Need advice on how to stop leash pulling

[welsummerchicks]

please no kowtow!

- just lucky enough to have some good teachers...and some wonderful dogs.

I think the hardest dog we had was Siberian Husky-Chow, and the softest was a whippet. The Husky Chow would throw his forepaw over the lead if you gave a leash correction so it couldn't give a decent snap, but I don't know if there ever was a leash correction that got through that neck roll of fur and fat!!!

And...about people who don't 'read' dogs well, my sweet whippet went up to a new trainer and put out her paw to shake hands with her tail wagging tentatively between her legs...the trainer screamed, 'She's TRYING TO DOMINATE ME!' and slammed the dog to the floor. Wouldn't know a soft dog if it came up and peed at her feet. In two seconds we were 'buh-bye now!' and out the door! On the other hand I've worked with trainers who had never done anything but Rottweilers and German Shepherd dogs, and they could very easily make adjustments to a soft dog like a whippet.

 

[Lorije1]

I have just skimmed over most of the posts here... but I used a gentle leader on my Lab from the time he was 13 weeks until just over a year old. No yanking or sudden pulls were needed - he responded immediately to it. He hated it, but he responded to it. As he matured and started realizing we'd get where we were going eventually, I was able to transition him to a regular flat buckle collar.

Gentle Leaders are hard to fit and use on "smoosh faced" dogs though.... but our trainer used it on them successfully.

 

[reveriereptile]

Thanks for all the replies and tips. I don't think she has a prey drive as much as she just wants to play with any animal she sees. My MIL has a pekingese that since the first day she seen our dog she kept trying to growl at her. She usually plays with other dogs but not ours. Since ours has gotten a little bigger than her she bites her to keep her away. Our dog just keeps trying to play and show her submission. My FIL has a border collie that tries to avoid her but she is like that with most other dogs. She doesn't seem to get that they don't want her around and if I have to go past one of them to get into the house she pulls towards them the whole time. If I have to go by them I made the leash as short as I can and hold her by my side. It is hard to distract her with noise or treats when she is focused on one of them. I've been starting to tell the other dogs to go or wait and give them time to move which has been helping with her not pulling as hard. Once the other dog moves she she gives the leash slack I start to walk and stop again if she starts to pull and wait for slack.

 

[animalbaby4everandalwyz]

I have 2 pits and they love LOVE to pull the way i get them to stop is when they pull i kinda pull back some and tell him no and then if he keeps on i keep telling him no and then if hee keeps on i kinda woop him not hard just a pat and so no stop pulling and make him sit and i get in frount of him and he has to sit untill i get walking and tell him to come on..this may not work but it works for me ...

Hope i helped some....

 

[scbatz33]

From my experience.......I have a rotti who pulled my arms off We use a prong collar. She's good as gold. HOWEVER she was grown by the time she came to us.

We have a mastiff - lots of skin. We have rarely put a collar on him at all and NEVER a choke collar. The bully breeds with lots of skin can actually get detached from the body if collars are used inappropriately as they are growing.

My sis has a pair of huskies she can't walk for anything. She allows them to charge out of the door and yank her all over the place. She said they were horrible. So I took one and she took the other. I made mine wait on me. I made mine walk beside me. YES MY ARMS HURT LIKE MAD but after a few blocks of correcting - CONSISTENTLY, he walked beside me. So sis says - it's that dog, he's the better one. So the next day we traded. I got the "tough" one and guess what? He was walking beside me and behaving with in a few blocks. The one I had the day before, drug her the whole way.

It's not the dog. It's the method and the message. You need to find a training method that works for you. You need to be consistent. You need to work DAILY with this puppy. She will come around, but only if she is guided.

 

[SallyF]

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I've used your method also, and it worked for me. You just have to be consistent with them.

 

[tonini3059]

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That is what I used for my dog and it worked very well.