Pulling on leash - help!

[RoscoMarley]

I need some advice for training my boxers to not pull on the leash. I have two, Rosco is a little over two years old and Marley is seven months old, which makes this even trickier!

Rosco does pretty well on the leash by himself with me, until he sees another dog. He starts to pull but knows to stop when i tell him no and pull him towards me. He could definitely be better though..

Marley, on the other hand, does not do so well on the leash by herself when she sees anything (people, dogs, birds, etc.) She pulls with all of her weight to try to get to whatever she sees. Obviously, she is ignoring my commands, so I need to try something else. I've been reading posts about the gentle leader and am considering getting one for her. Do these work?

I also have a double leash - which is the main problem - because if they both see something, they pull, which is enough to knock me over! I love to take them on walks together, but it's becoming impossible because we live in a neighborhood with a lot of runners, dogs, etc. I'm not sure if I should stop using the double leash until they are better trained on a single leash, individually. If you have any advice about your experience training your boxer not to pull, please let me know!

 

[gmacleod]

I would strongly recommend ditching the double leash straight away. That's not on it's own going to solve the pulling problem - but using one of those is going to make it a heck of a lot harder to ever train your dogs to walk nicely. The problems those create are (a) that it's impossible to communicate with one dog and not both (so if one is walking OK and the other is pulling, then you end either putting up with the pulling dog, or confusing the one who's walking fine for correcting him for nothing...); and (b) if one dog is pulling, he pulls the second dog around and encourages him to pull also. In short, you're fighting a much more difficult, if not outright losing, battle if you keep using one of those.

I would secondarily recommend walking the dogs separately until you've taught them each to walk properly. Think of the other dog as a distraction - it's something that can be added ONLY after each dog knows how to walk properly. The only exception to that really should be if you have a second person to walk the second dog. Some of the major reasons for training separately are (a) less distraction, (b) the ability to reward for walking correctly by continuing the walk, and to REMOVE rewards for pulling by not continuing the walk - without wrongly penalising the dog who's doing things right, and (c) you can control one misbehaving dog, but it's difficult to control two and ensure they're appropriately rewarded or not rewarded for the way they behave.

 

[Sansal]

I agree with Gmacleod.

A gentel leader or easy walk harness are useful training tools that give you better control over your dog and discourage pulling. You will still have to train them to walk nicely but it will make walking with them much easier.

 

[ericamichele]

For the first year or so I had Willie, I used a every manner of halter, harness, and collar to stop him from pulling, but nothing really worked. I'm only about fifty pounds heavier than he is, so something had to change! He was dragging me down the street and choking himself out at the same time...not good. He's two now, and I've given up on the devices and just started training him to walk nicely on the leash. It's going pretty well. One thing that really helped with the passing people, dogs, birds, etc was a "leave it" command. I'd bring along some really, really delicious treats like cheese or hot dogs, and as soon as I notice that he'd noticed something, I'd stick that treat right on front of his nose and tell him to Leave It. It didn't take him long at all to figure out what I was looking for; in fact, I don't even have to say it most of the time anymore. Now the only trouble I really have is if he sees a cat before I do. He still gets rather worked up over cats, and once it's caught his attention there's no going back. Best of luck! All three of you will be so happy when you can share a pleasant walk together.

 

[Vera]

My puppy is five months old, and we've been walking since she finished her immunizations. No matter how much I encouraged her and rewarded her for not pulling, walks were not fun. I tried the Easy Walk Harness, and it's wonderful. She stopped pulling immediately. I still continue to work with her so that eventually we can do away with the harness, but I totally recommend trying it.

 

[johann]

A good exercise to work on for polite walking is "finding heel".

You start with the dog sitting at heel position. Click (if you clicker train) and treat. Over and over again, like a million times. Then, start moving a bit and wait for your dog to come up to heel position again (I'd take a step forward or turn my body). Immediately treat and praise. Once the dog understands heel= good treats and attention, then start adding the command heel. Gradually make it harder and harder (further away) for her to "find heel" so that it's a game and she really wants to be right by your side.

I'd use a harness or no-pull head halter for her walks to prevent any pulling, but any time that she is at heel....reward and treat. Lots of praise and encouragement for staying at heel. The trick is to keep them engaged and paying attention to you while walking-harder than it sounds.

Johann was good at loose leash walking, but never understood the "heel" idea. We worked on this in our first rally class and it has made a HUGE difference in his walking and attention. He doesn't always walk in a heel, but it's helped because any time he starts to get too far ahead or pull I say "come heel" and he turns right around and trots back to heel. I know another poster has used this method as well, maybe Juno?

 

[RoscoMarley]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I've worked with her every day this week and I see a huge improvement already!

 

[CoraBoxer]

Did you change up her collar/harness/leash? GL easy walk harness worked amazing with Cora as well. She did go through some phases of pulling/not pulling but to start off walking it was night and day. She's 11 months now and i've switched her over to a regular collar. If she's pulling she wants to get somewhere. So instead we stop and sit. She gets the point. Don't have to call/pull her back into a sit. I stop she heals on her own.

 

[whiskers]

I know another poster has used this method as well, maybe Juno?

Yep, we've done something similar, although I kind of like your version more! I would just aimlessly walk around and c/t anytime she would find the heel position, and then more c/t for maintaining it. In the beginning she would wander off but I'd just keep walking around, and eventually she'd get interested and come back to me... didn't take long for her to be glued to my side!
Takes practice though. I noticed that after I had stopped this "game" with her, she was not giving me the same focus on walks that she had been previously. It just takes time for it to become habit, I guess!

I would definitely work on training the dogs separately, and then use something like a Gentle Leader if you need to take them out together. Another thing is figure out exactly what you want from them. Do you just not want them pulling, or do you want them at your side? I thought I would be happy as long as I was not being pulled down the street.... but I quickly realized what I -really- wanted was Juno to be at my side. It's a small detail but training becomes a bit easier if you know exactly what you want, and it allows you to be more consistent. If you come up with something like you don't want their heads in front of your legs, then you have a clear picture of what behavior you're working toward.