Stopping my dog pulling on the lead

[barefootcook]

I would be grateful for any suggestions on how to stop my 3 year old Labradoodle pulling on the lead. Occasionally he attempts to jump on people too. Some people he ignores and others he tries to jump up on. It is very random. Any suggestions would be wonderful, as I am almost at the point of refusing to take him out on the lead!

Hello I’m so glad you’ve posted this as I have been having the same problem with my 11 month GR.
I have bought every different lead/harness available including slip lead etc.
However I decided to go back to basics and now just use a lead and collar. For the last month I take him every day for a 20 minute heal walk. I have a bag of cut up cheese or ham in my pocket - we walk and the minute he pulls I stop, pat my pocket and say heal. I wait for him to be back at my side and not in front of me - he then gets his treat and we start again. Lots of praise and keys words - good walking etc. This has really worked and we can now do a 2k walk beautifully. This may work for you.
He also gets a 4K walk early morning and evening with my DH and a 1 hour off lead run during the day with me.
My problem is that if I take him to a different environment - say to the garden centre he goes completely bonkers and I can’t hold him. We also have a 5 month GR - both fab off lead - try to go somewhere on lead with them both and GR1 is a nightmare. Anyone have 2 young dogs with any tips? No other problems - both go to puppy training and both really good at home. Am I perhaps expecting too much and he’ll grow calmer when out? I should say I had a GR before for many years and he was a dream.

Have you had a chat with a good dog trainer?

There's some tips here:
www.dogstrust.org.uk/help-advice/training/walking-nicely-training

NoLongerATeacher has the answer - and the Dogs Trust suggestion exemplifies it.
Stopping and waiting is tedious - I must have looked deranged when I kept stopping and waiting while walking ddog. But it works. This morning he forgot and, when I stopped he looked back at me and promptly circled himself back to my heel. It's so much more relaxed now walking with him on a loose lead.

I’ve been doing the stop start thing religiously for a year and no luck. I’m pregnant now and have spd and just can’t walk / stand have him pull for that long now. A rabbitgo front clip harness has worked an absolute miracle for him. He just walks nicely now as I assume doesn’t like the feel of the front pulling. It’s not training obviously which is the best thing, and DP still does the training when he walks him but if you need a last resort perhaps give it a go.

We taught ours by first teaching him 'close' with lots of teats.
We started in the house/garden, no lead and just gave him a pretty much constant stream of treats for walking by our side.
We progressed this with the lead on in the house before venturing on short walks.
Every time he pulled we stopped then started again once he was back in position.
Initially he had lots and lots of treats for the first few months.
Now he walks well about 95% of the time. He still has bad days where we seems to do a lot of stopping but on the whole can loose lead walk pretty reliably.

I always found the walk to the park much harder than the walk home. After he has burnt off some energy he was much more focused so would make the walk home longer as a way of getting in more training.

We always used a collar rather than a harness and made sure the treats were high value.

Have you tried a head collar? Use use it as a training aid to teach heel work.

I use a gen-con but I did use trainer for some help (she recommended the gen con). He still pulls but the gen-con allows him to be walked.

You could also try a half check collar.

Start by just stopping dead when dog pulls. Repeat over and over again.

I added an extra clip to secure the gen con to his collar.

I decided to tackle this when our dog was 5 and we got a new puppy. I took her out frequently to ‘practice’ and ‘train’. We went to a quiet lane and walked back and forth. I had previously tried the stop technique but it didn’t work for her so I tried the turn technique. She also didn’t respond to treats either so I gave up with those. We bought a happy at heel harness (having tried many many others) and I tied a knot in the lead so I knew where to position my hands on it- this meant she was always expected to be in the same position. If and when she pulled I called her name and turned the opposite way- she would mostly always naturally followed me, a few steps and then back the way we were going. If she didn’t follow me then I stopped and wiggled the lead calling her and walking backwards- absolutely no pulling. Lots of praise and positivity plus walking steady pace and we got there. I also read to change direction frequently when walking so the dogs of some attention needs to be on you. When we cracked it I was so happy and wwished I’d tackled it years earlier!

Aside from the training, for one of our rescue dogs a 'Halti' (think that was the name) worked really well. Comfortable enough for the dog and much better control for the walker than a collar and lead. Our dogs have all been sighthounds, and a lead and collar on their own isn't suitable anyway, as they can slip the collar easily.