Dear natalie: i have a dog, cody who likes to run everywhere. it was quite a challenge to get him to walk on a loose leash, and eventually to heel at my left side. Here is what we did,
I practiced first at home with just a few steps indoors where distractions were minimal
I then took our practice outdoors in the back yard. When ever Cody pulled, I stopped. I out waited him and when he turned even the slightest way toward me I clicked and reinforced his turning to me. When He got this down, we ventured out into the front yard. We practiced not pulling like we did in the back yard. He caught on pretty quick. He is very food motivated and was eager to get reinforced for not pulling, and since he is very active, standing still when he pulled was very boring to him.
He has a beautiful little prance and doesn't pull way out in front of me. We then began to work on the heel, and started again in the house.
It takes some patience but I wanted to encourage you, even if you have set backs do not give up. You can do it. sharon and her pups Bindi, Cody, Terra

Thank you, Sharon. Unfortunately we just had a bad walk.

I had to go a to butcher and decided to walk and not drive, figured it'd be a good exercise.
I probably walked 8 miles instead of 5, for every 5 steps forward we took 3 steps back.

He pulls almost non stop. On the way back I was exausted and annoyed.

I understand starting training away from distractions and gradually working up. But do I let him pull in the meanwhile?

 Quote: Natalie Rynda

I had to go a to butcher and decided to walk and not drive, figured it'd be a good exercise. .... He pulls almost non stop. On the way back I was exausted and annoyed. ....
I understand starting training away from distractions and gradually working up. But do I let him pull in the meanwhile?

No matter how you're teaching no-pull, while you're teaching it, a walk isn't a good bet for the first tiring-type exercise of the day.

You know what walks are like at present, right? So for me, that would mean that unless I had a plan for real exercise first, the walk would not be a long errand that is going to irritate and frustrate me when it turns into a training walk.

The dog will do much better if he's not loaded with frustrated energy.

If that can't be set up, then the first walks of the day really need to be planned in advance to be training walks.

I don't understand this concept. So what if I did a training walk first. So then I could've taken him on the 5 mile?

I can drive in the future until he's trained, just trying to understand what can be done and what shouldn't be.

yup , not a good idea to combine dog training with whatever else you have to do , unless you are prepared to be very flexible on arrival/departure times and route selection .

and again , 5 miles is a long time to be expecting good " engaged " behavior when 30 seconds would be considered a success .

knowing what you know , that walk was doomed to fail .

set your goals / expectations for each outing according to what you think / know the dog will be successful at . that is how you move forward .

 Quote: Natalie Rynda

I don't understand this concept. So what if I did a training walk first. So then I could've taken him on the 5 mile?

No. Think about it. What would have made the 5-mile walk turn into something different from all your walks at this walk-training time?

Ian's post probably made it clear.

But I am saying that you are training/walking at present. The 5-mile walk to the butcher was not going to be something different from that.

It would have had less pulling if he had been tired out by exercise, training, etc., first, yes. But it still was never going to be a no-pull errand walk.



You mentioned "I thought it would be good exercise." But why would it be? You know what walks are like right now.

You see?

This post is better than mine:

 Quote: ian bunbury

yup , not a good idea to combine dog training with whatever else you have to do , unless you are prepared to be very flexible on arrival/departure times and route selection .

and again , 5 miles is a long time to be expecting good " engaged " behavior when 30 seconds would be considered a success .

knowing what you know , that walk was doomed to fail .

set your goals / expectations for each outing according to what you think / know the dog will be successful at . that is how you move forward .

 Quote: ian bunbury

yup , not a good idea to combine dog training with whatever else you have to do , unless you are prepared to be very flexible on arrival/departure times and route selection .

and again , 5 miles is a long time to be expecting good " engaged " behavior when 30 seconds would be considered a success .

knowing what you know , that walk was doomed to fail .

set your goals / expectations for each outing according to what you think / know the dog will be successful at . that is how you move forward .

Because I was prepared to make uturns every time he pulled and I actually did the entire way there.

I overestimated.

30 seconds is a success? I didn't think so, I didn't realize that my goals should be 30 secs. Got it.

So do I not walk anywhere long until he's trained?

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

 Quote: Natalie Rynda

I don't understand this concept. So what if I did a training walk first. So then I could've taken him on the 5 mile?

No. Think about it. What would have made the 5-mile walk turn into something different from all your walks at this walk-training time?

Ian's post probably made it clear.

But I am saying that you are training/walking at present. The 5-mile walk to the butcher was not going to be something different from that.

It would have had less pulling if he had been tired out by exercise, training, etc., first, yes. But it still was never going to be a no-pull errand walk.



You mentioned "I thought it would be good exercise." But why would it be? You know what walks are like right now.

You see?

Lol now I see.

I thought it'd be a good exercise because I wasn't in a rush, I thought i'd have the patience to make endless uturns. I overestimated my patience.

Now I see it was a bad idea.
So basically no long walks until he's trained not to pull?

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

This post is better than mine:

 Quote: ian bunbury

yup , not a good idea to combine dog training with whatever else you have to do , unless you are prepared to be very flexible on arrival/departure times and route selection .

and again , 5 miles is a long time to be expecting good " engaged " behavior when 30 seconds would be considered a success .

knowing what you know , that walk was doomed to fail .

set your goals / expectations for each outing according to what you think / know the dog will be successful at . that is how you move forward .

Thank you for the bolding, I missed that part.
So again, the set him for success thing?


OK, thank you guys. I started to get discouraged. AGAIN.