Pulling on lead - do they grow out of it?

[MonstersBalls]

I have a 17month old border collie and I'm beginning to despair over her ever being able to walk normally on a lead.

She's done puppy training and her bronze obedience thing so she knows the theory but she is just so excited when we leave the house that walking to school is a nightmare! She has 2 hour long runs a day but I usually drive to a field and let her off.

I've tried a harness but that doesn't seem to make much difference and she managed to get her paw stuck in a halti while in the shop so that was a non-starter.

Oh and she's started to pull after/chase cars again which I thought she'd grown out of.

Do I take her back to training classes, even though when she's there she walks perfectly? The walk to school is very distracting for her with traffic and dc on scooters but unfortunately this is the only time I have to take her. The dc prefer to walk rather than taking the car (which is easier for me with the dog). I let her off on the field for a good run then we walk back and she's exactly the same, pulling my arm off!

Please tell me they just grow out of it eventually!

Just to add to all the great advice there, of she's already looping back to you when you stop start then you've got a yoyo but that's OK because you can change the criteria for the start. So instead of this:

Dog pulls - you stop - dog loops round - you move off - dog pulls

You do this

Dog pulls - you stop - dog loops round - you wait for eye contact - dog gives eye contact - you move off.

Now the dog has to be with you in body and mind if it wants to move forward. You can add food rewards of you need to, but often being allowed to move forward again is the biggest reward at that point.

A couple of other things - yes to avoiding the school run. It's the one thing my now pretty reliable youngster still really struggles with, and that's in spite of a perfect fit harness + double ended lead combo and cheddar! And walk faster - we naturally travel incredibly slowly and don't like to stop. Dogs, given the choice, travel much faster than us and stop lots. If you can be brisker then you're making it much easier for the dog to walk the way you want it to :)

The worst dogs IME for pulling tend to be gun dogs rather than collies e.g labradors and spaniels.

Some spaniels are part kangaroo too

Thanks for all the advice. I agree the school run is the worst place for training. I can get her attention but only for a nanosecond before she's distracted by a car or people or a lamp post or whatever.

Owllady she does hop along too at the start of the walk like a kangaroo.

Those perfect fit harnesses do look like they're worth a try. It seems such a shame not to walk her to school. It's a nice half hour walk through a park and fields. Do you use the perfect fit harness with a halti lead? so she'd have a clip on the front of the harness and around her nose? When I last tried a halti in a pet-shop she put her front paw through the nose bit and hopped around getting quite distressed. She was much younger then though so it might be worth trying again.

Muttynutty she does like a tennis ball ofc so that's worth a try although when she is excited she jumps up at me holding it. Have I got the naughtiest dog in the world? If I show her the ball she leaps up at it, if I put it in my pocket she immediately forgets it's there.

Oh I don't use an extending lead either, just a normal lead and collar.

Sounds like the Halti wasn't the right size, they can be difficult if they're too young for them. My Border Collie goes mad for a ball but continues to be completely obsessed with it which I'm trying to stop so only use it occasionally. You could try using a 'this way' command. Every 5 paces you change direction telling her 'this way'. The idea being that she has to focus on you to know which way you're going. It won't work instantly but it does make things better. I don't use treats as I have a dog who is not interested in food even without breakfast.

Monsters Perfect Fit harnesses are brilliant. I use them with my dogs and wish they'd been around when my BC x girl was a pup.

Some dogs just get straight away that there's no point in pulling in them, but you do still need to do concerted heelwork/loose lead training with them. The lead clips onto the front ring and the one between the shoulders. If they pull, because they're clipped in the middle of the chest, their own weight turns them back around to face you - which is the opposite of the effect they're after. Determined pullers can still ignore this though and find a way of ploughing through, hence the need for continued training.

My Springer is 7 and he's never grown out of it.

We've tried every harness/halti thing going. We've been to trainers about it, tried every method suggested but we've never really been able to completely stop it.

He does get the hang of not pulling eventually when we're out, but we have to start again every time we leave the house. It's like he forgets overnight (he's not very bright poor thing) and he's never been motivated by treats or rewards when he's out (he'd sell his soul for a tennis ball at home, but simply not interested when out). It's like the initial excitement of a walk blows his brains out of his head

His heel walking off lead and recall is spot on. We live rurally, and just have to go through our garden gate to hit open fields so have ended up in a situation where we just don't use a lead very often - I always take one with me just in case, but we don't go on roads or anything like that and he behaves beautifully off lead

It's a pain when we want to go out somewhere we can take him with us but he has to be confined to a lead as he'll try and tow us around for half an hour before he remembers his manners.

Husbands username but I am Aked.

Monsters nope, nothing around her nose. Just the harness with the multi-use lead. One end clipped to her back, the other to her chest. Like driving a horse a bit!

I'm not a fan of harnesses apart from to reduce pull on the neck, I don't feel they helped with training (just for me personally!).

I have a collie and a rotty- I don't use their leads very often... even when walking past ducks but they will walk on a lead when they need to.

So, when they were pups (separately but same method) I basically just used a ball. I took them out around 3-4 times a day in short bursts- sometimes with only 10 mins between walks.

I'm very fortunate that my 2 are tennis ball/toy mad!

I'd walk along a pathway that goes around a large open field holding the ball behind me in my right hand but keeping the lead to my left side so instead of pulling the dogs were usually like 'I know it's behind you!!'. If they leapt forwards (or backwards or sidewards!) I would pull back to me saying 'heel' and I'd stand still. I wouldn't move until they were still. At the end of the pathway I would throw the ball into the field but if they didn't behave I would just keep walking around the park, as soon as they started behaving I would stand still and if they were still I'd let them off and throw the ball.

Now if I walk along they carry toys and drop them a few yards in front of me or anyone else in the vicinity.

I looked after my friend's cocker a few weeks ago and he pulled and pulled so I did the same thing but with a treat in my hand instead since he's more led by his tum and he's doing OK now so I trust my method...up to now!

All these ideas are brilliant, thank you.

I'm definitely going to buy the harness to walk to school then clip the lead onto her collar for training when we get to the field. After she's run off some craziness first ofc!

Sorry no suggestions on how to train but I bought the Ezydog Cujo lead. Its so comfortable that dh finally wants to hold my dog's lead during walks.