Best way to stop pulling?

[tamapup]

Tama's pulling is pretty bad lately. Here's what I'm trying now: we get outside the house, he goes potty, and then every step he takes has to be at my side with a nice loose leash. Pretty much a heal position with a little bit more leeway. He gets a click and a treat for each step, for each time he looks at me, for each time he sits when we stop walking... He seems to be responding well to this, especially since we are doing it in a non-exciting environment (right outside this house). Unfortunately this means that until he stops pulling, we stay in that area. No socializing with other dogs, no going to the park, no getting used to loud busy streets, no longer walks for exercise... He also seems to have is separate in his mind what's "training" and what's "going for a walk". So he listens and walks nicely and pays attention to me, but then will try to run ahead as if trying to say "okay so can we walk now?" I'm keeping these training sessions short, 10 minutes or so, about 4-5 times a day - so he definitely doesn't get "out" much. 

He wears a harness, and previously I've tried to get places with him by simply keeping the lead around my back and holding it in a such way where there's absolutely no give beyond a certain point (does that make sense?) so that we can walk somewhere, his pulling doesn't actually let him succeed in getting farther ahead or in pulling me along. However, this seems to perpetuate the pulling behavior and tells him it's okay to put pressure on the lead. So we're back at square 1. 

Do you think that the method I described above should work? Is there a better way that anyone can suggest?

 

To add - he has so much energy and loves, loves, loves to go outside... I can't help but feel that through this method of leash training, I'm depriving him of something, especially now that he's a puppy and wants to explore the world. But letting him pull me around the park seems bad too.

[ShellyF]

I find there’s a difference between ‘pulling’ and walking ahead in an alert manner. Merlin walks ahead of me with interest sniffing and eager to move forward but ONLY after I have given him permission to do so. If I ask him to walk by me with a ‘steady’ he knows it’s important (like i’m Trying to go downhill on ice lol)!

If you give permission for them to go ahead (we use ‘go sniff’) then I can’t see the issue but it is important that you practice the walking next to you frequently to ensure they do it when you want them to. 

 But generally life’s about getting out there and enjoying it and not all dogs want to do boring walking by the side all the time. Sniffing and investigating how they want to (once given permission to do so) makes it more interesting for them  

[Seagram]

Hey!

question...what’s your end goal? Would you like your pup to walk beside you without a leash one day? Stay in harness, or go to a collar?  Reason I ask is because if the end goal is to be off leash then find a safe way to practice walking off leash (baseball diamond, fenced field etc). My 3 year old had similar issues so we would play fetch or run around in this big fenced field and once some energy got burned off i would walk away from him and when he caught up reward. My guy (as with most) loves to be further than a 6foot lead away but now can be trusted. 

Another variation of the same exercise would be with a long line. I like to break up our walks into time beside me working (heel-ish), then free walk and adding in some play. 

Hope it helps. Every pup is different, you’ll find a way that works 

[GentleLake]

I agree that there's a difference between loose leash walking and only walking at heel. I think you should be teaching both. I don't think any dog should have to walk at heel all the time, but also think they they should know how to walk with a loose leash at other times.

[tamapup]

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1 hour ago, ShellyF said:

I find there’s a difference between ‘pulling’ and walking ahead in an alert manner.

He's definitely pulling.. I don't mind him walking ahead in an alert manner at all. I just don't want my hands to be sore from walking him 

 

1 hour ago, Seagram said:

question...what’s your end goal? Would you like your pup to walk beside you without a leash one day? Stay in harness, or go to a collar?

End goal at the moment is just to be able to go on a walk with him without being pulled forwards the whole time. He throws his whole weight into it. He's in a harness right now, because I don't want the pulling to hurt his throat when he does it, but I might move to a collar if he stops pulling later on... I just want to be able to go on walks with him for now. Off-leash training is definitely something I'll be doing with him later on, but I'm not too concerned with starting that quite yet. 

 

54 minutes ago, GentleLake said:

I agree that there's a difference between loose leash walking and only walking at heel. I think you should be teaching both. I don't think any dog should have to walk at heel all the time, but also think they they should know how to walk with a loose leash at other times.

