Hi,

Our 5-month puppy pulls leash a lot and often lunges and gets pulled back pretty hard at the end of leash. There are also situation where she refuses to come on a recall command and I might accidentally pull the leash a bit hard to reel her in. Would this give her a feeling of getting leash corrections which I understand should not be done on a puppy until he/she is a year old?

Also, is it a reasonable correction by grabbing her cheeks and stared into her she continue to ignore our "NO" and do undesirable things (i.e. climbing on couch, coffee table, etc.)?

Any comment/advice would be greatly apprecaited.

Pat

It seems like I've trained my 13/14 week puppy to pull on the leash too. I would love a thorough article/advice on good leash training from this group.

Here's what I'm doing right now. Suzzie already has a pretty good "touch" (I hold out my hand and if she's not too distracted she'll come touch it with her nose). So while we're walking the instant she pulls all of the slack out of the lead I call her name and hold out my hand. About 80% of the time she'll come touch it and I'll mark and reward. This is very slow going. Sometimes we only make it a few steps before I have to do it again. She eventually tires of the game and her 80% is more like 50%, but she's still really interested in pulling. The good news is when I call her name and show the hand, if she doesn't feel like touching she'll at least stop and sit down. So I wait a few seconds for her to decide to come touch or not and then we keep walking. My only hope right now is that she figures out what I want before we both tire of walking.

When a puppy gets to the end of the leash, you should turn and head in the other direction. They will, of course, turn around to follow you and probably get out ahead again. So then you turn and go in a different direction again.

You won't get very far on a walk like this (but that is not the objective.) You might even want to do it in the middle of a field. But if you keep erratically changing directions every few seconds, eventually the puppy will realize that you are crazy, and it is in his best interest to pay some attention to what you're doing or he might be run over. ;-)

At least you'll both get some exercise, even if you don't cover much ground.

When you turn around and walk the other direction, do you go ahead and pull them to follow? When Suzzie is off in the lead, she's not paying attention to me at all. I could turn and walk another direction and she wouldn't know until her collar got yanked. I think either the "turn and head in the other direction" method doesn't work or there's some piece of it I haven't heard before.

The turn and walk in the other direction method does work.

the pup will begin going of in his direction, when he does, you turn the other way and keep walking. eventually he will get to the end of the leash and can't go forward any longer - either by pleasantly finding this out or by running into the end of the leash and you'll feel the tug. At this point he'll turn around and follow. This will go one for what seems to be forever. Then one day, it won't happen as much, then less frequently, until he finally gets it.

It does not happen in a few minutes but rather over the course of several days/weeks.

Yes, she would get a collar pop (not a constant pull). It should be just enough that she looks around to find out what the heck happened. Not enough to drag her with you.

As to the OP, I think staring a puppy down/alpha rolling for climbing on the couch is a bit er... extreme. Keeping your puppy on a leash would prevent the problem entirely.

I have never had a dog try to climb on my couch or counters or table. They never get the chance, and once they're older it never occurs to them.

 Quote: doug alcorn

When you turn around and walk the other direction, do you go ahead and pull them to follow? When Suzzie is off in the lead, she's not paying attention to me at all. I could turn and walk another direction and she wouldn't know until her collar got yanked. I think either the "turn and head in the other direction" method doesn't work or there's some piece of it I haven't heard before.

I probably didn't explain very well. Let me try again.

Yes, when you turn and walk the other way, that will provide a leash correction to a dog that's not paying attention. The dog will be compelled (since they are tied to you) to turn around and head the other way too.

The fact that the dog isn't paying attention is the whole point. A dog walking on a loose leash MUST pay attention in order to keep the leash slack. That means stopping and turning with the handler.

She'll quickly realize that if she doesn't pay attention, she gets a whole lot of collar corrections. But at least with this method, you're deciding where to go on the walk. If the dog is out front the whole time, and you go along in the direction the dog wants to go in (even offering collar pops) who's leading whom?

The "turn and head in the other direction" has, at least, worked for me. I've got four dogs that I can walk at the same time in heel position, holding four slack leads in one hand. Give it a try!

 Quote: Angela Burrell

... I have never had a dog try to climb on my couch or counters or table. They never get the chance, and once they're older it never occurs to them.

Exactly.

Set the pup up for success by controlling his/her environment.

On the walks, I wanted to add to what Tracy said by asking if you (the O.P.) are remembering to allow plenty of releases to the pup along the way, where you decide it's a place to stop and sniff, etc.?

 Quote: pat khan

Hi,

Our 5-month puppy pulls leash a lot and often lunges and gets pulled back pretty hard at the end of leash. There are also situation where she refuses to come on a recall command and I might accidentally pull the leash a bit hard to reel her in. Would this give her a feeling of getting leash corrections which I understand should not be done on a puppy until he/she is a year old?

Also, is it a reasonable correction by grabbing her cheeks and stared into her she continue to ignore our "NO" and do undesirable things (i.e. climbing on couch, coffee table, etc.)?

Any comment/advice would be greatly apprecaited.

Pat

There is no magic age for corrections.

Each dog, each trainer and each situation is different.

I wouldn't use the word "pop" when referring to a leash correction on a pup. The word "bump" or "nudge" is probably more accurate. On a semi-taut leash, this correction could be accomplished through wrist movement alone.

You just want to encourage a step in the right direction. Heck, even just a look in the right direction!

I don't believe its reasonable to grab a dog by the cheeks and stare them down. Many people will disagree with me, but this is just an upright version of an alpha roll, and thoroughly unnecessary.
Any dog that NEEDS this sort of correction, will rip your face open if you attempt it.
The rest of the dogs out there, don't NEED it.

Climbing on the couch/table/counter aren't "dominant" behaviors. This isn't a pack structure or respect issue. This is a failure to manage a puppy's environment issue.

Would you punish a toddler for picking up a marble on the floor and putting it in his mouth? Or would you just keep marbles off the floor?

It is much easier to TEACH appropriate behaviors to a dog, than it is to CORRECT undesired behaviors.
Dogs are self-serving. They live in a world of black and white (not literally, they CAN see color)- things are either "feels good" or "feels bad".

Rather than trying to make 3/4s of their environment "feel bad" through correction, why not try to make certain things "feel good"? The feel good far outweighs the feel bad.
A dog will keep doing something that "feels good" even after the reward has been removed, because of positive association.

However, many behaviors that you attempt to make "feel bad" are actually self-rewarding. If at any time the artificial "feel bad" of the correction is removed from a behavior, the dog may revert back to it.

It is much easier to set the dog up for a lifetime of success by encouraging desired behavior, so that it becomes the habit and nature of the dog to do those nice things. Then it has no reason to seek out undesireable behaviors in an attempt to feel good.

A dog that is already happy, doesn't need to seek happiness.

Let puppies learn that yummy treats magically fall from the sky any time they lay down at your feet calmly.
Then, laying down is more rewarding than climbing up. Make sense?

A post that should be bookmarked, and it goes for newly acquired adult dogs too.



P.S. It is SOOOOOOOOO much more fun all around (not to mention more effective) to teach what you want than to correct what you do not.