You will have to start with no distractions, so you need to work on silky leash (you can look at threads here) at home after quick potty breaks. Thats all I can really offer...also she sounds like she has a lot of pent up energy, do you do daily training and mental stimulation?

 

Ok I'm no help in training. You will have a laugh if you see me walking my three dogs. I have two that love to outrun each other and pretty much tangle the ropes. And I have my little one who loves to smell the roses.

It doesn't bother me and everyone else who disproves can just have their laugh of the day. My dogs enjoy their walks and come home very exhausted and that means a very happy mommy.

I like the dog park because I can let two loose and have my dreamer sniff everything her heart desires. She's happy doing that so what can I say

 

The front of your home sounds like something you will work up to not start. Have you been able to practice away from you home in an area that is low key? Perhaps a quiet park or empty parking lot close to home? You can also practice the leash inside your house too. Doing training to have your dog understand a cheerful "let's go" to follow you around the house can be really helpful too. I used boiled chicken to associate the "let's go" as well my recall whistle sound I make.

 

Maybe the problem is that it is the nature of dogs to want to stop and sniff, and explore. Humans want to go for a linear walk down the street.

Its a clash of cultures... of species. Maybe find a place to take her where she can be a dog. Get a long line so she can explore, or find a safe area you can let her off leash.

 

Start inside.
You said she's very keyed into you while you are doing obedience work, I would transfer that into your basic loose leash while working in the house. Practice walking on a leash and reward her for staying in position beside you, not for being pulled beside you, for choosing to move close to you. You can encourage her with kissy sounds or calling her happily when she gets distracted. This part is key - in addition to being a tree or changing direction she needs to be rewarded for the behavior you want to see which is walking relatively close to your legs.

This video illustrates it nicely

When she is walking well inside, you can practice going back and forth outside your front door. It's going to be boring, but boring means your pup will be more likely to be keyed into you because you are more exciting. It's not the distance you go, it's the time you put in. This should be pretty tiring (mental work is hard for your dog), I bet you are going to be able to swap one or two of these training walks for your shorter exercise walks.

My other question is what kind of equipment you are walking her on? My suggestion for dogs (especially pullers) is always to walk them on a harnesses rather than collars. They greatly reduce your dog's ability to pull and help curb reactivity due to neck pressure.

This video addresses more problem leash-related stuff.

hope these help!

 

Trust me, I understand your frustration. I've never had any luck with leash walking either. My dog is only 50 lbs but is freakishly strong. She's managed to pop the leash once, and nearly always drags me (sometimes to the ground). I've given up completely. I just bring her to the park where she can wander around off leash.

Have you tried an easy walk harness? This is the only thing that worked for us. She grew out of the one we were using, so I'll either have to buy a new one or just keep letting her go off leash. Seriously though, when we did use a harness, it was like night and day. I highly recommend it.

 

Just wanted to add that our dog sounds quite similar to yours; he's a puller and will pull towards things that smell nice, people he deems interesting, other dogs, cats, crisp packets etc!

We've been using the tree method for almost *three months* now, on every walk, and we are getting there! If he pulls towards something, we freeze. We did this every time, even when it meant in the beginning we were walking one step than stopping again. It took us half an hour to walk ten minutes' away!

But his pulling is ten times better now. He still pulls for dogs, wrappers and cats, but his pulling isn't as insistent and he doesn't pull 'just because' anymore. After a walk when he's tired we can walk the 15 minutes back without one pull, providing he doesn't see a cat! When he's walking nicely we give lots of verbal praise, and when he's pulling we just stop.

He also loves to pick things up that he finds (crisp packets, takeaway boxes etc) and we have learnt just to ignore him and he'll soon get tired and drop them!

Good luck with your girl

Red

 

I used to have that problem then I got the Halti head collar and the problem stopped. I dont know if you can get them to fit a small dog but you can also get the halti harness. Taking the collar off the neck makes a great improvement because it stops the natural instinct to pull.

 

I use a halti sometimes for my little girl if I can't be bothered to have a training walk, she's a dream on it, relaxes, still walks ahead and enjoys her walks.

