Help me train my puppy to stop pulling.

[StillMedusa]

Or at least pull a bit less while I still have shoulders in their sockets!
She's 7 months old now, and 20kg of gorgeousness. Sits, waits, is lovely off lead, but if she sees a cat, or a leaf blowing or anything she can chase when on lead, she really pulls.
We did puppy classes and she was ok there (but not brilliant) but she is so excited if she sniffs or spots something on our early morning pee or late night pee walk when she's on a lead, she's a nightmare.

She's not motivated to walk by my side for treats once she's in the chase zone.
She's in a perfct fit harness and ordinary (not an extending) lead.

She still has a couple of kilos worth of growth in her so I really need to get her lead walking better before she is full size, or comes into season and has to be on lead full time for a while. (She will be spayed after two seasons)

Any tips?

Consistency , hard work and loads of treats.

I have my favoured methods but do stick to one method and be consistent with the criteria and rewards. It can take time.

It takes a long long time to train a dog out of pulling because it's a self-rewarding behaviour. The dog pulls and gets to where it wants to go, so it pulls more.

There are a couple of different methods to use. You can try stopping every time she pulls and only moving forward when the lead goes slack, or you could turn around each time she pulls and walk off in the opposite direction. Neither technique is a quick fix, though. We do the stop/start technique and while it does work, he still pulls at the start of walks though I think this is more excitement than anything else.

It will take a long time to fix, unfortunately. You just need to be persistent and more stubborn than your dog!

We did the stop/start method too with lots of high value treats - not just boring, standard treats, it had to be something she really wanted

Started inside, then worked our way outside.

Some days it took 20 minutes to get out the front door but I found the mental workout she got was just as knackering as the walking

Consistency is the key and everyone has to work to the same rules - DH being a lot stronger than me or the kids would just let her pull so he could get her walked so we had to clamp down on him too

We were lucky as she got it really quickly and she’s now as good as gold on a lead

Thank you for the tips. I think I will go with the stop/start method .Might be trickiest on the morning toilet walk as I have a limited time before I go to work..my DS2 looks after her in the day (as he works a late shift) but he has a disability and can't walk her for me until we have stopped her pulling..she would literally drag him down the street. I do the majority of the walks so at least I can be consistent. I will keep some uber high treats on me too.