This is my first post to the obedience forum, and I need some advice! I have an 11 month old male golden. He's doing very well with basic obedience - he remembers that he's in a down stay for a long time, he sits, waits, etc. But when we are walking on the leash, he seems to have a very short memory! I am only teaching loose leash walking, at least for now, and he knows the 'easy' command. If he gets too far ahead and the leash is not loose, I say, "easy" and he looks back and slows down - for 2 seconds. If I say 'no', same thing, he immediately looks at me, slows down, and then 2 seconds later is pulling again. He doesn't pull hard, just a constant tension on the leash that I don't want.

My question is, how do I deal with that? Since he does respond right when I say 'easy', or 'no' then I feel like I should not correct right then (we train with a prong collar). But should I correct without a warning? It's been quite a while now that this has been going on, so the constant verbal reminders are not making a long term difference.

Any ideas? Thank you!
Lori Hall

Try changing directions, 90 or 180 degrees when he does this. I've been doing this with my dog, with or without a leash pop, and he eventually figures out he is getting too far ahead.

What Rich said! The dog is responding to your verbal cue, he doesn't understand the tension is a cue as well, so as soon as there is tension on the line change directions or give him a pop (no more verbal cue). Pretty soon he will understand what you want.

A variation on what Rich and Susan have said that worked for me is....

When the dog pulls on the collar, I would stop. Dog eventually releases pressure on the collar, and you start walking again. Dog learns that any pulling on the collar will mean stopping. Forward progress comes only with loose lead walking. No words needed. It can be frustrating for the handler to be consistant with this for a couple of days, but it really does not take long for the dog to figure it out.

In Leerburg's obedience DVD he says that he does not think doing those 180 degree turns teaches the dog not to pull. I've always had every trainer from all the classes I've taken with my dogs tell me to do the turns when the dog pulls. Does anyone know why he says not to in the DVD? (it's in the section where he's demonstrating loose leash walking with the german shepherd pup)
Lori

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In Leerburg's obedience DVD he says that he does not think doing those 180 degree turns teaches the dog not to pull. I've always had every trainer from all the classes I've taken with my dogs tell me to do the turns when the dog pulls. Does anyone know why he says not to in the DVD?

I do not have the DVD, nor can I speek for Ed. I have been thinking about your question and have come up with some "thoughts", but maybe they are not definitive "answers". I don't have that kind of experience.

Seems to me if you have a happy go lucky Golden, super stoked to go out for a walk and just happy to be moving and experience the world you might run into some issues with the 180 meathod.

So you are walking, Golden starts pulling and you turn 180 and it makes a slight pop on the leash. You may have gotten the dogs attention and then Golden boy is like "oh boy, oh boy...now we are going this way...isn't life outside fun!" And again he starts to pull after a bit, and again you change directions.

Seems to me when you turn 180 or 90 degrees, whatever, you may get a slight pop on the collar, but you have not delivered a "correction". A correction would be much harder. Now generaly we don't like to give pups corrections and we don't like to correct when the dog does not "know for sure" what is expected.

So with a regular happy go lucky pooch with energy to burn, that wants to walk around what has the dog learned so far when we turned around? Maybe "oh, okay, now we are going this way, wonder what is over here?!!" and the pulling starts again. No big deal to our happy dog, he is just happy to be moving and exploring, which he is still getting to do even with our twists and turns.

So we have taught the dog "if you pull, we will turn". This would not be a big deal to some dogs. They are not really getting a "correction", but some dogs might "get it" just with a leash pop, if they want to avoid the next leash pop. Small leash pop would not even be noticed by lots of dogs though.

In the other method I described we assume the dog wants to be "moving" while on lead. We assume that stopping would be undesirable to the pulling dog. So dog is "punished" by absence of "reward" (walking). Proper behavior is "rewarded" by moving, no matter in what direction.

All that said I would not expect a puppy to walk on a leash without pulling for an hour walk when it is just learning a new diesired behavior. you have to work up to it. That said I dislike letting my dog practice undersirable behaviors so I started with 2 min of no pulling on leash then off leash for the rest of the exercise session. When ready we moved to 5 min of no pulling, rest of exersice off leash...you get the idea. Rewarding the behavior you like with toys or food is also good IMO.

Now when he knows the desired behavior and what our "rules" are for loose lead walking, I can "correct" (for real) if he pulls.

I thought it was fun to think about these exercises..... I could be WAYYY off, I am not a dog trainer. Thanks for the opportunity to think about that one, other opinions welcome!

How does Ed teach loose lead walking in the video?

Cheers,

In my eyes, there is only one spot the dog is allowed to be for heeling and one command that goes with it… heel. When the dog forges ahead it’s no longer heeling where you want it to be. I’d correct the dog with a leash correction and then reinforce the command you want. (Forge..Pop…”heal&rdquo

With a forger I will also throw a whole lot of turns into the dog and stay away from “away turns” until the issue is corrected. As far as 180 degree turns go, they are great for reminding the dog that he has to keep up and maintain position no matter what direction you are going.

Just pop the dog & stop giving a verbal cue. It's pretty simple.

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Just pop the dog & stop giving a verbal cue. It's pretty simple.

Do you mean "correct" the dog and stop giving the verbal cue? We have probalby all seen people walking their dogs on choke chains "popping" every twenty paces saying nothing to the dog, and the dog just starts to pull again.

My feeling is that the pop is not bothersome enough for some dogs to want to avoid it. I am equating a "pop" with an ineffective correction in this case. Now if you are talking about "correcting" the dog, like something it would want to avoid in the future, I understand and agree, if the op wants to go the correcting route.

Leash "pops" are plenty for MY dog to get the picture, some dogs I know; pop them all the way down the street and will still pull!

I may also be missing something here because I just remembered the op has the dog in a prong collar. I know nothing about prong training and if a pop in a prong is enough to stop the behavior.

I was just trying to speculate on the question of why someone (Ed) said that turning 180 would be ineffective. Kinda like playing devil's advocate to a meathod that seems to have worked for many

A pop IS a correction. A "pop" is not a light little nagging tug on the line. It's the terminology used to indicate a good correction on a pinch collar. You give a pop by first having a bit of slack then jerking or "popping". The turning works because it causes the dog to pay attention & allows the handler to give a "POP". What I think you are thinking of as a "pop" is nagging the dog, which I agree is stupid, and is also unfair to the dog.

I think the original poster was asking how to get her 11 month old dog not to pull so much when walking informally - not formal heeling.

What the dog learns is if I pull I get a pop, I don't like that, so I best not pull.