Leash-Walking

My Puli puppy is now 5.5 months old. He's good in many aspects except leash-walking. I walk him twice a day, the second to a park where I let him off the lead for a run. He behaves very well off lead and doesn't stray too far away.

However, when on lead, he is frequently pulling. Before we've left the house he's pulling towards the door. When we leave the house, he launches into the air, almost lynching himself, and then turns around and starts fighting with the lead. He does this for the first several minutes of the walk.

He improves later in the walk, occasionally launching, but mostly just pulling. He also has a tendency to jump up at parked cars. Now and again, he does walk by my side, looking up for treats, but this tends to be on main roads only.

I have tried a number of techniques, but to little effect. For example:

1. Treating him with food when he's walking calmly by my side.

2. Practicing leash-walking indoors with treat at far end of room.

3. Firm commands when he's pulling.

4. Stopping and waiting patiently.

5. Pulling lead to stomach and pivoting on spot to bring him round in circle.

6. Teaching heel.

7. Moving in different directions.

8. Taking different routes.

9. Running away from him in the garden so he learns to pay more attention to me.

10. Shaking a bottle with coins when pulls.

11. Holding him by the scuff of the neck as a correction.

12. Taking him out when he's sleep or not as hungry

For most of the above, he is compliant at first, but then starts pulling as soon as we start moving again.

At the moment, I am grinding to a halt, waiting for him to stop pulling, and then moving on again as my ongoing teqhnique, but I've been doing this for over two months now and he doesn't seem to be making the connection, or simply isn't bothered if he has to stop.

If anyone has any advice (feel free to chastise me if my methods are terrible - I'm trying real hard though, honest!), then it is gratefully received as I was looking forward to the walks prior to getting a dog, but they have become a chore now. They can also be embarrassing and I get jealous when I see well behaved dogs.

I wouldn't say I'm going to have a breakdown or anything, but walks are currently emotionally and physically exhausting. It's amazing how frustrating a process it can be, but I'm determined to get him to walk on on a loose leash.

Many thanks in advance.

Choose one method and stick with it!

I'm still getting Louie (10 months) to walk properly on a lead. We've been using the "turn the other way whenever they pull" method...it's getting better..

Practise makes perfect and it takes time..I've only got Louie to the point that I still have my arm 95% of the walk instead of only the 35% it was a few months ago. Just keep at a method you like, that you feel is best for you and your puppy and stick at it...you will get there..

Good luck.

Just read over your methods - just skim read first time:

How I find it is working with my little dog is that we start the walk and he is way at the end of his lead. (This has just been over the last two days, as up till now I've been more concerned about him being confident when he is out.). I catch him looking at me, and I make a fuss about what a good boy he is, and treat him. He starts looking at me and then coming back for a treat, which he knows will be forthcoming. From this, he has transitioned fairly rapidly to walking at my side. I then tell him "off you go", and encourage him to move away from me. "Off you go" means you can relax and be ahead of me, but he's decided that's not the best place to be, though I've observed that some places on our walk have just too much of an attraction for him, so we don't work on it there, as he would fail. So, once it is more of a habit, being at my side, we'll proof his leadwalking in more challenging areas. That's the plan. He is a breed that is known for liking to do tricks, so it might be that he picks up things fairly quickly, and this method might not work with all dogs.

I agree!

I have just got the book '' My dog pulls, What do I do? ''

It makes soooo much sense! And explains and why dogs pull etc. And can really see how it's going to work - when I was first reading it a couple questions came to me as i was reading it, but as I read on they were answered.

I would recomend it to any one having trouble even though I've only just got the book and only just started the training method I can see it's going to work for my dog, it's quite a relaxed and possitive way to go about it.

So what's the suggested method?

I recomend you get the book!

Ok here's the basic method:

Stop when the lead becomes tight.

Wait two seconds.

Make a small noise like a clicking / smacking sound with you tongue/lips (or pat your leg - which is what I'm working on) (you have to teach this part inside or in a quiet area before trying to use it any where too exciting so the dog knows it going to get a treat when you make that noise)

When the dog starts to turn his head.

Praise him.

Walk a couple of steps in the other direction.

The reward the dog for following - key is not just to reward for getting his atention but to reward him for following.

So sort of a combinationg of a few things that you've tried I know that, but if you get the book it gives examples of when not to try and do this training until the dogs really gets it and to use a different lead when your not doing the training - the book puts it better than I do.

I don't want to copy the whole book but a good part of it is understanding why somethings work and others don't so half of it is telling you what NOT to do.

For example any harsh training when trying to get the dog to walk on a loose lead is obviously going to make the dog want to get away from you, tugging / checking will make things worse because more often than not the lead goes loose just before the tug so the dog trys to keep the tention to avoid the tug.

Also the aim is not to walk like an obeadience champion but simply to have the dog walk on a loose lead and not pull and it also says quite a lot that it's hard work for you dog to concentrate for long periods of time espcially to start with - and you pups is only young so from what the book says it's best to keep sessions quite short.

Ok hope that sort of sums it up but like I said it's wriiten in the book better than I can explain it.

Sophie