Could you suggest some ways to go about teaching loose leashing walking? Right now there's seems to be two extremes - pulling ahead like crazy, or walking at a nice heel - and not much in between. I've tried stopping and changing direction each time he pulls, but he seems to get more excited by the change in direction and just runs the other way. Doesn't matter where we're going, it seems, just that he gets to pull me along to get there..haha

 

[GentleLake]

http://shirleychong.com/keepers/LLW/

[ShellyF]

If he can walk to heel but not calmly in a harness then you could switch to a front clip harness perhaps. 

[D'Elle]

12 hours ago, tamapup said:

Could you suggest some ways to go about teaching loose leashing walking? Right now there's seems to be two extremes - pulling ahead like crazy, or walking at a nice heel - and not much in between. I've tried stopping and changing direction each time he pulls, but he seems to get more excited by the change in direction and just runs the other way. Doesn't matter where we're going, it seems, just that he gets to pull me along to get there..haha

Just be persistent. Stop and go the other way every time he hits the end of the leash no matter how many times it is. He will eventually learn that if he doesn't pull he gets to walk along, stop and smell, do whatever he wants as long as it is not pulling. Your keeping him at heel all of the time may be frustrating for him, and so makes the pulling worse when he is not controlled into a heel. If you work on both simultaneously it will help. My method has always been to work on heel for the first 10 minutes or so, then go to loose leash walking as a kind of reward - but a reward that is still training. I don't suggest a front clip harness because that doesn't teach him not to pull when he doesn't have that harness on. 

[tamapup]

Thank you for the suggestions.

GentleLake, I checked out the site and it looks great. However, I'm still not sure what I would do when I'm not training him this way, since it doesn't seem feasible to do every time I take him outside, but rather something I start at home and then build to the outside. In the meantime, I'm not sure how to train him when we're outside... 

On 3/17/2019 at 11:14 AM, D'Elle said:

Just be persistent. Stop and go the other way every time he hits the end of the leash no matter how many times it is. He will eventually learn that if he doesn't pull he gets to walk along, stop and smell, do whatever he wants as long as it is not pulling.

That makes sense but I still don't see a way to do this practically. For example, our morning walk today looked like this: I took him out, he peed, we walked around in circles until I got really dizzy, he pooped, more circles, more dizzy, poop bag still in hand. Closest trash can is a block away. Finally I just went to the trash can to get rid of the poop bag, at which point he was pulling me in every, any direction possible. He almost jumped on a toddler to say hello, kid got very close - I kept Tama on short lead right by my side, of course, but he still stood up on his hind legs (didn't really move forwards, just up). Was enough to scare kid and greatly annoy parent. Went back. Whole walk lasted about 10 minutes, and we both got back quite frustrated.

These feel like silly question, but how do you stop yourself from being dizzy using this method, and how do you throw out poop bags? Since we don't really move forwards, but stay circling the same spot (he hits the end of the lead as soon as we switch direction). 

He also gets home full of energy and then expends it at home, which isn't great... rather than on a walk outside on a nice day. I just want him to get a few walks outside rather than be cooped up at home all day... but don't know how to do this.

[GentleLake]

20 minutes ago, tamapup said:

I checked out the site and it looks great. However, I'm still not sure what I would do when I'm not training him this way, since it doesn't seem feasible to do every time I take him outside, but rather something I start at home and then build to the outside. In the meantime, I'm not sure how to train him when we're outside... 

 

Ummm, that should be telling you something.

Like that you may have to separate exercise and training. If you're taking him out solely for elimination, go to the spot and wait till he goes, then take him back in. use these short trips out for training loose leash walking as well.

For exercise, can you take him in the car somewhere that's a safe place for him to run, preferably fenced? Let him drag a long line so you can easily grab him (or step on the line) when he's getting too far away.

Are you taking a class with him? If not, I'd strongly recommend it. A good trainer (please choose a positive reinforcement trainer) will be able to see exactly what he does and how you respond in the moment it happens and be able to offer some guidelines as they occur.

Carry poop bags home with you -- not rocket science. It may not be pleasant, but it may also be an accommodation you have to make until he learns to walk nicely on a leash.

