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[Nick Battrick]

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Hi everyone,
I've just joined the site so this is a post to introduce myself. I'm a dog behaviourist based in Hampshire. I champion all dogs, especially the tricky ones. You'll find me in the directory under the name Well Behaved Dogs. I'm also online and on Facebook. Please feel free to get in touch with any behaviour or training based questions.
Enjoy your dogs
Nick

 

[JudyN]

Welcome to the forum

 

[Mum of Ted]

We have a 5 month old male sproodle x cockapoo..he pulls on lead...have now got a 8 way halti put he's still pulling...each time he pulls we stop and he just sits down...the minute we start to walk he pulls again...a normal collar leash didn't work either..he's a treat rewarded dog but if he knows you have them he'll just jump up around you..please help..he's so good with everything else, can sit, down, stay and is great off lead, sleeps through from 10/ 7 and enjoys a cuddle but as soon as he sees his lead he plays up. Advice?

 

[JoanneF]

At 5 months old, everything’s going to be really exciting, and alongside that, all animals have an instinct to pull against anything that restrains them. If you are interested in these things, it’s called oppositional reflex. So he is sort of hard wired to pull.

One of the most popular ways of stopping this is for you to stop, or turn direction when he pulls to teach that pulling doesn’t actually get him anywhere. I’d add that when you are training this, it can help to not think of this as ‘going for a walk’. It’s training, not walking; and lowering your expectations of actually getting anywhere can help you feel less disheartened.

An alternative is to train this without a lead - bear with me. You do it in an enclosed space like the garden, a with a pocket of treats. If your dog comes close, use a marker sound like a clicker if you use one or a “yes”, and then reward. Your dog learns that getting close, and then staying close, is a positive experience. You can increase the lag time between the marker sound and the treat delivery so he has to stay close a little longer to get the reward. Then you can introduce the lead and carry on with that.

Kikopup has an excellent video that shows you how to teach him to ease back when he feels the tension on the end of the lead. It’s particularly good because teaching a dog to walk to a close position is quite hard, dogs like specifics so it’s difficult for them to understand that 12” or 18” from you is ok but 24” isn’t - whereas the tension versus slack on the lead is really clear.

As well as that Judy has written a good piece on overexcitement on walks, there may be something helpful in there and definitely check out the ‘It’s yer choice’ video in it about impulse control.

Jumping up/getting overexcited on walks

Edited to add, I'd be wary of using a headcollar type tool on a dog who hasn't reached skeletal maturity.