try the loose approach and give better corrections. When my friend (the trainer) walks his dog, the dog looks up at him the whole time and if my friend stops, the dog instantly stops. That's the point I want to get to. Thanks

[Luvs]

Definately get him into some classes. They can help you with his pulling problem and they can also help you get his attention during heeling.

Have you tried to stop moving when he starts pulling? I did this with Akasha when she was very little. I would suddenly stop all movement and she was unable to go any further. When Akasha got a little bit older and she started pulling during walks I would immediately turn around and head in the opposite direction. She quickly learned to keep an eye on me since she never knew what I was going to do.

If you want to work on your dog paying attention to you, that is something you can start at home while you are just sitting around. With Akasha I would get a treat, put the treat up near my face (so she would look up at me) and give her the command to look at me, (with her I use "ready"). She would not get the treat until she made eye contact with me. She learned very quickly that "ready" meant I wanted eye contact. Now she knows that "ready" means look at me because we are going to do something and she better be paying attention;)

When your friend who trains gets back into town ask him to show you how to use a prong collar. I know that prongs are somewhat controversial but I personally prefer a prong over a choke. I feel that the prong is much more humane (if used properly), as it applies pressure evenly around the neck instead of just on the trachea (which can be severely damaged from a choke). With our puppies I used a flat buckle collar until they were older and had an understanding of the commands. I then switched to a prong as my training collar. Now that the puppies are older and understand what I am asking of them (most of the time ) I do use a choke from time to time since that is what they are shown in. I want them to be used to the choke collar long before we enter the show ring.;)

Good luck with your puppy! Get him into classes as soon as you can. I bet you will enjoy them as much as he does!:D

[Anne]

When your friend, the trainer is back in town why not have him in to give you a few private lessons.

My dog was a puller too. I went to group obedience classes but still she pulled.... I then had a private trainer come in and learned how to walk her without her pulling.

Have to say I don't like choke collars. Either a prong or a Halti give a more gentle and meaningful correction without the risk a choke presents. But you need to be taught how to use any correction collar in the proper manner.

[Brooke&Ryan]

We also have Julius in obedience classes. He's been in them since he was about 3-4 months old. He had a beautiful heel for quite awhile & then right around 10 months started to test us a bit. I just started stopping (like everyone else has suggested) & would wait until he would look back at me. Then we would be on our way again. This only took about 2-3 times & he was done pulling.

Now he is a lovely gentleman on the walks that we take & he knows that if he pulls at all mom is going to STOP....which is just NOOOO fun!

:)
Brooke

[spidey]

When my friend (the trainer) walks his dog, the dog looks up at him the whole time and if my friend stops, the dog instantly stops. That's the point I want to get to.

Please be aware that formal attention heeling (which is what you describe above) is not rewarding for the dog, and quite difficult to boot. Good heeling is a great goal to aim for, but please don't require your dog to do this for more than a few steps here and there, the bulk of your walking should just be polite, loose-leash walking, which is fun for your dog and for you. A sure-fire way to make your dog HATE heeling is to do too much of it, in my opinion, it's just unreasonable to expect a dog to do attention heeling for a whole walk. I don't actually like attention heeling anyway, especially with a thick-necked dog like a Rottweiler, it's very uncomfortable for them, can cause gait problems, and they should be looking where they're going, they can watch you with their peripheral vision. It looks flashy, but it doesn't really take the dog's best interests to heart.

What I do to achieve polite, loose-leash walking is just stop walking when the dog pulls, and when he stops pulling, praise and walk on. If you don't give him something to pull against, he can't pull, and since he's usually going to be pulling to get somewhere faster, what you do is train him that pulling gets him there slower or not at all (if he doesn't stop pulling when you stop walking, turn around and go back a few steps).

[Carina43]

Ditto on just stopping dead whenever your pup starts pulling. Initially it might take you an hour to go around the block, but it does work if you are consistent.

Also ditto on not using the choke. It's obviously not working anyhow, right? So why bother with it....Get a prong collar. It's like putting power steering on your dog; a great training tool!

[debbiej]

this may be a bit off the topic...But I was glad to read about not having dogs heel for long walks because I have been wondering about that. Hilda (7 mos) walks politely, she doesn't pull but she dosen't heel either. I don't enjoy walks as much when I feel like I have to keep thinking "should I be making her heel?" I like to have causal walks with her through the desert but don't feel like I want to let her off a lead yet, so I keep her on either a retractable leash or a long line. Is this going to confuse her when we start to work on heeling? Once we start obedience classes will it be inconsistant to take our 'at ease' walks?

[spidey]

Once we start obedience classes will it be inconsistant to take our 'at ease' walks?

Nope, reasonable obedience trainers do not expect their dogs to do formal heeling all the time, so it's absolutely not inconsistent to spend the bulk of your on-leash time just expecting polite, loose lead walking from your dog. You use one command for "at ease walking" (I use "let's go") and another for heeling. What I generally do on walks is do heeling when crossing the street or something like that, it amounts to probably less than 10% of our total walk. I feel pretty strongly that walks are for enjoyment and exercise, with a bit of fun training here and there. Formal heeling for extended periods is just unreasonable, and it's certainly not enjoyable for the dog.

[Rott-Wiley]

We go for a walk almost every day and I don't make her heel. It's just time we both can enjoy. Sometimes in the middle of the walk for some reason I'll need her to heel and I'll tell her to and when we're done with that, she gets a release command and she can continue enjoying herself again without having to worry about watching my every move in heel position.

[RJS30]

Thanks for all the replies. Maybe I will try the prong instead of the choke, because I have been doing most of the things that were suggested. My friend is starting to act like he doesn't have time to train so I think I will just have to go ahead and pay him for his services. Thanks again.

[Anne]

That sounds pretty reasonable to me. If he is a dog trainer and that is his business i.e. his way of earning money then he should certainly be paid for his time and effort.

Please do not use a prong without being taught the proper way to fit and correct with it. That actually goes for any training collar in my books.

Mistakes in training are easy to make but a bit harder to fix.
Good luck and please keep us posted.

[Rott-Wiley]

I don't think that is reasonable at all. This dog has never had any formal training and all of a sudden he's going to find a prong collar on him. He is not going to know what is happening or why. I believe that all you are going to accomplish is to ruin any relationship that you have with the dog.

[Anne]

Think you may have missed the last post by RJS30 here Rott- Wiley.

He said he may have to pay his trainer for his time in helping him train his dog. THAT is what I was responding to when I said I thought that to be reasonable. That he pays a trainer for his time.

If he has a good trainer and is taught how to use a prong correctly then I don't see anything wrong with that either. It would not be my first option though. The dog may well respond to proper training on a flat collar. This would be for the trainer to work out as we can not see the dog working.