Hi
I am asking on this web site, as when i posted on an animal lover site here in the uk, i got some very odd advice.
Me and hubby took on a 2 1/2 yr old rescue Innuit- he has just been castrated (3 weeks ago). His history is that he had been on a running chain for almost all his life- no other excercise, no socialisation with dogs (removed from litter at 5 weeks), no guidance or training input by people.
However, he has settled reasonably well with my two dogs an elderly rotty, and a spirited jack russell(although his presence has highlighted the need to remind my others who is boss, and remind them of some manners- hahaha).
He does like people but is quite dominant, but we are getting on top of that with routine and insisting that he does as requested.
Walking on a lead is a bit of a nightmare, but i will shortly be investing in a halti, as he has little regard for collars.
His latest habit is now trying to attack passing dogs when on the lead. Please if you have any advice it would be of help.
He is not responsive to a spray collar, is not phased by discs or other noises to help control him. He is quick on his feet and has dashed behind me to get to the other dog/s as i was trying to calmly and assertively walk forward with him.
I tried to tell hubby that this dog has arrived with multiple training issues and we are rapidly overcoming most of them, and i am aware that it is really early days.
Any advice would be helpful.

I'd pick up the pace with a bicycle or rollerblades. I too adopted a 2 1/2 year old dog with dog aggression issues and the first few months were hard. It sounds like you are trying too many things at once like the spray collar and thinking about a Halti. Good exercise should help.

If you do go the route of the Halti, make sure you use the safety strap that comes with it. I nearly threw the safety strap out before I read the instructions, and that little strap saved my dog's life when she went into a dog aggressive fit and slipped the Halti. She would have crossed a busy road and attacked two Labradors that were staying in their yard if it had not been for that little strap. I've since sold my Halti since it's not really a very good training tool. A Halti will work to keep a dog from pulling, but the Halti doesn't really stop the behavior. The Halti is a "self correcting" tool, as opposed to a tool like a prong collar or choke chain that is controlled by the handler (you) to control and correct the dog.

Give it time. Like you said, it is really early days. The thing that really broke the ice between me and my 2 1/2 year old adopted dog was teaching her to look into my eyes on command. Some people say "Watch me", I say "Hey" when I want eye contact. If I'd found Leerburg sooner, it wouldn't have taken as long as it did for me to bond with my adopted dog. You are sure to get better advice than I've given here.

It sounds like you could benefit a great deal from perusing this site. I recommend reading everything you can about dominant/aggressive dogs and pack structure/leadership here...there is a lot of helpful info on this site for free, and ever better DVDs available. I'm hoping that somebody with a faster computer will post the links directly to the info for you, but in the meantime the 'search' function is rather helpful too:-)

I am familiar with the disks and the idea of sound aversion, but I have to tell you that unless you have a rather soft and fairly submissive dog, sound aversion and head collars don't work. In fact in the case of aggression, sound aversion can actually escalate the dog.
My DVD recommendations are as follows:

Establishing Pack Structure With the Family Pet
And:
Basic Dog Obedience
And:
Dealing With Dominant and Aggressive Dogs

Hopefully that can get you started in the right direction, and somebody else can direct you to the specific places on this site that can be the most help:-)

If this sounds terse, it's only because I'm posting from a phone.

Haltis suck. Not only are they ineffectuve, but dogs escape them, AND they can cause injury.

Spray collar? As in, citronella for barking?
Don't work.

I would recommend a prong collar for the pulling.

Thank you Ingrid, i couldn't agree more about the eye contact. I'm not sure how i go about training him to look at me, but when he did it fleetingly for the first time when i was making him sit before opening the door a week or so ago, i knew there was hope for him as he had never looked to anyone before for instruction.
So, just how do you go about training him to make eye contact on command, please?

Hi Alyssa,
I was looking at them on this site earlier today, and i saw one on a dog on the dog whisperer program. I'm not sure if they are available in the uk? But i'll do some research. They do look a bit ferocious though?? But if they give good results.....
Thank you

Thank you Kristel
I will look through the site further to see what advice is out there.

 Quote: trai hiscock

Thank you Ingrid, i couldn't agree more about the eye contact. I'm not sure how i go about training him to look at me, but when he did it fleetingly for the first time when i was making him sit before opening the door a week or so ago, i knew there was hope for him as he had never looked to anyone before for instruction.
So, just how do you go about training him to make eye contact on command, please?

Using someone else's computer briefly, so, briefly:

How much do you know about marker training?

I think that prong collars are illegal to use in the UK. I'm not 100% positive, but that's what I've heard.

I think that a dominant dog collar: http://leerburg.com/746.htm or a weighted collar: http://leerburg.com/798.htm
might be the thing to use on walks.

You could get a dog pack (backpack for dogs) and strap it on him and fill it up with weight (anything can go into these packs) and that will give him a job on walks.

 Quote: trai hiscock

Hi Alyssa,
I was looking at them on this site earlier today, and i saw one on a dog on the dog whisperer program. I'm not sure if they are available in the uk? But i'll do some research. They do look a bit ferocious though?? But if they give good results.....
Thank you

They are not nearly as bad as they look. My one year old husky nearly does back flips every time I get his prong out, because he knows that means it is time to go somewhere.

I really truly feel like if it caused him any real pain or discomfort he would not be nearly so happy to see it, even with a walk coming.

The Innuit dogs have a lot of Husky and Malamute in them if remember correctly, this means pulling is likely going to be an ongoing challenge but certainly one you can overcome with training and patience.

As will a certain streak of independence, but the independent streak with such big personalities is what make northern breed dogs so fun and challenging in a good way.