Hello everyone, Iv'e had my dog for 6 weeks, he is almost 8 months old. His previous owners rarely if ever walked him. As a consequence he is terrible on the lead. He tries to sprint the whole time. I've tried various harnesses and leads, head collars ( which he hates so I don't want to use again), I've watched countless different trainers on YouTube and tried all the methods they suggest. I tried stopping dead each time he pulls but he ends up getting very frustrated after a Couple of minutes, and he starts barking and whining, and getting very worked up. I have tried to treat him each time the lead is slack but as soon as hes had a treat he goes full on hyper mode, and pulls even more. It takes him ages to calm down. I have also tried turning the other direction when he pulls which didn't seem to work at all either. I kept that up for a week and then I gave in as we were getting absolutely no walking done, we weren't making it to the end of the street as i was having to turn around every couple of steps. This really frustrated him too and also resulted in the whining/barking so I gave in. This post is a last resort before I shell out for a professional trainer or behaviourist for help, does anyone have any hints or tips please? There must be a way to teach him to at least walk and not run? I've had dogs all my life and never encountered a puller like this before. He's brilliant in every other way so I would be over the moon if I can crack this. Thanks !
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The doghouse
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Borders I am totally shocked by your post 
You don't really mean it do you?
You can crack this without causing bodily harm or pain, fear to your dog.
Break this down into two occasions.
1.Training and play time
2.Actually going for a walk
Initially you will teach him to walk without pulling BUT this may not initially transfer to your walks. He has been a persistant puller for a while so it will take a little bit of time for him to learn new behaviour.
Hopefully knowing this you can relax a bit which also makes the situation a bit easier to handle.
- Play and training heel work.
Put your lead on your dog in the house , stand still and say do nothing. Eventually your dog will glance in your direction (depending on the dog it may whine jump up pull bark or sit and do nothing ignore all of this.
The second they glance in your direction drop a treat by your feet.
Every time they look at you they get fed.
I would feed all meals like this for several days.
next step is to add movement - they should glance at you again drop treat by your feet (preferbly to the side of you) All of this is done inside in a boring location.
When you can take a few steps and they continue to look at you and you treat then try out in the garden.
Over time you can add more distractions eg going for a walk and more time between treats. Only do one thing at a time
You will have it sussed in days - honestly
BOrder then you added too big a distraction too soon. If it works in the garden and house then you need a smaller step to moving to the great outdoors.
Most/all dog training fails when you increase the criteria too much.
I rudely did not read the bit about prong collars as noone ever will be able to tell me they are the right way to train dogs ever.
I use the old but true motto "train with brain not pain" 
I wouldn’t use a harness either. I actually hate training dogs in them, there’s a reason huskies pull sledges in them 
I start by teaching my dogs that the right position is to the left of my hip. Great things happen when they stand there, treats/attention etc. This must be something really high value to the dog.
Gradually we move onto walking around the garden or home. When they stay in position again treats etc. I treat every step at first, moving to 2 steps etc until we can do laps of the garden. I find it easier to do in a boring environment than on a walk until they get the idea.
If they can’t manage 3 steps without a treat go back to two and keep repeating. Eventually you should be able to do a fair amount of steps without a treat at which point you can just treat intermittently.
I also make the whole thing fun and make the game about staying in position. Sometimes I run them walk or turn quickly so the dog is predicting what I want and playing along.
The lead must never ever go tight. If it does then I stop, all treats stop and life’s boring.
The only training aid I like are the dogmatic headcollars. They are comfortable and don’t tend to move around. I use these on my giants for extra a security against lunging but they can really help strong pullers get the idea!
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