SusanG

Any new ideas of training to walk on loose leash? My one year old Callie is a dream dog. She is smart, loving and obedient - until she gets on a leash. I take her daily, even give her runs in the yard with a long lead to chase a ball so it isn't like she has no exercise. But no matter what I have tried, she still pulls on a leash while taking a walk or going somewhere - not lunging but keeping a constant tight pull on the lead until she coughs. I've tried stopping every time she pulls and wait for her to circle back and then saying Yes, lets go. It will take me an hour to go 1/4 mile stopping every 10 feet and she STILL pulls. She knows, but can't stop herself. I've tried saying no, pulling her back a little and when leash is slack praising her, etc. I have a training harness which prevents her from pulling, works fine, but that is no solution when she continues to pull with a collar on. Nothing works. She is so entranced with sniffing everything and getting farther along that she just can't control herself. She even keeps walking while pooing, with her nose to the ground, sniffing her way along - she doesn't want to miss a smell or anything even while in a squat. A year is still young and puppylike. Will she settle down when she is older? I'd like to enjoy walking her, she is so lovely but every walk is a training session that doesn't work. I try it in the house, and she obeys, but outside is different!

fjm

I think I would walk her in the harness, and keep the collar/leash for very short training sessions. It is bad for her neck and throat to be pulling, and she will learn eventually. I first taught mine to walk with me off leash (usual progression from a few steps in an area with few distractions, to a longer distance, to a few steps with more distractions, etc, etc). Once they could do that for a reasonable distance, I started again with the leash. I would break it down into lots of very small stages - in the house, then in the yard, then the last few yards coming home from a walk - so that you are setting her up for success. And have lots of really good treats, and be generous with them - it is hard work for dogs to walk at our dawdling human pace when there is a whole exciting world to explore!

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To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,
where doing nothing was not boring- it was peace.

~ Milan Kundera

JE-UK

Sounds like you are on the right track. With a miniature, there really is no reason to have a puller. I'd go back to really short walks, and give the dog a chance to succeed. Decide what is an acceptable amount of tension on the leash, and every time the dog puts more tension on, just stop and be a tree. Wait. Really. Just wait. It's HARD . When she takes the tension off (and she will eventually), praise and treat. I found it useful to drop a treat at my feet. Then move on. The dog will likely immediately put tension on again, so stop and be a tree again. Poodles are smart; she'll figure out that pulling gets her no forward progress, and staying with you means treats fall from the sky. But you have to be scrupulous. No reward for pulling, i.e. forward progress, EVER.

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"Yes is so much important than No." Dominique Barbier

Indiana

My old pit bull used to pull all the time when she around Callie's age, and you know what muscular dogs those are. Anyway at obedience lessons the instructor said to take a treat and hold it over the pit's nose while we were walking on leash and when she didn't pull after a few feet (because she was entranced with the treat above her nose), we were to say, "Good heel!!!" and give her a big pet and the treat. Initially I thought, oh like THAT's going to work, the instructor clearly doesn't understand the problem with pulling that we are having. Also, my pit was not very bright (although lovely in all other ways). But it DID work! We slowly increased the distance until she could walk any distance and not pull, and get a treat only sporadically with the "Good heel!!!" praise. Also she learned when she was to heel and when she was allowed to pull, say, when my kids wanted a tow up a steep hill while hiking

happybooker1

This was in a file of a Yahoo Group I belong to. I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting it in its entirety here. I did NOT write it but I'm starting with this to teach Remi LLW. We had our first session yesterday.

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From: "lindsay_newman" <crackbonkers@ihpc.net>
Date: Fri Aug 9, 2002 3:10 pm
Subject: Loose Leash Walking Help (Hello!)

Tami requested me to reprint a post I wrote over at ClickerSolutions today, which I will grandly call "Lindsay's Loose Leash Walking Baby Step Program for Success" :-), reprinted here for your convenience. It seems like a lot of good dog guardians have trouble with this skill in the beginning, so maybe this will help ...

Good luck!
Lindsay and All in Oregon

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I think there is a lot of attention given to techniques for loose leash walking such as 'be a tree' and 'penalty yards', but sometimes the most important part of these techniques isn't emphasized, which is the reinforcement for being GOOD! I think a lot of times it's portrayed that teaching a dog to walk nicely on leash is very difficult and time consuming using positive reinforcement as opposed to using aversives - and this just isn't true in my experience!

I have had a tremendous amount of success teaching LLW with just a clicker, a leash, and bag of tasty treats.

Teaching this behavior is no different than any other. Start SMALL, don't lump, and work up in distractions. It's not a magical formula!

1. In your living room start by 'warming up' the dog with the clicker with a few basic tricks (sit, down, etc.) so the dog knows that there are treats to be earned for the savvy pup!

2. Walk away from your dog, he will most likely follow! Click and treat! Don't worry about where the dog is, just that he's following and in your basic vicinity.

3. Turn around and go the other way - the dog will most likely follow! C/T! Most dogs LIKE to follow us around, especially when they know we've got treats to be earned!

4. Repeat! You soon have a dog that understands, "Following that person around gets me treats - how easy!"

5. Start SLOWLY raising your criteria. Click when he's closer to you, or maybe if he's near the side that you eventually want him to heel on. Repeat, repeat, repeat!

