Got any tips for leash training a dog?

[supernova]

I have a just about year old rat terrier. He's a great companion and minds well in in almost every respect, except one.

We can't seem to get our act together to take a proper walk. He becomes very annoyed with the leash. If he can he will grab it with his teeth and yank, and yank, and yank. He thinks it's a game and he seems to enjoy trying to get MY goat on these occasions. I should add that this is one of those retractable leashes,probably not the best choice for a proper walk. I"ve had better success with a proper choke collar and a proper lead.

My goal is to be able to take a walk around here without incident so that we can go to parks and public trails around on occasion.

Any leash training tips to share?

[Scuba]

1. Yep, go to your public library and check out some Dog Whisperer DVD's...

.... Ceasar Milan knows more about dogs, and how to educate dog owners, than anyone else I've ever heard. Your library should have DVD's of his National Geographic TV show. Get several; you'll learn a lot.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. I'm hardly an expert on this, but our Shih-Tzu does that, too. I got her to stop by . . . . .

. . . . . holding her on a short leash and being "matter of fact" with her.

She still grabs at the retractable leash on occasion, but not very much at all. It used to be non-stop.

I took her for a few walks with a conventional leash and gave her no slack. I held the leash so short she could only stay, essentially, right below my hand. Two things resulted. She could not reach the leash to bite at it (she tried), and she had to stay near me, not freely running ahead at will.

I spoke to her in a normal tone, but no "koochie-koo" high pitched happy voice. She got the message I meant business and simply decided to get with the program. Now when she goes on the retractable leash, she seems less inclined to balk at it or play with it.

I have no idea if I unknowingly did anything else, but after a few short leash sessions, she was fine on the long leash.

[Texasgal]

3. I'm very interested in how this works

out...my female boston is 9 months old and a terror on a leash too!!!

I'll be watching this thread.

P.S I love rat terriers! They are the best doggies!

[TorchTheWitch]

4. short leash and a prong collar

Doggie needs to learn to walk before he can run so to speak. So start with a short leash and have him right by your side. I also recommend a prong collar rather than a choke collar. Choke collars can be dangerous. A prong collar has to fit correctly though, and it's a good idea to attach it to a regular collar because if it's too big it can come off with a strong correction. Each prong is a separate link, so you can add or reduce links as needed for a proper fit. They do make itty bitty prong collars for itty bitty doggies where the actual links are much smaller. Pretty much any dog store would have them.

Here is good advice about how to properly fit a prong collar with pictures of where it needs to be seated on the dog's neck, etc...
http://leerburg.com/fit-prong.htm

Since your doggie is quite young this dinking around while on leash is probably just excitement combined with excess energy. You'll probably have a lot more success walking on the leash if you exercise him well first... play fetch with him, run him around the house for awhile, etc. to get rid of that before taking him for a walk.

I also have a youngster of 9 months now who occasionally when he gets excited while we're walking does the same thing with wanting to eat the leash and jump around. He still has problems sometimes containing his enthusiasm if something particularly wonderful happens on our walk. He did it just this morning when we ran into one of his doggie buddies we hadn't seen for awhile, and they were both goofy excited to meet up again. While we went on our way after the joyful reunion he just couldn't contain himself and did the leash biting and dancing around nonsense. I immediately stopped him and took the leash out of his mouth with a firm "no", made him sit and be calm for a few seconds and then we could go on our way. Both your dog and mine are at that kooky age where they want to chew on everything whether it fits in their mouth or not and seem to be in hyper drive 24/7... I call it the Canine Terrible Two's.

It's REALLY important to stay calm when they monkey around like this. That's usually the hardest part for me even though I know my getting irritated is only fueling the fire. It was hard for me this morning to stay calm with correcting him mostly because I was already irritated because just a few minutes before we ran into Yoshi's doggie friend I stepped in dog poop that some ASSHOLE didn't pick up. Ugh. I swear if there's a single dog poop in a 10 mile radius of me somehow one of my feet will find it.

Short leash and heeling is vital. Those retracting leashes are really for dogs that are already well behaved and always listen to commands. Generally, I just don't like them because I don't want the dog anywhere but right with me... you never know what's around the corner or if a kid or squirrel or something is going to pop out from somewhere unexpectedly, or if they find something gross on the ground they want to eat, etc.

[roody]

5. A good halter, a short leash, and treats...

Last edited Sat Mar 17, 2012, 11:18 AM - Edit history (1)

Oops, and a huge amount of calm and patience. You won't need a lot of treats because the reward for calming herself is that you continue walking. When she pulls or plays, you stop and wait calmly, have her sit or merely stop the bad behavior, then treat and/or continue walking. At first a lot of the practice is just being calm on leash.

[TorchTheWitch]

6. a halter gives much less control

Harnesses/halters for dogs were invented for hunting and tracking dogs... jobs where the handler doesn't and can't control them on leash since the dog needs to freely follow it's nose. They're also useful for people with certain disabilities where the dog needs to lead their person or the dog's physical strenth is needed. A harness/halter gives no control to the head, and without head control the only control you do have is putting your physical strength against the dog's. It also will make the dog less obedient since with a harness/halter there is no way to correct them nor control them. For a dog that is already disobedient on leash a harness/halter would be a disaster.

For training and walking on leash what is needed is a collar so the head can be controlled... where the head goes the body must follow. For strong or disobedient dogs a collar usually means a prong or dominant dog collar. Dog stores like to pretend that a harness/halter is what is needed for control though it's the opposite just because they cost a whole lot more than a collar.

[roody]

8. I use an Easy Walker harness. Maybe is it not a halter.

It clips at the chest. In our Pit Crew training class at the local shelter, we use these or a Gentle Leader (the nose piece). A non-trained dog gets that and a neck collar, and the leash is clipped to both.

[TorchTheWitch]

10. I'm trying to picture this configuration

I know the Easy Walker harness is just a regular harness that clips to the chest instead of on top at the shoulders. By itself it still works as a regular harness in putting nothing but your own physical strength against the dog's for direction/correction. Combining it with a regular collar where the leash is clipped to both I'm confused about how that could work without a special leash that has two separate lines for clipping... if the harness is clipped at that chest and the collar is clipped at the top of the neck, how is that even possible with only one clip on the leash? The only way I can see that to be possible is if the collar is waaaay down on the neck close enough to the chest to clip to both which isn't where a collar is supposed to be and still gives no head control. Is some kind of special leash used with two clips to attach to both the collar and the harness so that both are worn on the dog in the right place? And where the correction applies only to the collar and not the harness?

In looking at the Easy Walker harness site it still looks like nothing more than a modified regular harness that still doesn't give head control and puts you having to use your own physical strength against the dog's. They even say it's for "gentle" correction, which would only work with a dog that pretty much does what's asked anyway... the bigger the disobedience the bigger the correction needs to be, and if you can't give a stronger correction with this thing (and I'm not seeing how that could be) it's pretty well useless. I'm not seeing how this thing can give any correction at all by itself.

Combining the harness with the collar makes more sense because at least the collar gives you some control of the head, but I'm not seeing where the harness part is even necessary without a special dual clip leash... actually I still see the harness being superfluous and more of an added problem than anything else. A harness/halter (two names for the same thing) isn't designed to control the dog at all - without control of the head it simply can't. Whether clipped at the chest or on top at the shoulders it still give no control of the head and puts your physical strength against the dog's as the only means of control.

The snout piece (a forging collar) works well because it can give even more control to the head especially for a dog that pulls on leash. The harness though is just a useless expense that really only adds problematic issues. It's simply the wrong tool for controling a dog because a harness cannot control a dog and was designed for non-control for those dogs that do certain jobs that controling the dog is not wanted. Companies and stores that sell them only sell them as a tool for control when they aren't because they cost so much more than a collar.

[roody]

11. The nose collar is more effective than

the Easy Walker, but many dogs fight it like crazy. I like the Easy Walker because a dog can't slip out of it like some can a neck collar.

[cally]

13. This type of harness worked wonders for me and my dog

It pulls the dog around every time he pulls so it made it very unrewarding to pull. I also worked with the dog and stopped and turned around every time he pulled. It only took a few days before he was walking with me.

[CraftyGal]

16. This is true for most dogs,

however it is not recommended for dachshund or dogs similar to the low and long dog as a regular collar can cause issues with the neck and back. Cesar Milan has a great collar you should look at...The Illusion Dog Collar & Leash System (Next Generation) (http://www.cesarsway.com/shop/Illusion-Dog-Collar-Leash-System).

[IMG][/IMG]

[TorchTheWitch]

18. I've looked into this one before

I like it a lot, but I wish it had some kind of configuration where the top part of the collar (high on the neck part) was either a dominant dog collar or a prong... when you have a huge strong dog especially with prey or dominance issues you really need something where you aren't having to pit your own strength against theirs.

Just last night I was on my way home with the dog after our walk and we stopped at a grassy area right near my house for him to take a final piss on "his" bush when we suddenly heard this terrible screeching sound, and a second later two cats that were fighting with each other burst out from under a nearby pine tree. They were completely oblivious of me and my dog being there and fought in a hairy cat ball right at our feet. Both me and the dog nearly jumped right out of our skins with fright... it happened SO fast! Suddenly, the cats realized we were there, burst apart and dashed off in two different directions. The dog recovered himself instantly and lunged after one of the cats. Unfortunately, we had been standing right next to a drainage ditch, and if it wasn't for his prong collar there's no way on earth I could have held him back and would have landed head first in that ditch with my arm dislocated.

Now, that's a rather strange incident, but since I walk him late at night we often do come across various critters that come flying out of nowhere or that damn husky that runs around loose all the time terrorizing everyone. Without the prong collar I wouldn't be able to hang onto him. If I get a chance to see something coming I can stop him (actually, unless it's right smack in front of us he just stands and stares with interest which is often how I know something is there before I see it), but when an animal just bursts out practically on top of us I just can't react faster than he does. It's rather amazing how stupid the night time animals are since it often happens that they come flying out of nowhere practically right on top of us when there's no way they couldn't have known we were there especially since I'm always yammering away to the dog on our walks (deep discussions we have solving all the world's problems and discovering all the mysteries of the universe. LOL!). When we walk in the grassy area along the edge of the gully I always have to make sure to make sufficient noise to wake up any sleeping bunnies so we don't step on them (they like to sleep in that grassy area - dozens of them). A few times I've almost put my foot down right on a sleeping bunny. Stupid animals. They're either sleeping right at our feet or running right into our feet.

