Lead walking boot camp

[belindarose]

I'm starting today (as soon as I've got the baby to sleep). Determined to crack lead walking with my lovely 15 month old springer. He's brilliant off lead and with basic obedience. I've just never committed properly to lead practise and always made excuses. Now I have a newborn and a 3 year old and need to have a perfectly behaved dog on lead!

So, I've moved the car off the drive so we've got a good space. I'm following Ian Dunbar's plan (from his website). He only had half his breakfast so I have a good pile of available kibble. Here's the plan:

On lead, wait for sit. No instruction, just 'good boy' and treat when he does it. Take a step, wait for sit. Repeat until he no longer pulls at one step. Increase to two, erc etc.

Wonder how we'll get on. Baby asleep now, just have to remove him from me...

Following with interest. My right arm is 3 inches longer than my left at this stage.

Baby woke up...
Another excuse!

Following this too! Our lead training is coming along very slowly ~ it all goes out the window as soon as she spots another dog though.

I don't suppose you have a link for Ian Dunbar? I have googled him, but a load of other websites come up.

20 minutes! 20 minutes on my own with my dog is all I wanted all bloody day. Didn't happen. I either had a crying or feeding baby (DS is 11 weeks) or, when he did sleep, had a tantrumming 3 year old. Now DS is asleep in the sling but I don't really have two hands free to train.

As I've started this thread, I am determined to start either later this evening or tomorrow.

Had a successful half hour this morning! Complete with distractions of dd playing with bamboo canes, chatty neighbour and passing cars. For the first ten minutes he stood and looked around, pulling away a bit. Then sat down. Treat and fuss. One step. A few minutes of looking around and sniffing the new smells, one step away from the old ones. Sat. Treat. After 20 more minutes we were walking all over the drive, not a single pull and an instant sit each time I stopped.

I'm very pleased and looking forward to trying again later. However, dd wants to teach him to walk on his hind legs, so may have to do that first!

Watching with interest too! I've done lots of loose lead walking training with my 10 month puppy and the problem I have is that she is great in training but, as soon as we go on a 'real' walk, she reverts to pulling. It's as if she just goes along with the training so as to get the treats but is not willing to translate it into 'real life'. I guess we should just keep on practising until the penny drops. Good luck

Right have just googled what you are doing and tomorrow morning my dog will be on his own boot camp. He is good once he has been for a walk and is on the way home doesn't pull at all but on the way to the field he is a nightmare. Watch out pimmsdog your tail is mine tomorrow

The distractions just make it more like real life anyway. You just know that he will encounter something to distract him when out on a walk, so you may as well just teach him to focus on you despite the surroundings.

This is what I tell myself, everytime one of the cats lands on our collie mid training...always just as we get to down!

well we took an hour to walk around the block (normally takes 3 mins) but by the end of it Pimmsdog was walking lovely on the lead. I am going to go out again before school pick up and see if he remembers it or whether we will take an hour again.

I am sure it does work just need to have some patience and plenty of for after

That all sounds great! I'm currently spending about 2-3 hours a day on my 6 mth old boxer. Getting her to walk to heel is so hard. After a week she no longer pulls unless she sees a dog or cat but is always trying to be 1 step ahead if me which I hate. It can take an extra hour to walk her now by stopping,pulling her to heel and then walking on.
DP notices a difference. Back to obedience class tonight but am afraid once she sees all the other dogs she will go mad and it will look like we have done no work at all...

Haven't done any lead training today as an struggling with a difficult baby. Despite no practise though, he just behaved beautifully on the lead when we went to the woods. I like him on the lead to start the walk, for a minute or so, and he walked angelically next to me!

Looking forward to getting more practise. My mum is coming to stay for two weeks, which means I can pay DDog more attention.

Good to hear progress of others.