I was born with a lack of squeam... Just never been squeamish! ... But yes I can see that playing tug with a dead bunny would not be for every one.. But worked a treat with Pharaoh! Had a knock on effect of giving me a command that will make him break of a chase and recall too! If I shout "Pharaoh Bunnniiieeez"! even if he's on the tail of a bunny of his own, he'll peel off and stream back for the bunny I may have... Bonus is, he's teaching Kismet the same command!

Kismet is a Husky cross and teaching her to walk without pulling seems backwards to me... On one hand I want her to pull the bike or me when I'm running.. But on the other hand not pull when we are walking... I did try to teach her collar for not pull and harness for pull. But after a week of walking in the opposite direction I just created a spinning dog!

My breakthrough was a halti headcollar (similar to the cani collar mentioned above). It's perfect. It's impossible for her to pull in it and it's a clear break of equipment so gives her no mixed messages.. No pulling in the headcollar, pull your heart out in the harness!

It does take a while for them to get used to it. Not an instant fix by any means... Prepare for a spinning dog with one paw hooked into the headcollar for a weeks worth of walks.. But persevere. It's worth it and gives me all the control I need!

Well its another day, and ive totally persisted with her training on the lead this morning. For a 1-2 minute walk to our field it took an hour and 20min to get on it. I wasnt pulling on her lead as she isnt getting it, so ive reverted back to just gonig in the other direction when she pulls. In total it took 2 hours to get home lol. I think it will take a few days to get it into her mind that if she pulls she wont get anywhere.

Oh and the whole eating the bird thing didnt bother me that much, it was the fact that she didnt do what i said. She never does that and thats what got me annoyed

The pup I've got at the minute REALLY didn't like the canny collar. She jumped up, bit my arms, pawed at her nose, even scraped her nose on the floor and made it bleed.

But I kept calm, kept her head up, praised her when she walked nicely. It took maybe 3 or 4 walks (with the collar on for maybe 3 mins at a time, then off lead walking) but she's ok with it now.

Since living at the 'country' end of town, my squeam has disappeared too!

Well done for persisting Valandra, that's an epic walk you did there!

I would love to use a harness or a head collor but with the kennel club training im doing, eventually they have toi be by your side at heel, so i would rather persivere with what im doing and just hope she gets it.

Valandra do you use a half choke at the KC training for heel walking?
We do & I found it made a big difference to most walking - the only problem I have is when we first go out, Tilly is so hype & keen to get to the field that she pulls lke a train. Once on the field if she's put back on her lead for any reason, she's fine again so it's just the getting there. I've even tried walking her round the garden before going but it makes no difference.

Magpye - you must have a stomach of steel bunny tug!!!!
That's funny about you saying when you say bunnniesss he'll come running back as when I say birdiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiies Tilly does the same!!! (but not if she has her own bird) but I feel guilty coz I haven't got the promised bird

Thanks, that's lovely of you Sarah

Wys
x

For anyone struggling with loose lead walking (understandably - I believe loose lead walking is the hardest thing we teach our dogs) a few ideas on the apdt site:

http://www.apdt.co.uk/dog_training_tips.asp

About half way down, Lure and Reward or else Redlight/greenlight are 2 ideas.

I used; some clicker, (and lure and reward with it, used clicker to mark exact moment of reward but you can use your voice as explained in the article) and also did very short sessions, so we did say 2 steps of loose lead, "click" or "good" and then Off Lead, using that as a reward (in this instance, not asking for a Sit before letting off).

If you can use what they want most in this way, ie using being let off as a reward for a few steps, it can really help the process along.

I also didn't train before walks, I used to train during or after when the dog was more tired and relaxed.

Lots of very high value rewards like roast chicken/liver.

Had to train my dog for some tracking and harness work also so I needed to get her to understand there was a time and place for both loose lead and pulling but we got there in the end - oodles of patience and high value rewards helped

This dvd may also help although I know Ramble doesn't like it if I recall!

http://www.learningaboutdogs.com/aca...alktogdvd.html

Wys
x

I'd pay good money for someone to get Woody to walk nicely on the lead!!

I don't no if this is the right thing to do but we've been trying voice commands with him and it's seems to be improving.

The minute he pulls I say ''no'', stop and then when he's calm move forward giving the command ''nicely''. If the lead is loose I say ''nicely, good boy'', if he pulls I repeat.

It's taking forever but I'm having to stop and start much less lately so I wonder if this will work if I keep doing it and whether it's worth a go for you Val as I know she is very obedient to your voice.

What do you think Wys?

Well i just thought id post a little update with pepsi's walking on lead. We have been going to the field the last 3 days which is 1 min walk away. Like i said the first time it took 1hr 20min to get there, yday it took 2 hrs to get there and today it took 4 MINUTES. wooo im soooo impressed. She still pulled a little but as soon as she started pulling she turned around and walked the other way as she knew thats what i would do lol. Im very impressed with her.

Yey Pepsi

Well done

Like Wys - I only train during or at the end of a walk.

The difficulty I have found is that the dog doesn;t care whether it take 3 mins or 3 hours to get there - as long as it does.

I do training sessions of going out of the door...get teh lead put it on...walk out the door..come back in as soon as the dog pulls and go and sit down - 5 mins later repeat.

When you want to got for a walk put a harness or headcollar (once you have desensitized) and just go 0- don't stress about the dog trying to pull.

Anyways sounds like you are suceeding