He is a 1yr old lab. he was pulling terribly on leash. i got him a head collar. it works great. i don’t use the head collar, he still pulls but not a bad as before. What other training methods can i use so he wont pull? to be honest im not too concerned with him walking at my side at the moment, just the pulling. unless of course the way to training is walking by my side so he wont pull. ALL advice welcome!
Labs are known for this. I have a Lab and she used to pull terribly. The reason they do this is because they are trying to be the dominant one, so they are pulling because no matter how far you let them get ahead of you they try to get further ahead. My dog was the same with the gentle leader (Head collar). The way I got her to stop was to teach her to walk beside me.
I would wear a shirt or Jacket with a pocket, which I would fill with training treats. I would then put her on the leash and tell her to walk nice, right away before she had a chance to pull or get distracted, I would reach in the pocket and give her a treat. Now her interest (especially being a lab who are notorious food hounds) is on my pocket. Every couple steps I would say good walk nice and give her another treat. For training I started with very short walks and frequent treats to keep her interest, then as she got better I would make the walks longer, and the space the treats out more. Now I don’t even need to bring a treat with me, I tell her to walk nice and she stays right beside me. At first when I wasn’t training her I would use the gentle leader to avoid her picking up bad habits. Patience is key, labs are very smart, find a way to communicate what you want and they will learn very quick. I’ve been able to teach mine everything from the basics to turning on and off the tv.
The head collar is simply a band-aid that masks the pulling behavior, but does not truly “fix” it.
Start in your yard where there’s fewer distractions, and work up to higher distraction environments.
There’s becoming a tree-which gets you nowhere fast – and they do figure it out 😉 and also the crazy walk.
For crazy walk, I have been known to take 1 step and change direction, walk in really tight circles to the left (especially for a left heeling dog that keeps trying to get ahead), walk 5 feet then turn (just to keep attention), tight circles to the right for a dog that isn’t keeping up, and if the dog does start to pay attention and walk nicely after a little bit (depending on how far you are up to) and offer a reward.
It’s basically forcing the dog to pay attention to what you’re doing. It might take a few sessions and even after that an occasional weird turn, but your dog will catch on.
I have a 9 month old GSD mix and he did the same thing. We went to a puppy class at Petco and they taught us to hold a treat in your had in front of his nose as you walk with him. Every so often he gets a treat. This keeps him interested in walking by your side. It has helped our dog out some. He still tries to pull a little at times but nothing like it was and usually one when there is something interesting going by (like birds….he loves them :). He walks in front of me now and not by my side but it is definitely better. If he starts to get excited and wants to pull, I make him sit and ‘Look at me’ until he settles then we start walking again. I too tried the special harnesses but they know when they have them on an when they don’t and pulled like crazy when they weren’t on.
Best of Luck!
Forging ahead is the biggest problem when walking adolescent dogs on-leash. Dogs pull on leash for a variety of reasons. Many adolescent dogs pull on-leash, because they were allowed to pull as puppies. For more training tips, check out this site:http://dogtime.com/dog-training-walking-…
when your dog starts to pull, you STOP walking. EVERY TIME.
the dog will learn that when he’s pulling, he gets no where. when he has a loose leash, you walk along.
i have used this way to train all my dogs how to walk properly on a leash with very few corrections needed.
The answer is get a Gentle Leader.
My wife had a problem with our dog practically pulling her arm out of joint. Once I got a Gentle Leader that fixed he problem.
He didn’t like it at first, but now he’s a perfect gentleman.
Contact your dog’s breeder, or kennel club. They can refer you to a reputable trainer in your area.
is he tracking or traveling?