Loose lead walking, when does it click

[Babana123]

I have a 5 month old puppy who will be (already is) quite strong. She is a cross of a collie/staffy/cocker/poodle and probably a thousand other breeds too!

We have practiced and practiced loose lead walking. On a pavement she is great on the whole but if we see a dog/jogger/squirrel/cat she cannot help but lunge. I stop and turn the other way but despite doing this for weeks there is no improvement.

Also off pavement she is mainly off lead or on a long lead but occasionally she is on a short lead. Even with no distractions loose lead walking on the grass is only about 10% there.

Do I just keep doing what I’m doing or are there any pearls of wisdom you lovely bunch can give? Has anyone tried a halti head collar for example?
Thanks 😊

As I was reading your post, I swore I could've written it myself 🤣 we have two very strong labradors! I use the halti collar on our boy because he's just far far too strong and I can't risk him lunging at something out of the blue (even though he's well trained, he would literally floor me) we use an anti pull harness on our girl because she's easier to control ☺️ we purchased both from pets at home. Hope that's helpful.

We used the Halti collar, plus constant reward for walking by side. At first a treat every 5 steps for example, then as it got better, every 10 steps and so on. When we saw another dog, I'd treat constantly until we were past.

Even with the the above, he needs a bit of off lead time before he's reliably not pulling, so we use the Halti for the first 5-10 mins of each walk, then keep it off for the rest of the walk. I think persistence is key. Good luck

I remember the pain of that, the only thing that stopped our dog pulling when he saw squirrels etc was teaching him to sit when he saw anything he would usually pull towards. We had treats so he’d be sat looking at us, we saw a huge improvement within about a week. Now as an adult he completely ignores cyclists, animals, children etc.

Pets at Home do a Stop Pull lead that was a game changer from the day we bought it. Our lab is very strong and at 5 months old, nearly had my 6ft, 20 stone husband over as he pulled that hard! We've gone from dreading walks and it being a 2 person battle to me being able to walk him AND our 7 month old daughter on my own

Using certain types of lead or harness is great in the short-term, but it doesn't deal with the root cause of the behaviour, and it means as soon as you use a different piece of equipment (eg. if your lead breaks or gets lost) the dog will just start pulling again.

I remember walking a Rottweiler on a canny collar once - I could walk her with the lead looped round my little finger and the owners would tell me how well trained she was - until the collar broke and they wanted me to walk her on a regular led and collar

My dog was three before he reliably walked without pulling, but even now he gets distracted by interesting smalls and people with food. I don't like head collars as a rule, though, and have never used them on my own dogs.

She's only 5 months so you haven't been doing anything for that long. Lead walking takes time.

You have it sussed in some less distracting environment so now need to proof it in more exciting environments. Up the reinforcement level and maybe slightly lower the criteria in these situations.

Continue to work in less distracting environments and even off lead in your garden.

She is only 5 months old and you are also rapidly approaching the teenage twat phase that dogs go through, so prepare for things to get worse before they get better.
Dog training and child training are very similar you keep saying the same stuff over and over again rewarding the good and ignoring the bad and eventually they get it some faster than others.
I currently have a nearly 9month old (so oral teenage twat) and I looked back at my records on the current 11 year old - he was 15 months old before he really seemed to be paying attention. Now he is an excellent dog and was from about 20 months competing in agility etc.

I'm really hopeful that 9 month pup's current distracted d!ck on a lead behaviour is a phase. Consistent routine (route and time) walks for months 6 to 8 seemed to be really effective. Then his perfect harness and training lead was practically miraculous.... for about a week. Then something (hormones) clicked in him at just over 8 months and he's just been a bl**dy handful pulling and lunging and it's just awful. Tiny breakthrough this morning after twenty minutes of stop/starting, lunging for poo, jittery at passersby, nosing at birds and other dogs when I walked him back to our little gated front garden and just sat with him for five minutes of focused sit/paw/the leave it-take it game with roast chicken then when we went back out for ten minutes he was super focused on me and clung to my knee and sat/stayed with practically whispered commands. When I felt he was losing focus I wanted to end it positively so walked him back. Tomorrow another day. I do think repetition and consistency key. He's much better off lead and we're fortunate to have access to a secure field but he does need to fit into our lives and street walks are part of that. Any suggestions gratefully received!