I've been working on my pup's walking nicely and I think we've made some good progress. I mark & reward (food) when she's at my side and looking at my face, spontaneously. She's very good at the beginning of the walk, and will come back to my side and get into a nice position after I've released her to have a sniff around, and then start moving forward again. Leash is loose, but she's wearing a prong.

As the walk progresses she seems to become either less interested in staying by my side, or just more easily distracted. She then starts to pull a bit, and move out of position and I can't seem to get her attention sufficiently to where she will give me that spontaneous eye contact. I find myself finishing the walk with her pulling slightly. How do I fix this?

My goal is to give up the prong as a crutch, but at 90 lbs (her, not me) I need to feel very confident that I can control her with just a flat collar..

My dog does the same thing. I found that if I changed direction rapidly when he starts to pull, it's easy to get his attention back and gets him to slacken the leash. My dog gets rewarded like yours: I get his face, he gets yummies. We walk for quite a long time, so I like his attention at the beginning, periodically through the middle, and again when we're getting close to the end. I find that if I give him more 'brain space' after establishing the pace, he's much easier to get focused again on command and will offer his attention more frequently. Hope that helps.

I also make sure that the treats we use out walking are extra special and I bring his ball to play randomly so I seem extra interesting,fun and benevolent.

Edited by Kristel Smart (07/01/2008 03:16 PM)
Edit reason: add more info

I like to mix it up between the prong and e-collar, other times there's a noise I make of dis-satisfaction. Other times I'll change direction suddenly, and will keep doing it until he falls back into place. Sometimes I'll just scuff my feet and slow down, and he immediately realizes he's gotten a bit ahead of himself. Different "reminders" keep things fresh!

This sounds like a matter of the dog not understanding that the walk command means to stay there indefinitely What was/is your method of increasing the time at heel for the walk? What length of time have you worked up to so far?/How long does she stay at heel before becoming distracted?

A command does not automatically mean "Stay doing what you are doing no matter what forever and ever until asked to do something else" you have to build it up to that point, which takes time.

One thing to keep in mind is she could be losing interest because she is not longer being reinforced and rewarded for continuing to walk nicely and also that she has no connection to the command = stay there for the entire duration of a walk.

She is still young if I remember correctly. When you notice her attention wavering is the perfect time for some random fun upbeat reward based OB. Say her name, Sit! Good sit! (yay!) and ask for a walk/heel/fuss go X amount of steps remaining animated and mark, reward, Good heel/walk/fuss! (yay again!) and ask for a sit when you stop, or a down, or a paw, or whatever you feel like. Only do like 3-4 commands, keep it fast and happy.

Then you can, if the time and place allows, give some time for play with a ball or a tug or whathaveyou to get some energy out and free movement, release her to sniff or whatever for X amount of seconds or a minute etc and then back to random fun very short OB (again, only 2-4 commands) and back to walk/heel/fuss for X amount of steps/seconds(longer than before)

If you need to, don't hesitate to remind her with a command.



Edited by Jennifer Marshal (07/01/2008 08:47 PM)
Edit reason: wrong button!

 Quote: Jennifer Marshal

If you need to, don't hesitate to remind her with a command.

And this might be part of my problem. I haven't put a name to the behavior yet (no heel command). I've just been marking and rewarding her position by my side in conjunction w/ spontaneous eye contact, with a loose leash. (i'm being careful not to physically coerce her into position) She's a year old right now.

I think we can walk about 5 minutes or so, with her periodically giving me eye contact and maintaining a loose leash and staying by my side. I am giving her releases between the 5 minute stretches. When I'm ready to start walking again, I say 'Let's go!' If she keeps sniffing I will give her a small pop and then start walking. (btw I am not expecting a formal heel, just loose leash walking.)

I seem to lose it when something distracts her (a jogger, etc) and then she won't focus back on me. Time for me to be more interesting, I think...

I will try the upbeat obedience to get her attention focused back on me. And Kristel, I think I will throw in a few 180's as well.

Thanks, everyone...

Lynne, start teaching the command, then. I guess I'm not following why you haven't taught the command. Start in your home, yard, then move to other places and your walking area. I teach pups heel possition usually at 4 months and by a year we are where you see below.

She likely does not understand what you want from her, it is unfair to just suddenly do a 180 on her when she isn't doing anything wrong.

I guess I got lost too when the O.P. said that there was no command.

I usually use two different commands; one is for casual walking but no pulling and the other for a real "heel."

Like Jennifer, I start each in my living room. In fact, I start just about everything in basic ob indoors, with no distractions. Then I move to other rooms, then to the yard with no distractions, and so on.

In fact, "Let's go" is my casual-walk command.

But I think that this dog may not know yet exactly what "let's go" means.

P.S. You can ALWAYS back up, BTW. It wouldn't hurt at all to teach the command from the beginning in the yard or house, marking and rewarding for each part of it.

I betcha it will go very fast and be very easy -- the dog is already doing great!

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

I guess I got lost too when the O.P. said that there was no command.

Well what came first, the chicken or the egg?

When I first started working on this (started at about 9 months), the goal was to have her walk nicely without pulling at all. So I waited until she gave me spontaneous eye contact on our walks and marked and rewarded. (at any time, even if she was sniffing around and looked at me) I then narrowed it to spontaneous eye contact when she was walking by side.

I just never added the command to the behavior! I can see where I need to do that now though...

She is not solid on 'let's go' yet, so I need to work on that until she really knows what I'm asking for.

And I'll definately back up and start in the yard with the 'heel' command.

All assessments greatly appreciated and helpful! Thanks again...