trouble walking my girl

[JoLyn]

Hi all, I have a 7 month old female, Xena & she is great, the only trouble that I have with her is walking. She is so strong & enthusiastic when we go on our daily walk, do you have any suggestions? We use a choker & lead, I have read about pinch collars & halties, which do you use & or suggest. I love walking her & it would be much more fun if I didnt have to brace myself against her every step I took. I take her out to a field & let her run so I think she is just so excited to get there, she wants to run there...lol...

[Monika Malow]

Hi and welcome! Try the haltie, it will stop her from pulling. Have you taken her to obedience, if not, you should give that a go first.

[poohbearsmom]

Just bought a prong collar for each of my babies! Don't know why I didn't do it sooner, except it looked like some sort of midievel torturing device.
I have a very good trainer that suggested the use of these collars as I have carpal tunnel in both hands and bad shoulders and enthusiastic large dogs. (don't like chihuahas, so don't suggest it!!LOL)
It has been much easier finessing Poohbear with her obedience work, as well as making basic training with Deiter a breeze.
With the pinch collar, I have found that the dog "corrects" itself - i.e. pulling on the lead is uncomfortable, so they learn quickly not to do it.
Check with your trainer on proper use of this collar if you choose to get one for your Xena. Good luck. Elisabeth

[WorkinDogz]

I agree with all of the above.

Hardware, be it a halti, prong collar, gentle leader etc. can certainly make walks more pleasurable for you....but actually TEACHING the dog leash respect and HEELING should be the goal.

One obedience course isn't enough for any dog. Training is a constant thing.

Good luck!

[Seven]

This topic is being moved to training.

[Hurricane]

Just throwing in my 2 cents...

When I'm teaching my pups to heel, I find myself constantly reminding them. They will start to lag, and I'll say "heel" and entice them to come back up. Or, they will start to get ahead, and I will say "heel" and bring them back with a "half-halt" on the lead. After a while, I no longer have to correct with the lead, I just say "heel" and they correct themselves. Of course, the end result is, I never actually use the lead! I tell them once, and they are glued to my side. Whenever they drift away and I must call them back, they always get a pat on the head, at least. I practice hell off lead with Cane when we go inside from the yard. He knows we're going inside, but sometimes he wants to get too far ahead. With a simple reminder, he falls back beside me, gets his pat (and licks me hand!) and stays there! And, of course, once we get back in the house, we get treats all around. I know in the OB ring, it wouldn't be right to have my dog licking my hand the whole way, but I think he'll outgrow that. After all, he's only a pup. At this rate, OB will always be fun. When I start giving commands, the boys gather around just waiting for me to tell them what to do. I get such a kick out of it.

[luvarott]

Originally posted by Hurricane:
Just throwing in my 2 cents...

When I'm teaching my pups to heel, I find myself constantly reminding them.....

I do competitive obedience with my Rotts. They do not hear the word Heel until they are around a year old and have done fairly extensive attention training first. May I suggest that you use a different word for controlled walking if you are interested in competing in the future eg. Let's Go/Follow.....and leave Heel for the very precise work that it involves????? It is much better that the dog never learns a negative connection associated with this early type of training with that word (unless you intend to use Let's Go as your ring word ).

As for JoLyn's dog...you have allowed her to build up a pulling behavior. Only way to get rid of that is thru negative reinforcement cus she has already self reinforced herself with it. Too bad she didn't have early puppy training where this behavior would have been quickly extinguished (known as red light/green light.......pup pulls on buckle collar, you stand stock still....pulling gets you no where....as soon as leash is slack, walk resumes..).
Do not use a pinch unless you are under the guidance of an experienced trainer, this is a pop and release collar, not a collar to allow a dog to pull into, cus if ya do that you have lost the value of it....and pop/release is a skill that can be hard to learn just on your own.

Accustom her to a Halti/Gentle Leader and walks will go much easier.....but do not allow yourself to pop this tool or her to lunge on it...can be damaging to her neck if you do......

