How do you use a longlead?

Hi there I just bought Honey a longlead to teach her to come back but I am totally confused first things the lead is incredibly long. And no instrutions so any infor will be greatly apprciated

you mean a retracable lead or just a long lead??

Sorry it's just a long lead

There's lots of posts on the forum for recall training - you want to start slow, e.g. recall her in the house for dinner, recall her for some treats, so she gets to learn the command. Then try in the garden, then up to an empty park, etc. If you just walk her to a busy park, put a longline on and expect her to learn with lots of distractions, it's a bit unfair on her.
Secondly make sure you use it with a harness so she doesn't hurt her neck if she runs to the end of it. Similarly, protect yourself and buy some gloves so you don't end up with "rope" burn from grabbing hold of it! It helps to roll the longline slack up as you go, so the dog can't run the whole length and suddenly jolt to a stop at the end, if you reel it up then you can just let it out slowly.
Clix do a product demo video too if you want a visual guide
http://www.companyofanimals.co.uk/pr...ix-recall-line

These threads may be worth a read

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=144344
http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=143408
http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=142723
http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=142708
http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=143161

There's a book on long line training, it looks ok although I've not read it. It's called "Line training for dogs" and is on Amazon I believe. By Gutmann.

Wys
x

Do you mean a long training line?

I found it a nightmare at first - the damn thing kept getting tangled in Dex's feet, or wrapped around trees/bins etc!

What I found helped was to put a harness on Dex and then attach the long line to the D rings on the back of that - it really does stop the line from getting tangled in his feet.

The way I use it is this:

I let it trail on the ground and I let Dexter have his freedom BUT I am always close by and watching him like a hawk. I repeatedly recall him - the second he turns to look at me I start praising and being excited and encouraging him back to me. When he does reach me I yell and make a fuss and of course give him a nice treat!

Then I let him return to playing with the other dogs or whatever he was doing.

The line is really for security for dogs that don't have recall. For example quite often Dex will ignore me if other dogs are anywhere in sight. So now, as soon as I see HIM see THEM, before he can go into his sequence (watch, hurtle, lie down, hurtle, lie down, pounce) I STEP on the long line.


This startles Dex and helps to interrupt his sequence. If all else fails, I grab the end of the long line and tug on it gently to get his attention.

It really does enable me to give him a bit of freedom but retain a bit of control.


Some tips that I found helpful:


1- tie a few big knots in the long line so that if you need to grab it or step on it really fast, that will help

2 - if the long line is a very thin one, consider switching to a thicker one, they are far easier to grab.


How long is the one you are using? I have been using a ten metre one - but have now ordered a 30 metre one so that Dex can have more freedom and I can practise recall from longer distances.



Do keep going with it - I thought I'd never get used to it but now it's really helping.

Thanks for this - I'm going to get it