[Robert Fiorenini]

Hello everyone. I'm 18 years old owner of German shepherd since she was 2 months old.Since day one I'm trying to teach her to not to push on a leash but it doesn't work for almost 2 years she constantly push. I live in Croatia in area without dog trainers. My main objective is to make her stop pulling on a leash for now. Also she is becoming now w little agressive towards smaller dogs. Can anyone help me? Btw i tried videos on YouTube, but it only works with food... She knows how to heel also, but as I said it works only with food. Any help would be great 😃👍

 

[JoanneF]

but it only works with food

Don't underestimate the power of food - you do have to feed her after all.

We have a whole section on leash manners here -

"Loose Leash" walking

Training your dog to walk on a loose leash can be a real lesson in patience for even the most even tempered person. Personally, I can watch my dog do just about anything “bad” and not react...including relieving himself in the house and chewing up my belongings, but let him start pulling me down...

www.dogforum.com

 

[emeraldecho]

There's a technique that I've found works well with most larger dogs, but particularly with GSD's (no idea why...):

1. Gather the leash (gradually - no pulling!!, the dog shouldn't even really notice that you're doing it).
2. Try to keep a consistent tight tension for about 10-15 seconds (you may have to speed up or slow your walk so there's neither a pulling match nor slack) before suddenly dropping enough slack back into the leash that the dog has no choice but to "carry their own weight".

If the dog doesn't start to get the idea after 3 or 4 repeats (though even if they do, it's normal to need the occasional reminder), move on to trying another technique. As much as this one works on most dogs, if they don't "get it" more or less immediately, it's my experience that no amount of repetition will work.

 

[CachetheBC]

Teaching a dog to make eye contact and to offer it ('check in' ) and highly rewarding it, firstly in a quiet, non-distracting environment, and that as they are able to manage it, out in the real world, can go a long, long ways to eliminating leash pulling and focusing on distractions (such as other dogs). Ultimately we want our dogs to choose to automatically 'check in' frequently with us especially when we are out and about with them.

auto-eye-contact.pdf (clickertraining.com)