I have a 6 month old yellow lab named Avis. She is doing well with obedience, except for walking on the leash. When training at home, or close to my house on walks she will listen well, with only the occasional pull to which I turn around and walk the other direction. I can distract her with treats at times so that distractions are ignored. Other times though, she will ignore treats, and pull very hard. I cannot snap her out of it with a jerk on the leash as demonstrated by Ed in his basic obedience dvd.

My question is, how do I deal with this problem when I am out working to socialize her? I take her to various places in order to get her used to various environments, but at times she'll totally ignore me and pulls on the leash like an ox. Actually, it seems as though she tends to ignore me much more in generalwhen out on such occasions, and it can be very difficult to bring her under control. I have the tendency to want to resort to compulsion training, but she's only 6 months old, and I'd like to avoid that if I can anyways. If you don't want to use corrections on a dog this young, how do you cope with this?

Another thing, when a puppy this young ignores a command that you are certain she understands, what do you do. I don't want her to learn that she can ignore me, but what else can I do besides correct her? I might add that she seems to be a pretty "hard" dog. She doesn't respond much to correction, verbal or leash jerks as in teaching the "leave-it" command.

What sort of collar are you using?

 Quote: peter meaden

Another thing, when a puppy this young ignores a command that you are certain she understands, what do you do. I don't want her to learn that she can ignore me, but what else can I do besides correct her? I might add that she seems to be a pretty "hard" dog. She doesn't respond much to correction, verbal or leash jerks as in teaching the "leave-it" command.

Like what commands that you are certain she knows? What would be an example? (Remember that a command isn't completely learned until it's learned in different venues and also under distraction.)

I use a flat collar right now.

Just today she ignored the sit and down commands. I hear you though Connie. I guess I'm not taking into account that it's not really learned until it's learned in all venues. So, does that mean that I just ask again if she ignores under those circumstances?

Hi Peter

First of all if the dog is *completely distracted* (like at the park where there are a lot of people) she will not learn.

If you can get a distance away from the distraction to the point where the dog will look at you, then you can train.

If you ask the dog to sit, and she is paying attention to you but does not sit, very likely she doesn't understand the command well enough to generalize it to this new environment.

What I do in this situation is I tell the dog the command and give it to the count of 2 to comply or begin to comply. (This is the point at which a _fully trained_ dog would get a correction for refusal). **EDIT: do NOT repeat the command, you want to train the dog to listen the first time. Not the second, 3rd etc.** If the dog does not comply, at this point the dog does not know the command so I then "help" the dog to carry out the command. For example, for the "sit" command, I pull up on the leash and push down on the dog's rear (the dog has had prior work in the distraction-free environment and knows what to do when I push lightly on his bum, so I am not really forcing the dog at this point.) A light goes on and the dog says "oh yeah! That's what I'm supposed to be doing" and he sits.

Then, I give the dog all the credit for complying with the command. I assume that if he would have known what I wanted he would have done it, so I just helped him a little and he complied. Now.. he gets the treat or the praise or the toy!!!!

Now when you are trying to socialize... you will be in a high distraction environment and this is a bad time to try and train the dog. You will certainly not have his attention. This is something I also struggled with when my (now 9-month-old) puppy was at that age. I had to separate socializing and training, because for me, I was not able to do both at the same time.

Here is the advice I got on this board:

When you are in public you have to compete with the distractions (people, kids, traffic, other dogs). You have to become the most fun thing in the world to the dog or you will never get his attention. Since you have a Lab she probably likes to play ball. Carry a ball with you and when someone walks by, take the ball out of your pocket (a ball on a string or tug would work) and play. Or get a treat out.

This work is illustrated in the Pack Structure DVD from Leerburg.

This was difficult for me as my pup would just get wild when he saw another dog or someone on a bike, and I wanted to correct the snot out of him for dragging me down the street (he's about lab size). But I had to keep telling myself "he's a baby, he's only a baby" and patience, patience, redirect, redirect, play. Delicious treats used as a "bribe" or lure worked best for my puppy.

Yes it does eventually get better, especially as the dog gets older. A prong collar introduced at 8 months of age worked for the pulling but I can definitely keep his attention better now.

Hope that helps.

Edited by Angela Burrell (06/18/2008 08:23 AM)
Edit reason: as noted above

Thanks Angela! I think that gives me what I need. The most important thing being patience when I get so frustrated just as you described. Thanks!