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. Get a Gentle Leader collar

It has a flat nylon collar that buckles behind the ears and an adjustable loop that fits over the snout. It is not a muzzle and the dog can still eat and drink and bark and bite while wearing the collar. The leash clips under the snout into the adjustable loop. These kinds of collars are sometimes referred to as forging collars. Unlike choke collars or pinch cllars they put pressure on the dogs snout when he tries to pull against the leash and forge ahead. In many dogs, pressure to the snout is more effective than pressure to the throat. You also have the advantage of having some control over the dogs head - and field of vision.

Use a 6 foot lead. The dog probably doesn't know what to expect of the retractable lead given that he may have more or less freedom at any given time.

I've trained a young small terrier mix to heel off lead using nothing but the Gentle Leader collar. This particular dog was a small muscular dog that did not respond at all to a choke collar or prong collar.

[roody]

9. This turns their head to the side when they pull.

It is very effective.

[iscooterliberally]

12. I have 3 large dogs.

I walk all three dogs at the same time. I know I'm crazy. I went through just about everything you could ever buy at any pet store. I'm no Cesar Millan, or Victoria Stillwell, but I can work with my unruly pack. My favorite is the easy walk harness. It's better than all the other harnesses because it does help a little bit with the pulling, but it's not the 'be all end all'. Your dog will still pull. My shepard mix does the same thing as your dog when she gets excited. She wants to play tug-o-war with the leash. If you have a yard or some space for your dog to run off leash, let your dog burn off some energy first. Don't try going for a walk right after the dog has been inside for a while and is bursting to go out. You won't be able to get his attention until he calms down. When you are ready to go out, bring some training treats. Tiny bits of chicken or ham will work. Put them in your pocket, or you can get one of those belt pouches. The trick is to get your dog to pay attention to you and not everything else in the world. It's going to take a ton of patience on your part and your dog will try to 'out-will' you. Everytime your dog pulls, you go in the opposite direction of his pull and try to coax him with a treat. You probably won't get out of your front yard on your first try, but don't worry about that. Just keep at it and eventually your dog will get it. If you don't have any treats and you want to go out, just remember to go in the opposite direction when he pulls and try to coax your dog to follow you. Good luck and have fun!

[cally]

14. I used three techniques and he walks pretty well with me

I usually ride a bike with my dog now or go off leash so he's not perfect on the leash anymore. What I was taught was to make it funny and interesting to walk with your dog. I skipped, jumped, changed directions, walked in and around bushes, changed speeds, turned around, etc. He had to pay attention to me to keep up. I also handed him treats, I fed him most of his daily food during our walks when training, whenever he walked beside me appropriately. I started this when I first got him so this didn't take too long. I used a gentle leader harness when he was young and it worked well. I also looped the leash around my waist so I'm not trying to direct the dog by pulling on the leash. The dog is supposed to walk beside me without me pulling at all or adjusting the length of the leash. I don't use the retractable leashes on walks because I think the dog has too much leeway with them but I use one with my bike. I still occasionally give him treats when walking to re-enforce my "with me" command that I use to remind him to walk by my side.

I learned all these through dog training at our local humane society where I adopted my dog.

[cyberspirit]

15. Easy Walker Works Great

My dog used to bite at the lead as well. Bit through 2 of those retractable leads in a nano second. That all changed when I got the Easy Walker.

[TheCruces]

17. Ditch the retractable leash

Go with a prong collar. I had one dog who was AWFUL on leash. The prong collar fixed him right up, and he'd get excited and run to the door when I took it out, because he knew it meant he was going somewhere.

[BTennyson]

19. Sporn

I use the sporn leader. Instant results.

[supernova]

20. Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions and the dog trainer next door...

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions.

I do have a gentle leader and it helped a little bit, but not enough. I simply wasn't able to get his attention properly. Part of the "problem" from my POV is that Moby is a high-energy little being and I'm not. That's an ongoing issue. LOL.

Fortunately, one of my neighbors is a professional dog trainer. He does training, grooming and pet sitting. He also trains and shows a HUGE German Shepard in police work competitions. He recommended this collar to us and trained us how to use it properly:



http://www.amazon.com/Dogtra-IQ-Yard-Training-Collar/dp/B004HX6QD6

Works like a charm!

Before anybody wines that this is some sort of "shock" collar, it isn't. If you are shocking the dog, you are misusing it. The "shock" is meant as a light electronic tap on the shoulder. That's all it is. And it is effective. I know because I tested it on my arm.

I no longer have to worry about Moby taking off without me, or pulling my arm out of the socket. I'm not confident yet of taking him to parks or trails, but we'll get there soon. I'm sure of it.