Tempest Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 I've been doing loads of work with Jess to try and tackle her issue of pulling on the lead and although she does amazing heel work at training classes and when we practise in the garden she's still a nightmare on lead and pulls like a demon!!! At the moment she can only have on lead walks cos of her spay op and her tendon injury and I had been walking her in an anti pull harness which worked fairly well but I still want to get her walking on a regular collar and lead without pulling She can't wear the harness at the mo because of her spay stitches so last night I tried to take her out for her first walk since the op and used her dogmatic headcollar. The basic result was that she absolutely refused to move whilst wearing it We literally made it about 4 steps out of the front door and she wouldn't move for treats or even when my mum tried taking Ollie of ahead of her to help get her moving - nothing worked!! So I'm in a jam at the moment as she needs to burn off some excess energy by street walking but can't wear the harness, pulls like a train on a regular collar and won't move in the dogmatic!!! Help!!! I've tried letting her wear the dogmatic around the house but she just goes to her bed and refuses to move an inch as soon as it's on - I'm not sure what else to try tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natpants Posted March 1, 2007 Report Share Posted March 1, 2007 Do it really slowly. Start by showing her the headcollar, click and treat, touching her face with it, c&T, then build up to showing her the treat through the headollar, etc, until she has to reach through the headcollar to get a high value treat, until you leave it resting on her nose/face for longer periods of a few seconds, build it up, then finally do the headcollar up. She should learn to associate the headcollar with nice things, playtime whilst wearing it around the house etc. Then do the same with the lead going onto it. Use a light lead - the double ended ones designed for smaller dogs are great as they are strong but lighter so don't drag the head down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlmckay Posted April 19, 2007 Report Share Posted April 19, 2007 I teach the stop/start method. Some dogs get programmed into "tension on collar means pull" - Jet couldn't even have a lead clipped on his collar without surging forward. First thing. The lead is for the dog's safety and council requirements. Not to stop the dog pulling forward. Have it loose when teaching. Remove all the tension. Second thing. Have a ball game in the garden or something that makes her run about and take the edge off her "sillies". Once you've had a game with her (Jess and you, not another dog), she should be more tuned into you and now thinks you're ace. How to do. Have Jess beside you sitting. Take one step forward with the words JESS HEEL. Jess is likely to stay with you for one step and then surge forward. The second she moves too far in front, stop. Dead. If she's tuned into you, she should stop too and look back at you. Ask her to come BACK and physically bring her back into place if you need to. Repeat. And so on until you can walk a decent distance. The idea of this is not to use the lead at all, but to ask the dog to move back to your side by their own choice. To get a thinking dog that thinks where it should be instead of a constantly corrected dog that waits for the correction and doesn't use it's own brain power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanishPastry Posted April 20, 2007 Report Share Posted April 20, 2007 How is Jess doing now? First of all I'd say if your harness was interefering with her spay wound, it sounds like it is fitted incorrectly and too far back. What kind of harness is it? Is it loose lead HEEL walking you are aiming for with her, or just LOOSE LEAD walking? The second is by far the hardest to train, as it is asking the dog not to pull, not even when they are not 100% focussed on you (having a sniff etc). For loose lead walking I would not use a head collar. The dog needs to learn to be calm and I have never so far seen a dog comfortable enough in a head collar to actually be calm, my own Indy looked calm wearing it, but she was actually quite tense and depressed so I stopped using them and addressed her real problem, the stress, instead. The stopping method is good for loose lead walking, although she would not need to come all the way back into a heel position, just accept that you are not moving until the lead is slack, and that she has to move forward at your pace, not her own. Use treats and calm verbal praise for when she relaxes and waits for you. Very slow walking is good for making the dogs think a bit of their pace and not hurl ahead (with 3 big dogs I am doing very slow walking regurlarly my dogs are excellent at winding each other up for walkies!). I would not take her out for a game of ball first, as you need her to be calm, not excited and wound up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amanda72 Posted May 19, 2007 Report Share Posted May 19, 2007 we put the collar on in the house and let him walk round with it on, and he soon got used to it, we also put the lead on and off whilst in the house and he was fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissMagic Posted November 5, 2007 Report Share Posted November 5, 2007 (edited) When we got our Halti collar I showed it to Wilma and let her sniff it and have a treat and then later I let her wear it in the house a bit to get used to it now. She loves it now and gets confused if you don't put it on her to go walkies! Edited November 5, 2007 by MissMagic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts