Back to basics it is then!

I have ordered a 30ft long line from my wholesalers so should have that in a few days,

Is it safe to attach that to the headcollar?

Got a feeling he would take me off my feet if it was attached to a harness!

NO - WHATEVER YOU DO, DO ***NOT*** attach the long line to the headcollar!!!


You could accidentally really injure your dog's neck by doing this.

The long line should be attached either to a harness or a *regular* flat collar.

I don`t think there`s much point trying to work out what your dog thinks is scary. To a dog, it`s anything a bit different tbh.
What is important is getting him better trained so he gains confidence and learns to cope better.

As said, much too risky to attach to a headcollar - imagine tying a bit of rope around your forehead, Rambo-stylee, tying the other end to a tree and running full speed, you'll get a big old jolt to your neck and ditto to a dog with a headcollar.
If you're worried about being pulled off your feet then don't have all 30' sat loose - reel him in and out to give him some freedom instead.

A harness with an attachment on the back works best to keep it from under their feet.

This may be something you have tried and our pups behaviour wasnt as ingrained but our pup did this a few times in the park to different people and what worked was using the 'leave' command and we would walk briskly in the other direction, it brings him back round to us and breaks the focus on the person being barked at. He looked like he was trying to assert his authority, not aggressively but a bit like a big bag of wind!

He has now stopped so we are hoping that it was nipped in the bud and not just a fluke!

if you have seen sarah fisher you may have some idea of my groundwork ideas, which are similar to hers.

on your first post you said being rewarded once the stopped barking worked (as in he stopped barking bark??) but you didnt like it as you thought the reward was for barking, not the cessation of barking.
but on this one you say the reward didnt have any effect?
i picked this up as im not too clear, and it may effect what im thinking.
my instinct tells me your dog needs 'decharging' first.
as in, he sounds like his current state of being is heightened and charged.
i would work on his emotional/energy state first as the basis for working on his cognitive function and therefore his training abilities.
to that end, personally speaking, id avoid any activity that would charge him up.
tracking would definitely be great as this can be a calmer.

i have been training a spaniel this way.
he lunged and barked at people, prams, buses, vans, trucks, bin men, cyclists, joggers, playing kids, other dogs, workmen.
he's good as gold now.
completely compos mentis and tuned into me now, and switched onto obedience training on the walk around his scary things now, as i took him thru the de-arousal groundwork programme i described earlier.

i also used sniffing as a reward for good behaviour or a distractor/displacment activity instead of reacting to the scary thing (i will sometimes scatter treats when he is doing this)

was the harness called a mekuti harness?

Hi

Sorry for the confusion! I have just reread it & see where you are coming from,

Just to clarify he didn't reduce his barking at all with the reward method, it was just I couldn't help thinking murphy may have thought he was being rewarded for barking, regardless if he had stopped or not if that makes sense!

Have a bit of a crisis here tonight, murphy has managed to swallow the large end of a plastic spatula I was making liver cake tonight & knocked it off the side onto the floor!
I am hoping that because its one of those really bendy sillicone types its going to pass through him so fingers crossed!

I didn't do much with sarah fisher as we got hoiked into being part of a demo in the main ring at Paws in the Park last year & she thought he would benefit from a harness rather than the headcollar as it was making him very headshy, its not a mekuti as we use one of those on my other springer, it looks very much the same as those fleece type ones that the dog games people make but has the ring in the centre of the chest as well as the back, he does walk much better on it compared to a normal harness.

Sorry forgot to add

Murphy is a very hyped up dog when we are out, in the car he "squeals" with excitement know he is going out somewhere!

Healthwise he was found to have a slight heart murmur about 3yrs ago but that hasn't got any worse since, it was a grade 2

My male Estrela barks at people if he's offlead, therefore I walk him on a long line, and he also goes running with the other half to burn off his energy. I've been teaching him a 'stop' command. The idea is that he stops where he is rather than recall, as he thinks he's in trouble if I try to recall him (he's a muppet!). It's starting to work now, but we've been doing this for about 18 months. I don't think he'll ever be 100% trustworthy though, so I have to keep him safe by using the line.