Another horrible walk with dog.

[Buda]

She is almost 7 months and I will admit that she has not been walked as much as she should. But I am really trying now to get out every day. Problem is she keeps ON pulling and pulling. My hand is red raw and painful from hanging on to the lead. She is really strong.

And to add insult to injury got up to the field at the edge of the woods where I was planning on letting her off the lead for a good run and there were 2 big dogs loose up there with no-one around. So we turned around and came home.

WE don't have a choke lead thingie as you can't get them here. Trainer showed me how to use our ordinary lead in a way that it tightens when she pulls. But even though she is choking she still pulls. She is very clever in other ways but not with this.

It is driving me mad and I now hate walking her.

Any suggestions?

Lapsedrunner to be very fair to Buda her dog fractured her hip so walks were out of the question for some time.

And the pup is 7 months old so exercise has to be limited in any case, in order to help prevent hip dysplasia.

I'm sure most people can understand why Buda might be reluctant to take her dog out if she pulls as much as she does.

Hope you make some progress, Buda

Sorry, didn't know about the hip

We'll forgive you if you give us hobnobs (it's a rule on Pets )

This is the closest I've got

That'll do!

I reckon Buda deserves one too after her awful day

DS took Zac for a walk after school today. We live at the edge of a field and our driveway is basically part of a tractor path which runs right around the field and this is where we walk. Its raining cats and dogs here (see what I did there ) so is very slippy and the dog just pulled DS over and dragged him right through the mud on his belly.

Nobody was hurt (other than DS pride) but obviously we dont want it happening again.

So, I want to know if that halti works Buda!!!!

Oh dear sb6699! Poor DS. I bet it would have been funny to watch though! Sorry! Codie will manage to do that to me one day too i'm sure.

DH has taken DS to football (with a stinking hangover which I have too!) and they took the dog and DH will take her for a walk while they are up there. It's in a lovely forest/hilly area.

Lapsedrunner - It's ok. She doesn't get enough walks at the moment. Partly because I hate doing it so much. But that will hopefully change. Also because she did fracture her hip and pelvis so couldn't walk for quite a while. We do have a huge garden though so she is out there frequently and we play with her there and give her a runaround.

I am a terrible mother - just couldnt help laughing when he came back covered head to toe in mud and told us what had happened!!!

Well, I hope you are kinder to your dogs than you are to your dc, ladies!

Hi Bella!

Didn't try yesterday. DH took her out on ordinary lead. She pulled but he is better at just making her sit when she pulled. He said after an hour she was getting the message!

We will try the Halti today.

Justwanted to second (or third...) suggestions for halti.
Our 9 month old is a terrible tugger.
She is so much better with her halti on.
Justbe warned though, she may not like it atfirts,and may try to rub,or paw it off her nose,but if you just gently keep her head lifted she wont get it off,and my Bella soon got used it.
Only thing is though the result doesnt really generalise to normal collar and lead...she is still terrible without the halti...so really agree that some sort of training needs to happen as well to rectify problem.
I use thehalti when I have my hands full ofchildren, or need to get somewhere without stopping every 10 mins LOL,but do try to work on her with normal collar on at other times!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a revelation! Just took her out with the halti. FANTASTIC!

I took HER for a walk NOT the other way round!

I didn't take her out yesterday as I was dreading it so much - DH took her out instead. Had been putting it off all morning but finally bit the bullet and off we went. She wasn't keen at first and tried to paw it off a few times but every time she did that I said 'no' and stopped and she soon trotted off.

An added bonus was that I didn;t get dragged over to every second house with a barking dog behind the fence. She normally pulls over to them and then gets scared and pulls away again. I was able to keep her away from the gates/fences and just say 'shh' and keep walking.

AND we were up in a field and I let her off the lead. Spotted a big dog off in the trees in the distance so walked the other way with Codie following quite happily. Then I heard a bark and about 5 big dogs came running out of the woods. I think they are strays. I was terrified. She of course ran over but then stopped. I called her twice and she came back to me. Thankfully we were able to just walk away. They stayed watching but didn't follow.

Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!

So happy for you

You can do all Minimu's clicker training too, but at least you can get out with her in the meantime and enjoy the experience!

Here, have one of these:

No thanks to the biscuit though. One of the reasons we got a dog is that I have loads of weight to lose and it would be a reason to go walking. If I get biscuits after every walk it will defeat the purpose! Am drinking a mug of lentil soup instead. (But I will prob have cake later!)

I WILL enjoy walking her now. Won't be heading back to that field though!

Lentil soup sounds good

Buda one word
Dogmatic heAdcollar
after my well trained well walked show puppy ridgeback tore my shoulder muscles pulling after another dog I gave in
this headcollar has changed my dog completely, amazing no pulling at all.

try a halti, you'll need to spend plenty of time and patience training the dog anyway. also, don't let her off the lead in an open space until her recall is reliable in an enclosed area, otherwise it's just a disaster waiting to happen. perhaps take her to obedience classes, they can be very helpful.

well done! I wasamazed too at how much the halti helped! I am just now walking my Bella without it more often and really working on training her on her regular lead, but still reachfor the halti when I need her to be well behaved, or if my hands are too full of DC to manage clicker and treats and tugging dog on lead LOL

If you just stick a halti on the dog will learn nothing. Although it's really hard work it really is worth training the dog not to pull, I used the turning round method (I have very big boxer dog who had no training and could easily pull me over) you have to get your timing exactly right though. As soon as your lead goes tight as quick as you can turn and walk in the other direction, no warning just turn keep doing this until the dog gets the idea, when dog is walking nicely use a word eg 'with me' and LOTS of praise.
Takes A LOT of persivation but is SO worth it and will stop you dreading walking the dog!!

Good Luck :-)

We were shown the stopping and going backwards 5 steps when the dog pulls. It has worked well for us - we have a springer/collie/staffy mix and she loves to pull. It's very important to start relaxed and let the lead be loose and as soon as the lead goes tight to stop and retreat a few steps. Our dog has really got the hang of it. She still pulls most days, but after a few times of going backwards, she improves.

I found the turing around and going the other way method very confusing - not least because my 3 year old dd got into a right muddle and didn't have a clue which way we were going!!