 

Im no trainer, but I just use a leash pop & a gruff "NO!" I dont tell anyone to use

 

for the most part, you've gotten good advice so far have you read our forum sticky on loose leash training?
http://www.dogforum.com/dog-training/loose-leash-walking-1683/

there are some links, particularly the video on "silky leash" that i think you will find very helpful...

i'm glad to read that you aren't likely to try this advice out


anyone interested in approaching training this way should please read this sticky before doing so

 

Whether she's very obedient/trained or not, if she never walked outside home before, then it's natural that she would be very reactive to the outside stimulus when she starts to be able to go for walks, since she never went out of her home and experienced so much stimulus and distractions before (and it's from everywhere). Before even working on leash manners, it's better to let her get used to all the stimulus she can possibly get outside before. Walk very slowly, and just let her sniff/explore around. Stay in certain places for a few minutes and then continue walking slowly. Take long walks if possible, so she will have time to deal with all the stimulus.
Maybe after a month or two she will get used to all these distractions so then you can start teaching lead manners gradually. :3

 

Why not? (Not saying anyone should take my advice, as im not a trainer) im just saying what works for me, I have never had a dog pull ... Ever.

 

Methods like the one you mentioned lead to dogs shutting down. A leash pop is a physical correction, which can frighten a dog and lead to a fearful dog, not a happy one

 

Is a harness better in this situation? Bentley recently has been pulling ahead for our walks.. I had to hold his leash really tight on halloween cause he was so over stimulated, which I expected.. he was ready to run after every one he saw. (I would have left him home but the day was so busy I was out so much that I decided it would be best for him if he came along with us.)

 

This is actually bad for Bentley....it causes big set backs in training. Harness or not, you need to work on training. A harness does not magically fix any reactivity

 

I did, I dont just correct what I dont want, I correct, than show them what they should be doing instead, if I may I can post my photobucket page & you can see that my dogs aren't scared, or shut down (if posting another site has violated a rule please feel free to take it down. HTTP//hotobucket.com/dogdragoness

 

you've posted several times about your relationship with your rescue dog. have you ever considered that the issues you are having with her are yours? just because using intimidation techniques appears to work to you, doesn't mean that it is working for your dogs, IMO, it clearly isn't working for your rescue. a lot of people don't really "get" what a shut down dog looks like. they also don't "get" what displacement behaviors are. they will often label a dog that is "shut down" as stubborn, uncooperative etc.

 

Your dogs may not show it, but just because some don't, doesn't mean none will...if there is a slight change that my dog may become fearful I will choose a way to make sure that doesn't happen

 

As well as the distraction techniques, you could try a canine bridle, google it. We have one for each of our dogs, neither can pull with them, good luck

 

I was (a long time ago) having probs with come... Her blowIng me off. But I fixed that, there was a 5 acre safely fenced pasture that we were out in & she refused to come... So I left her out there for a few minutes til she wondered where I went. She never lets me out of her sight again.

 

i would suggest that you review your past posts on this forum as they indicate a bit more of what i was getting at . i would like to draw your attention to this sticky. it is clear that we are not going to be able to come to terms on this subject, which is fine, and i'd rather not try to do so in someone else's thread, though i'd hoped our conversation would have been more educational. that said, suggestions of physical corrections and aversive training techniques such as you posted are highly discouraged here. whether you agree with me or not, please refrain from posting such suggestions in the future. we cannot convince you not to use these techniques on your dogs, but we can politely request that you stop suggesting them to others

for now, we have derailed this thread quite enough. my apologies to the OP, i hadn't intended this part of the convo to carry on for so long... any further straying will be edited/removed.

 

Good job summarizing the debate Sheep! I think that explains the issues very well.

 

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I have a similar challenge with my two - particularly at the moment with squirrels doing their best to undo all my hard work. Most of the time the dogs are off the lead but I do one walk most days when they're on the lead for a short stretch. They are a nightmare. However, I'm sticking to the training in the (vain?) hope that one day it'll sink in. They know how to walk nicely on a lead (well, Synnu does - Tsieina is still learning) but they haven't twigged that they have to keep up the behaviour and not just do it when I ask.

All I can suggest is that you're 100% consistent in whatever method you use (for which you need the patience of a saint!).