10 month Springer Pulling on Lead

A friend of mine has a 10 month old springer spaniel who is causing her problems when she takes him out for a walk. He is pulling relentlessly on the lead to the point where he has pulled her over on occasions.

She has tried harnesses but he still pulls when wearing these. He also has a head collar but has found ways of getting out of it.

My friend says he is not as bad when walking back from a walk and thinks its just the excitement of actually going out.

Anyone have any advice please?

You have to train a dog not to pull - really a determined dog can pull against just about any harness or collar.
When the dog walks ahead, change direction. Don`t pull or yank the lead, just keep changing direction until the dog begins to look to you to see where you`re going next. When the dog is following on a loose lead continue on, praising or rewarding the dog.
Keep doing this. It will take a while, because the dog has been allowed to set the pace up till now, but eventually he will learn to walk nicely.
There are many other good ways to lead-train, but the method above is the one that works for me.

If the above reply doesn't work - you could use a halti - this is like a head collar for dogs - it works on the principle that you are leading the dog by it's nose rather than it's neck - like a horse's head collar.
It can help immensely with dogs that pull and are strong breeds.
If you combine this with getting the dog's attention via tiny bits of dog treat and lots of praise when the dog is doig what you want - ie. don't yell at it for pulling - only give it attention / treats when it walks how you want it too the dog will respond.
This is called " no error" training and it works to condition the behaviour of dogs to do what you want ( it also works for small children too ).

I also have a springer who is 7 mths. she is a puller also. I keep treets in a bag and when she gets a head of me I tell her back and when she is by my side walking, she gets a treet. At the beginning I would hold the bag sorta behind me which kept her a little to the back , also you might need to pull her back a few times when saying "back to give her/him the idea. I hope this works , it has helped here a bit. also, as she is walking correctly I give her an occasional treat and say nice walking, or good back, ect.

the OP posted she had already tried head collars.

C & D is right, it's not an issue to do with equipment.
springers, like beagles, are notorious for being determined nose to the ground pullers.
so you need to get to grip with this training quite intensively with these breeds at a young age.

i agree with C & D's technique, and is the one that also works for me, but i add guided walking.
by that i mean i use a head collar with a harness or collar and a double ended lead and guide the dog with 2 hands.
its is also like horse riding, and is based upon TTouch ground work.

the other key point is to walk very slowly until progress is made.
you can incorporate a john wayne drunk cowboy style.
which means start as you mean to go on, so the dog must wait at the door/gate before leaving.

never take the dog out if he's wired, as the key to such dog's is too manage the adrenaline.

if he goons around when you get your dog walking gear out (lead, jacket, keys, boots, etc), go and have a cup of tea,

in fact, get the gear out at random times then dont go for a walk, to break the association and excitement trigger.

dont ket the dog thru the doors if it pulls thru.

shut the door, try again.

also,i dont use treats for this exercise as its all about teaching the dog body awareness and increasing his cognition in the situation, instead of the habitual mechanical reaction.
for a springer i use sniffing as a reward for periods of no pulling...which allows a short pull to sniff.

i have been using this technique on a puppy farm springer for 13 days now, i hour each session, and the pulling has decreased by 95%
i also help him relax by making obstacles out of the eniuronment to navigate with the guided walking.

however, he also has issues of nervousness and can focus on strangers, cyclists, joggers, and other dogs to lunge toward.

he has stoped reacting to strangers at all now, but i have to get his toy out for the other stuff, so i can break the hard early focus to facilatate the guided walking, direction changes and sniffing.

he has also associated treats with excitement and adrenaline and pulling ahead to a right angle front present sit primimg him for pulling onward, so i dont use treats as they teach him to pull.

sniffing is a good premackian life reward.
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Even one step of pulling on a lead can reinforce this - that's the bad news

Springers aren't the easiest of dogs to walk on lead, but like any other dog, they can be taught, I agree with posts above.

One reason for pulling is if the owners are out all day and the dog's main joy in the day is a walk - this will be very hard situation to get the dog to NOT pull, and this is understandable.

Another sometimes is if the dog is afraid of traffic, but if the dog pulls on the way to the park and is better on the way home, it sounds more like just busting to get there!

I tend to suggest, do proper lead training for 5 minutes a day (see previous posts) and for getting form A to B, don't stress, take that away, and use instead a good StopPull harness (you can get good ones with covers for under arm comfort). If the dog pulls on these it doesn't matter as it's not the same as pulling on the lead, but also it will direct the energy either up, or to the side, so the dog will find it hard to pull.

So in a nutshell, I'd go for a good stop pull harness (Halti, Walkezee, Stop Pull, etc) and spend time each day when there is time, teaching loose lead walking on an ordinary lead and broad collar

Wys
x

i wouldnt agree that one step of pulling reinforces the pulling, as thats another example of the operant conditioning theory that all training can only be straight line forward, step by step progress.

that can only give the handler an added layer of anxiety that should one error occur one day after several days of progress then its all gone wrong and all the progress has been invalidated.

which is counter intuitive for the handler keeping it fresh and relaxed and positive for the dog, and doesnt take into account the energy of the situation.

I'm not a great fan of Dog Borstal, but Mic Martin does use one of the oldest retraining a pulling dog methods there is.

Using a fairly long lead, make a large loop & hold this in your right hand with the end of the lead also inthe same hand.

Start walking & as soon as the dog starts to pull, release the loop & turn the opposite way. This leaves the dog pulling against no resistance. I've seen this work almost instantly many times & combine this with some intensive heelwork training, holding a treat just over the dog's nose & rewarding after a couple of paces with no pulling.

No head collar or harness will stop your dog pulling, like everyone else has said it is training that stops the dog pulling by making more rewarding for the dog to walk nicely by your side.

I train my dogs from puppies off lead at home, this way they never learn to pull as there is nothing to pull against. My dogs walk with me because they find it rewarding to do so, not because they are restrained by a collar & lead.

Springers are a bit different and it can be hard to be more rewarding than a rabbit!

I used a treat for 'walk nicely' and only ever had her on a collar and lead when I could train her---I used a harness if I knew I hadn't got time and was walking on a lead and runs came from the car or in the field.

Obedience left and right h/w is different again and has different commands.

She was a totally different proposition from the lab pup I trained the previous year---in comparison he was a doddle!

Now she is OK ish and I don't really work on it a huge amount but I do know she can do it if she has to!

rune

This worked with my rescue Springer who pulled like a train. But intead of changing direction I walk backwards as soon as he starts to pull. He picked it up very quickly and although may forget occasionally, soon remembers when I keep going into reverse.