[tamapup]

There's not really a place for him to run other than a) the dog park, or b) on a patch of grass and only on-leash in that case, since it's in a park with children and other dogs and a road with cars nearby. I do have a 50ft leash, maybe I should start using that? I could carry him to these "exercise spots" I guess, since they aren't far. 

I'm in the process of signing up for a class with him and really looking forward to it! (positive reinforcement of course)

Carrying poop bags home is a good idea. 

Thanks!

[tamapup]

Here's a quick video from our walk just now. I took him to the patch of grass by having him heel by me, then played with him on leash. This is us walking back. 

His loose-leash walking here is great... and was achieved just by talking to him, no real training. He's smart and responsive. It's only we go out somewhere that he gets too excited and starts to pull. 

[GentleLake]

On 3/18/2019 at 1:21 PM, tamapup said:

His loose-leash walking here is great... and was achieved just by talking to him, no real training.

You may be misunderstanding just what training is.

Telling him when he was right and the little reminders when he started pulling followed by your again praising him . . . that's training.

 

[KevTheDog]

Hey hello! I feel you! Kevin is a little older than Tama but his issues are similar and I definitely feel your pain. I started doing something recently that has helped: we've practiced an off-leash side-by-side walk inside (I guess a heel) where I just treat him constantly: good boy, treat, good boy, treat, as we are walking in circles through the kitchen, living room, bedroom, hall, over and over. We did this inside a handful of times before I took him out into the courtyard and we started doing it there - walking in zigzags; it's a bit harder for him to stick with me here but such is the nature of the fun outdoors. I did both of these exercises about 3 times each per day (first 3 times inside, then 3 times outside) for not very long each time - 3 minutes each maybe, for a few days in a row, throughout the course of the day. But now when I use the same command to start us off outside on leash ("Let's walk") - he is much more responsive and he truly has been pulling less.

Kev is almost 7 months and I'm not sure if his responsiveness to this method would have been the same two months ago (Tama is 5 months? Is that right?) but on the other hand, maybe he would have done way better sooner if I had started this approach earlier.

For your own sanity: set yourself a little time-limited challenge. Like: We're going to do this every day for 5 days and then reassess! Then it doesn't feel like this endless wall of never getting to do anything fun like go for proper walks.

Good luck!

[D'Elle]

According to the video you are on the right track for encouraging loose leash walking.

You sound as though you still need to work on the pulling at times, though. So, as I said, be persistent. Training should be integrated into everything you do with the dog. Not in a formal way, just in a way of showing the dog This is How We Live.

If you get dizzy while going in circles then don't do it that way. Instead, when he pulls, stop dead. Wait a couple-three seconds, then turn around and walk in the opposite direction. Giving yourself that little time will prevent being dizzy. You should not be just walking around and around in circles, but rather stopping and abruptly going in the opposite directing - so, more a back-and-forth, not a circle.

[WhiBee]

4 hours ago, D'Elle said:

According to the video you are on the right track for encouraging loose leash walking.

You sound as though you still need to work on the pulling at times, though. So, as I said, be persistent. Training should be integrated into everything you do with the dog. Not in a formal way, just in a way of showing the dog This is How We Live.

If you get dizzy while going in circles then don't do it that way. Instead, when he pulls, stop dead. Wait a couple-three seconds, then turn around and walk in the opposite direction. Giving yourself that little time will prevent being dizzy. You should not be just walking around and around in circles, but rather stopping and abruptly going in the opposite directing - so, more a back-and-forth, not a circle.

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[WhiBee]

hullo from NZAotearoa

Yes- i do that "stopping and abruptly going in the opposite direction"...my bc is nearly 7 yrs old/young! He is amazingly helpful and a great companion.

Thank you for what you shared.

[tamapup]

Thank you for the feedback!

@D'Elle, thanks for the clarification about turning and going the other way - seems like it would communicate the point to him better as well, rather than just circular steering whenever he gets too pull-y.

@KevTheDog that's a good idea! Thanks for sharing  It's wonderful to hear from someone who has a pup just a few months ahead of mine, it's comforting that someone else is going through similar stages around the same time and super helpful to hear about what works/doesn't work. I remember my first post on this forum you were the first reply and saying that Kevin was 17 weeks, a little bit ahead of us... Now he's seven months, wow!