So fed up of trying to walk the dog!

[Boredofblueskythinking]

I am really struggling to get our 8 month old terrier to walk nicely on the lead. He is frantically pulling and panting and desperate to get into everything. We’ve tried stopping, redirecting, about turning and going the opposite direction (and this point he just sits down!) any other suggestions? It’s getting to the point I rather reluctantly take him out on the street and park and much prefer to book a secure dog field and let him run around but I want to be able enjoy walks!

I would start practicing in the house. Get a piece of boiled chicken breast and roll tiny bits up into little balls (healthy low fat treat and he can have lots).

Choose a day when he has had a run off lead. Call him to you, give a treat, have him on your left (always use same side so he knows what to expect ) give him the command 'let's go'. and walk forward with a treat literally in front of his nose, keep giving him the bits of chicken every step, so one length of an average room you would use 7/8 bits.

Stop walking and he should stop with you, give a treat. He can be off the lead for this, do this 2/3 times a day, each practice should only last less than one minute. Slowly build up in the house and start using the lead, if you have garden practice in the garden. Keep changing direction and stop before he gets bored.

Don't take him out on lead if you know he will pull, don't let him practice pulling. Just take him off lead if you can somewhere in car.

Could you try one of those leads that goes around the muzzle? A light yank of the lead will stop the dog from pulling. Do you use a harness or just a lead? A harness where the lead can be clipped under the chest instead of on the back area can help too as stops them being able to pull as much.
None of these things get to the root cause of getting him to learn to not pull but if you have tried everything else and done lots of training then it might be worth it for your own sanity

You need to train loose lead walking inside the house before you try and take it outside.

Teach him how to walk on a loose lead inside, then mog to the garden, then a few quiet space outside, then slowly increase the distractions.

I would also look at mental stimulation and how much training you do overall as this will help build your bond and make him more likely to listen to you outside.

Primroseyellow's advice is sound - I would emphasise only trying this (or any training) when he's had a chance to run off some excess energy - he's more likely to be able to focus when he's not bouncing off the walls.

When he's starting to get the hang of it, reduce the frequency of the treats.

And do we get to see a photo - I love terriers?!

We used a halti head collar alongside training and it helped a great deal. We no longer need it but it was useful for calming our dog on lead and making walks more enjoyable.

Start small. In the house first, then boring garden, then in and out of the house, then just down the road, then further etc. You need to be 100% consistent. So no pulling. Ever.

Our terrier is now a teenager so her loose lead walking has gone out of the window so we're using a Perfect Fit harness when we just need to walk her and practicing and reinforcing LLW when we have more time. It should come back when she grows out of the twat phase.

Terriers are not handler driven dogs - they are independent workers. They are extremely trainable but you have to make them think it's their idea ;) They're also sensitive so if you scare them they will remember it and 'go deaf'. Like Cinnamontoastything said you need to build the bond in other ways with games based training and play so they listen when the environment gets more distracting.

I will often ask for a hand touch from mine if I feel her brain is wandering to terrier land which refocuses her really well. Sometimes if I am feeling ambitious, I will ask for a touch then something like a down, or a stand before I release her to have fun.

I have a bedlington x @Selford @Newpeep is your terrier quite bossy in the house?

Ours is so sweet natured but she has a side where she has to jump right in the middle of any situation and get involved, bossing the other older dogs about!

We have always had sighthounds and retired greyhounds so a terrier seems to have arrived with a bang in our household!

Mine is a live wire (border terrier). Not 'bossy' as such but they are little dogs with HUGE personalities. They do like to be involved in everything. There is a saying amongst terrier owners that most of them won't start a fight but they will often finish it!

My last dog was a terrier hound of some description and she was similar but not quite as extreme. It is an acquired taste but if you give them the stimulation they need then they're great companions and pretty biddable but you do have to understand them to get the best out of them. The 100% need a good to high level of training and stimulation. Things like agility, parkour, rally, scentwork etc they excel at again, as long as you understand how they learn. Ours does obedience (which is games based) and also has just started agility and she does very well at both as she is very driven and with a good bond with us we can channel that drive into doing things we want her to do (most of the time 😎)

I love the comment about not starting a fight, but that they'll finish it! Our previous one was a Patterdale cross, she was adorable but definitely always the dog who bossed the others about. I do think they use their size to their advantage, most bigger dogs don't want the aggro of facing up to a small yappy dog (and quite probably losing!). She was mostly chilled in the house, but did require a certain amount of 'brain training' to keep her from getting into mischief.

The sitting down and refusing to move is familiar, and a battle of wills is never going to work (said from the voice of bitter experience 😆). A trainer recommended a target stick - you extend it and the dog follows the ball on the end out of curiosity. We clicker train and so as soon as the dog moves towards the stick, I would click and reward the behaviour, and then if they keep following it, keep doing the click/reward. The idea is that it breaks the deadlock of stubbornly refusing to move, whilst achieving the behaviour which you want. I got her used to the stick at home by e.g. tapping it on the ground to get her attention and then clicking/rewarding when she went towards it - the advantage of a smart terrier is that it doesn't take very long for them to make a positive association.

The onl thing that stopped my dog pulling was a figure of 8 lead, the first time on and she walked perfectly. We tried every lead/harness/whatever before this. She was strong and had pulled me off my feet before.
I hated walking her.
Now she just has it around her neck and is fine.

Agility sounds fun, ours loves to climb and settle down on boxes, back of sofa, windowsill etc. I don't think I've ever met a dog with such a big personality from the start, she is so independent she will choose to go and lie down in another room sometimes on her own.

She is very affectionate but on her terms, she only ever comes up for a cuddle before she sleeps when she's on my bed.