pups pulling on the lead. and over excited by other people

[misdee]

Tom is a good boy when walkig, walks to heel etc.

ralph is a terror. he pulls constantly, and i feel like i am constantly correcting him.

i am just usng a standard collar and lead set up. is there a better solution.

also when we see anyone, they get v v v excited and jump everywhere. how can i correct this.

Have you tried a 'Halti'? Absolutely brilliant when our dog was young and pulling.

I would walk them separately as managing two puppies at this stage would be very hard. You need to teach them distractions. So when at home teach them a watch me. They have to look at you in the face and then they get a treat. Good way to do this is to hold a treat at arms length to the right of your body and then say their name they should for a second glance at you click and treat. You can then build up the time before you click. Then when aproaching people ask them to watch you and no pulling and lunging at people. When you say they can then go and talk to the people if appropriate.

This is very easy to write but in reality will take a lot of work. The puppies will watch you at home and will need to learn to do it with smaller distractions than people so it will be a gradual build up to ignoring people.

You could use a head collar but this does not teach the puppies not to lunge and pull just stops them from doing it so when they are bigger dogs and you forget the headcollar etc you will still have a manic dog.

pulling - you are supposed to turn around as soon as they pull and walk the other way. Apparently they learn not to do it (caveat - I have never had the patience with mine - we use the halti which helps).

Excitement - try and distract them before they notice the people (probably can only do this one at a time) - give them a treat or play with a toy just before the person arrives - then they learn that you are more interesting than other people.

If the people come to the house - keep the dog in another room for a while, and then bring them in on a lead - and get the visitor to ignore them for a while and then invite them over with a treat - again supposed to teach the dog they are lower in the pack and only come when requested.

With all these it takes time and repetition.

I would throughly recommend all of her clips are fab, she is a really good trainer.

Worth mentioning, are you making sure you often walk them separately? One of the hard thing of having two puppies is that they need most of their training to be one-to-one.

Sorry, bit of cross posting wrt waling them together, started this reply then watched two of her clips

i walk them together and seperatly.

i considered a halti, will look into it again.

that clip is good, similar to what we are doing, but better iyswim.

A Gencon All-in-One has been our pulling lifesaver. It is easy to get on and off and controls from the side of the head. It also means you don't need to faff about measuring because one size fits all.

Deffo agree with teaching 'watch me'. Is an absolutely brilliant command.

re all the collars and the like tbh I think it is worth just persisting with teaching them to walk nicely to heel. This is still ongoing with us (my puppy is 6 months old now) and is frustrating beyond belief but I know we'll crack it sooner or later.

We have a "new to us" 18 month old Springer who pulls and lunges on lead. I have/ done 3 things with him which seem to be producing a lovely loose lead and walk to heel.

First, I used a chest harness called a "loopi". I have tried Halti's in the past and my dogs hated them.

Second, I have been doing daily "watch" exercises with the clicker as described by Minimu above. He is absolutely fab in the back garden, but is hopeless on walks, so I am increasing distractions.

Thirdly, walk each dog separately holding lead in right hand and loosely with left. make sure lead isn't taut. Walk with your dog on your left. As soon as the dog is in front of you, but before the lead is taut, turn to your right 180 degrees and walk in the opposite direction. Praise/ treat him to high heaven when he was walking next to you. Repeat, repeat, repeat. It's best to practice this in an area where he won't be too distracted so you can set him up to succeed.

Good luck!