Breaking Habits

agiltylover123

My dog, Schultz, has some really bad habits. Sometimes when I walk him her pulls and also when he doesn't want to go somewhere he stops, backs up, rears up and tries to take his collar off. He also wears a halter, but he gets that off too. I need help!!!!!!!

kmes

First I would try a martingale collar if your dog slips his regularly.
There is a loop that tightens when pulled on that prevents thet dog from slipping out of the collar. It is much better than a choke chain or collar as it will only tighten so much!
All of mine wear one. They are commonly used for greyhounds and other sighthounds because heads are narrower than their necks, but you can now easily find them in all sizes and colors.

I trained my dogs not to pull by doing 2 simple things!
1)simply standing still until they stopped pulling and then rewarding when they turned to look at me.
2)turning around and walking away from what they were pulling towards

Try to think of it this way.
Why is my dog pulling??? Because it is rewarded for pulling!
And what is his reward??? Forward motion!!!

So to train your dog to stop pulling you need to stop rewarding him(allowing him to move forward).

agiltylover123

Thanks, I'm going to try that tommorow.

kmes

Good luck!
Be calm and patient! It is going to take a lot of time and training to teach a dog who has pulled for so long not to. Also remember its not going to work magically overnight. Even after tons of training dogs will still sometimes pull when they become too excited.