Anyone interested in a walking to heel support thread? My back hurts!

[DogTalk]

After so many attempts at this I am utterly failing. I think, unlike other aspects of dog training, this is so hard to be consistent at as it is part of every day life.

Anyone else?

We have a 16-week-old cocker spaniel and she is pulling so much already when we walk her. I really don't want one arm longer than the other!
Do you have any pointers about where to start with walking to heel?
I sort of guessed that it was a difficult one to learn!

Do you mean walking to heal or loose lead walking? The two are slightly different I think although consistency is key - my trainer has us just dropping the treats slightly behind us when the dog isn’t pulling for loose lead walking whereas for a heal walk the dog has to be right next to you all the time with their attention only on you, for that you reward by sliding the treat down the trouser leg to the height of the dogs nose. In reality it’s so muddy here I don’t drop the treats but reward when the dogs look at me on a lose lead or simply when off lead when they stand or walk next to me. Mine only pull at the start of a walk and I’m finding that hard to stop.

What have you tried so far?

For loose leash walking I've done the stop start method. Every time he pulls, I stop walking. When he stops pulling, I praise and we move forward. Rinse and repeat.

It still needs regular reinforcement, particularly at the very start of a walk, but I no longer have back pain!

I successfully trained our first dog but it hasn't worked with this one.

I think consistency is key and I was very fussy about the whole stopping, walking backwards thing ... and then a family holiday came along and I undid all the good I had done because we had places we needed to walk to.

He is intelligent and somehow I managed to train him to rush ahead and come back for the treat so somehow the timing of my reward has been wrong, I think. He also came to expect to walk backwards after pulling. He is otherwise fine - does agility and obedience.

I need to find a way of separating training walks from normal walks, as on a training walk it can take half an hour to move a few feet and we both get frustrated. I was thinking of training on a collar and keeping head collar for normal walks (our trainer supports this approach).

The problem is, he's not food motivated. Nothing is as rewarding for him as moving forward.

My pooch is the same. Watching with interest x

I don't have any tips but watching to learn a thing or two. I have a halti harness to stop pulling which helps but would love to have a lovely dog that walks alongside me nicely.

When my rotty pulled I stopped, pulled her back to my point then set off again. Every time. Never used treats once she was older. She is 8, no pulling, perfect recall.

Everytime I started to make progress with my cocker with loose lead walking we had an injury, illness or holiday and it just set us back. I have to admit that given we don't use the lead much I have decided to use a double lead with ring at the front and top of the harness as he can't put his full weight into pulling as it unbalanced him and he seems to be getting better again.

It's hard work OP and yes bloody frustrating when training seems to go backwards. My dog won't even take a treat from me on a walk so food is no use.

I don't have a dog, but someone I knew used the carrot-and-stick method, by making a bit of a contraption out of the lead. They basically put the clip of the lead through the handle to make a loop, then put their dog's head through the loop and pulled it so that it was tight but not strangling them. Then when the dog pulled, it would tighten a bit. I personally don't agree with it because it sounds cruel, but it worked for her in the end.

300 peck is a method I like to use for training loose lead walking. Might be worth looking it up. It's a really systematic approach to building duration or distance with a dog. It seems to work well, if steps aren't skipped.

Same here bitey - so annoying.

Dextro I use a halti too but he doesn't really like it and he still affects my back.

Woolfrai eugh - I should - that drives me mad though - we get a few steps in and back to the beginning. Then I need to take him to the vet quickly or something and it all goes backwards.

Op as you've accidently trained him to pull then come back for a treat, I'd try just stopping and ignoring when he pulls. Then once he is back on a loose lead, don't communicate other than to start walking (that is the only reward needed for coming back). Then start with two nice steps, and treat and keep on treating until he starts to go towards pulling. Then start again. (You will need treats that don't upset tummy if giving loads of though - I took mine out hungry and gave them their kibble (a whole meal worth) as rewards but I know some dogs won't go for that).

Forgot to say slowly build up one by one on the number of steps from two.

Are you letting them off the lead? I found that doing whole walks on the lead helped a lot with this. Ddog is a show cocker and is very guilty of that v annoying lead yanking. The start of the walk is hell but once we get going past about 100 metres he realises nothing will change and he settles right down and is quite nice to walk.

Otherwise I'm
Place marking g as I would like him to heel

One way I have found beneficial is to have a harness and a collar. When you are actively training and have time to only move forward when they are in the correct position you put the on the collar and when you are walking them because you need to get somewhere but don't have time to constantly stop etc put them on a harness. Being consistent and differentiating between these for the dog is less confusing than suddenly letting them pull one day but not the next!

Obviously the best strategy would be to always be training and never let them learn how to pull but sometime you do just need to get somewhere! Turning and walking in the opposite direction can also help as well as stopping and guiding (with a treat, not yanking) back into the correct position. And lots and lots of treats for doing the right thing, pretty much every step to start with!

The book "My dog pulls. What do it do?" By Turid Rugass was recommended to me.
Wolfie girl is often good. Always pulls if she's needs to toilet and sometimes pulls me to say hi to a friend.
She walks in a dogmatic and collar after breaking a lead as a pup!

I've only just found this thread...
I'm currently going back to basics with my 10 year old Lab and trying to teach him to walk on a loose lead (a move has meant that we have to do mostly lead walking now, whereas before he could be off lead virtually all of the time)... The problem I'm having is that he can only really concentrate on it for 10/15 minutes and, with all the stopping and starting, that barely gets us to the end of our street! He's a VERY energetic and enthusiastic 10 year old and it's not even nearly enough exercise for him...
The only solution I've thought of is to put him in a canicross harness and walk/run with him a few times a week, and continue training in just a collar and lead. But, would this just confuse him?

Can you do main walk off lead and shirt training sessions on lead?

The problem is that we have to walk to where he can be let off lead...and we're struggling to get there!