pulling on leash when walking!

[myasworld]

my 7month old boxer will not stop pulling on the lead when she is walking. she pulls so hard she has had me off my feet and she practically chokes herself while she is walking, its so hard for me to walk her I have to get my boyfriend to take her instead as she is better behaved for him, although she still pulls
I would like to know how to have her exactly by my side while walking and for her to stop tugging on the leash!

 

[Eleonora II]

U-turns

I know how this feels - my Bud-Bud used to pull almost my arm out! Until a (Fichtlmeier trained) dog trainer crossed our path. She told me to make basically a u-turn everytime he pulls in one direction even if it means at the beginning to literally pull him back while telling him "come with me". I thought it odd (and what would people think who see me - LOL) but tried anyway as my arms got longer and longer.

Lo and behold it worked. It took Bud under a week to understand that pulling doesn't lead to anything positive. Now we found an acceptable way of walking - the first 5 minutes he can go and sniff his heart out and pee and mark as much as he wants. After that its brisk walking with a lot of "good boy" until I decide to stop and let him sniff. It takes him about 15-20 minutes and he needs to go potty. That's when I slow down so he can sniff while leisure walking. I know when he's ready when he starts standing up on the next tree or wall and looks stressed. So we stop, he does his business, we clean it up and continue. It works pretty well and he stopped being the "eternal puller" ... except when he sees a cat first. Then he still tries until he hears my "shshshsh".

You may want to give it a try - good luck!

 

[Bathel]

My little girl would pull a bunch too and I got a no pull harness that has a martingale loop (bought it off Amazon by mistake actually, was looking for a harness I could use in the car).

When I got the harness, I thought... there is no way this is going to work... but I put it on her and took her for a walk. The change was instant. I was shocked... she walks right by my side without fail now. she'll give a short pull every now and then, but for 95% of the time she is right beside me.

Now, to be fair, I did buy a Loops2 leash and use the short handle when I walk her so that might help too... but I can say that the Loops2 leash on the collar WITHOUT the harness has her pulling just like she did prior, so I'm going to say the harness is the key.

I know it can be frustrating... I think one of the key things is just to be calm and confident. You have to walk TO some where... if you have in your mind where you are going to go and you just go there... it seems to work better. She is just 7 months so she is still young. You may also want to look at working with a trainer that uses positive reinforcement like clicker training.

 

[Stub]

When Gus was a baby learning to walk on a leash if he put the slightest bit of pressure on the leash I stopped dead until he sat down and relaxed and then looked at me. Sometimes we stopped for 5 minutes every other step. It was extremely frustrating and took months and months. Sometimes it took us well over an hour to go the 1-mile loop around our park, but it was SO worth it when it finally clicked in his head around 7 months old. Now he is great on leash and doesn't even pull when he sees something to chase or really really wants to meet an oncoming dog. Although to be honest he does WANT to pull, but if I put him at heel and talk to him constantly he can control his impulses. A little patience and frustration with not getting anywhere now will go a long long way in the future!

 

[MrsBeeks]

I used the exact same method as Stubs, with our Dutch, and it worked like a charm! I started him out right away on our leash walks when he was 8 weeks old, and now, at almost a year, he walks right by my side. Most of the time I only need 1 hand on the leash because he seldom ever pulls......when we are on a busy street tho', I use 2 hands on the leash just incase....I'm paranoid of losing him.
I use a sensible harness for him that has the connection for the leash on his chest, that way it doesn't put any pressure on his throat if he ever does pull.
Anyways, this is also a very good method that i highly recommend.....as Stubs said, it can lengthen your walk in the beginning, but the pay off is huge in the end!
Good luck with what ever method you choose!

 

[qbaker]

I'm trying the "Stop-Wait, Change Directions" method now. It DOES require a lot of patience, and is even more challenging to use during colder weather as it is right now where I live. As soon as Major even inches into a pull I stop immediately, move in close to him and wait not allowing him to move until he "sits" or "turns to look at me", when he does turn and start walking AGAIN in the opposite direction. We never get far, but the hope is that he catches on.

With a former dog I tried a "Gentle Leader", it worked well (for the most part), took her a minute to get use to being on her muzzle, after a while she adjusted. I'm thinking of trying in addition to the above technique another training leash of a type. My only concern with training leashes are (as with my former dog), sometimes they work great while on the dog, but don't ever seem to teach your dog to walk the same way WITHOUT the training leash. I'm hoping the "Stop-Wait, change Directions" method (along with) the training leash gets Major trained enough that I can return to using the traditional leash and he walks properly.

Try employing 2 methods at once. I'm about to.

 

[CoraBoxer]

What Stub said. Once the dog understands that they can only move forward while next to you, and pulling will not get them there things improve quickly. You really do want to keep a loose leash when you are moving. Having a really short or tight leash will encourage the dog to pull even more.