[Hurricane]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by luvarott:

I do competitive obedience with my Rotts. They do not hear the word Heel until they are around a year old and have done fairly extensive attention training first. May I suggest that you use a different word for controlled walking if you are interested in competing in the future eg. Let's Go/Follow.....and leave Heel for the very precise work that it involves????? </font>

Thanks for the tip! I'd never had a problem with it before, but this will be my first dog shown in OB if I do it right. Can you explain why they don't hear it until they are older? In the past, I'd teach "heel" just so my dogs would walk nicely on a leash. I saw too many people being drug around by thier dogs when I was growing up. I'm just one of those analytical types and like to know why everything is the way it is.

[luvarott]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Hurricane:
In the past, I'd teach "heel" just so my dogs would walk nicely on a leash. I saw too many people being drug around by thier dogs when I was growing up.
</font>

You are thinking that the word Heel is the only word that means "walk nicely on a leash". The word Heel in competitive obedience means walk in a very precise position and remain in that position perfectly even if we change pace, do corners or curves....and it involves the dog paying total attention to you at all times (I like my dogs to Heel with their head turned up to me watching their focal point).

Not a real fun way to walk on just a fun walk in the park right?? Dog can be taught to walk nicely ie.not pulling, but still allowed to look around, sniff something,etc. on a different command eg. Let's Go or Follow.

[Caleb'sMom]

Hi,
I agree with the stock still method. It was vague at first, or so it may seem to us. He'd charge ahead, I'd stop, and he'd continue pulling against me, looking around and around. So, I used what Caleb knew already, I called him back to me, put him in a sit, got him to look at me, and treated him. Then I said 'come,' and we walked. Its a pain at first, because you stop every two seconds.

Soon, though, Caleb knew that when he pulled, and I stopped dead, he was supposed to come back to me and we were going to start over. The process started to go quicker. Then I started incorporating 'ease up.' The moment I got a strain on the leash, I'd jerk it and say 'ease up.' When the tension was released, I'd say 'done' and treat. He learned that a jerk and 'ease up' means relax on the leash.

On the side, to reinforce, I worked on heel. This is probably the same as in any beginner obedience, but, I took his favorite treat and put him in a sit on my left, and lured him around, saying heel, and praising. Sit when you stop short, and treat. So then, we'd throw that in once in a while during the walks.

I may have overdone it all, but I wanted to be gentle on him. I think it reinforces on many different fronts what I would prefer him to do on the walk. Lucky the Rottweiler is so willing to use what you teach him!

Hope some of this helps.

[frau]

Gentle leader and loose leash training. Stock still until the dog returns to you. We also tap our legs some (NO name calling)so that she comes around and takes the pressure off the lead. Once she takes the pressure off the lead, we praise and start walking again.

The gentle leader made a world of difference.

Good Luck,

Frau

[ChrisC]

I also heard that "heel" was only for show, shoulder alined with your leg. I didn't know how valuable that difference was until I found this board. Sirius trained us to use "steady" I felt strange about saying that when I only knew "heel" for walking nice on the leash. It seems to work well - but only with a halti coller still. We are going back to school

[JoLyn]

Thank you all for your advice, I am going to buy a haltie and give that a shot. She is a very well mannered, obedient dog & that is the only problem that we have had with her.
Thank you all for being here, I have learned so much about these wonderful dogs from all of you!!

[Dogfolks]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by luvarott:
[b]

Too bad she didn't have early puppy training where this behavior would have been quickly extinguished (known as red light/green light.......pup pulls on buckle collar, you stand stock still....pulling gets you no where....as soon as leash is slack, walk resumes..).
B]</font>

A little late to post to this, but I have to say I used the same method with Linda - when she pulled I simply stopped and held the leash to my chest until she gave slack and then we continued.. a little frustrating if you are taking a walk with friends but now I am glad - it was EASY when she was small... now at almost 60 lbs I can't imagine if she were to drag me around LOL.. Steph