Quote:

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

Weather you want loose lead walking or a full time heel would depend on your goals and your dog's temperment IMHO. A pet owner may allow their dog more freedom than that with no problems.

I agree that correcting can and does work for forging/pulling. I was more thinking about other ways to acheive the same goals with a young pup.

funny, we posted at the same time!

Okay I get it now and agree

I was thinking of why turning around with the dog with only a "nagging" leash jerk, may be ineffective. I do aggree that this meathod works with proper corrections.

I should stop speculating on why Ed would say the 180 was not the best way to teach this. Has anyone else seen the video where he says this? I am curious....should I PM him or does anyone know the REAL answer?

Jennifer, I have the video. I'll watch it today and pm you.

My dog still pulls/has constant tension on her prong. She's gotten much better as of late due to corrections and rewards for staying level with me/behind me, but she has a tendency to try and walk just ahead. I find that the turns only work so much, she does pay much more attention to me when I do a pop-turn when she pulls, but when we resume normal walking after a few moments she returns to attempting to pull (she also does the "respond-2-seconds-to-an-'easy'-command" thing). I should re-watch the Beginning Obedience DVD and see where I'm going wrong.

Just curious, Jinn. Is it harder to teach a husky not to pull on lead than another breed of dog? I never had much luck with my dog Nickie walking him nicely on his prong collar. It seems like he just (over time), got more used to the uncomfortable feeling.

It's hard to say. She's my first dog I've owned by myself, the other dogs "I've" had were family dogs, and at the time I was too young to train one, and the other was "the family's", AKA "we don't know what consistency in training means." The first was a poorly bred absolutely batsh*t wild unneutered English Setter, the second was a border collie/lab x shelter dog who responded very well to prong once used. In comparison to other dogs I've worked with at the shelter though (5+ years volunteer, but I would never say I'm a "trainer"), I came across a lot of huskies and husky mixes, and majority of the individual dogs I saw <i>were</i> a bit more difficult on lead.
My own dog gets used to the prong, and needs larger corrections, but I don't know if I could really attribute her pulling to being a husky mix. She's just a very excitable high drive dog, and that could be it. Sorry it isn't much help, but I can say in my experience at the shelter and with my dog that <i>I've</i> had more difficulty training huskies and crosses not to pull than I have with other breeds, but each dog is individual. I did try a head-halti once on her, and like it claims, it worked wonders for pulling, but it was cheap trickery in my mind, because once that thing was off NO dog would listen. Same for martingales and harnesses that claim the same.
Hope that helps a little?

OK, so that brings another question to my mind. If the head halters, martingales, and harnesses are like "cheap trickery", would the e-collar also have the same effect? I know absolutely nothing about the e-collar but it seems like if the dog is aware that he is not wearing the e-collar, he wouldn't listen either.

I think it's because the dog has received too many "nagging" corrections and not a good pop. When the dog is walking and is in a higher drive, it's going to pull. You need to give it a good pop to lower it's drive. I have only had to do that once or twice with my dog and now we don't use the prong for walking half the time. When we start our walk she gets really excited, so I'll tell her "slow" with a light pop and she gets herself together.

Ed has some articles about the e-collar, I've never used one so I don't know.

I know if you do a search in the E-Collar Forum there are lots of posts about dogs that know when the collar is on/off, and lots of good advice.

I only personally consider those things to be "cheap trickery" because of my own use of them in the past. I've tried those "no jump!" and "no pull guarantee!" harnesses, and the dogs have either obeyed ONLY when the harness is on, or have slipped right out of the harness. The head-halti is ineffective for me because I want my dog to respond to me on-lead all the time, not just when the halti is on. If you do a forum search you can probably find other people's experiences with it as well - and for the average joe pet owner it's a useful tool to get your dog under control if you "just can't" train it for whatever reason, and it works, but I find it misleading because for most animals they only comply when it's on.