6. Keep raising that criteria. Go faster, go slower - where's the dog? Right with you? Good! C/T! Is the dog wandering off somewhere? Ask yourself, am I acting like this is a GAME or a CHORE? What level or reinforcement are you giving? If the dog is not having fun, you're not doing it right! Also, make sure you keep the sessions SHORT, don't bore the dog to death!

7. Once the dog is onto the game of Following Mum (or Dad, as the case may be) Around, break out the leash! Now you've got a new job, your job is to make sure the leash is never taut. This is not the dog's job yet, it's yours. Start with baby steps of Follow Mum again, as this will be a whole different game for the dog. You may have to just drop the leash and let it drag while he relearns the Follow Mum game.

8. Play the same game, only with a leash, where your job is to not only c/t when the dog is in position, but also to make sure that dog NEVER has an opportunity to pull! Luckily, since dogs are so super smart, and they like playing games, it won't take long before they start ignoring the leash and just following you around the living room.

9. With a little practice, your dog will soon be following you with his leash on
around the living room! He wont' be pulling because he's following you around! Success! Not very useful, you say? Not true! Baby steps let you move FASTER than attempting to start training the dog outside with all sorts of distraction.

10. Go into your backyard with your dog, your clicker, and a bag of treats. Do a few 'warm up' exercises so your dog knows that treats can be had for the smart puppy. Turn around and walk away from your dog - does he follow? Well c/t that dog! Does this sound familiar?

11. Repeat, repeat, repeat steps 1 through 9 in the relative safety of your backyard. Pup should be onto this game, so maybe it won't take as long to get him to understand the rules of the game! Or maybe it will, after all, outside is mighty distracting! Once your dog can successfully LLW in your backyard, it's time for the front yard!

12. Okay, this is a little different, in that your dog should be on leash from the start. And someone had the excellent suggestion of a flexi-lead, or just use a long line to start with. Then, guess what, repeat steps 1-9 in your front yard!

13. Adding distractions. I think the problem most people have with LLW and his method is that they add WAY too much too fast. An actual walk is so full of distraction and environmental reinforcement for not listening to you that it's hard to expect a dog to listen to you at all, much less learn about something as ambiguous as LLW. So, start SMALL. Have a friend/spouse/child distract the dog while you're practicing IN YOUR LIVING ROOM with the dog off leash (right back at step one!) Turn and RUN away from your dog, does he follow? C/t! Repeat, repeat, repeat until pup is onto this game and you can't pry him off you with a stick. Try throwing balls, squeaky toys, bowls of food just out of leash range, etc. Proceed to the back yard, once again starting off leash at step one!

This sounds incredibly time consuming, but it isn't. A couple 3-5 minute sessions a day and you're done. This should be a GAME, it should be fun and you should set your dog up to win. It's important to realize that with each new distraction you add you must set your expectations for success back at 0. If he breaks, laugh it off, set him up for success next time! Dogs like games; dogs that are having fun with you aren't as likely to look to the environment for reinforcement.

14. So you think you're ready for a walk down the street, do you? Your dog so loves playing the Follow Mum game that even a small child eating ice cream two feet away can't distract him from moving from the 'zone'?

15. Grab your dog, a bag of treats, your clicker and a long line. Warm your dog up LLW in the front yard, get him into the game. If you live on a road that is not very busy, start walking down the MIDDLE of the road (otherwise just use the sidewalk). Keep your reinforcement VERY high, keep him interested in you! If he wanders off out of the 'zone' that you want him to stay in, turn around and walk the other way. If you have a particularly hardheaded dog, RUN the other way! Does he follow? C/T! Then start again, with an even HIGHER rate of reinforcement. (By the way, it's not necessary at this stage, in my opinion; to use the clicker all the time, feel free to shovel food.) Don't go far! End on a high note, and reward that dog all the way home.

16. Repeat until you have a dog that can reliably walk up and down the road in the correct 'zone'!

17. Putting the leash on for walks. If you feel you and your dog are ready for the big test, put on pup's normal leash, grab your treats, your clicker and head out down the street. Does your dog have a very good idea of what behavior you want while he's on leash (aka following you around?)? Does your dog associate being on leash with getting a tremendous amount of reinforcement for staying close to mum? Well then, you shouldn't have much trouble.

Now, here's where I think Be A Tree and Penalty yards should come in. At the end. The dog knows the game; he knows the rules, but what if pup should choose not to play your game anymore? What if he starts to pull on leash? This is where it's SO IMPORTANT that you ALWAYS freeze and BE A TREE. Cause and effect are very obvious to dogs: I Pull, Therefore I Move. If he's erratically rewarded for pulling, he will continue to pull, and will continue to ignore you! After all, what does he need you for?First of all, pulling is an indication that either a) you have not trained under enough distraction, b) your rate of reinforcement was too low, or c) the dog does not understand the 'game'. Either way, you must go back to the basics!

In the meantime, I use first Be A Tree, in which case I often get a dog that jumps backward back into the 'zone' with a 'whoops!' look about him, ready to try again. If I have a dog that ignores my stopping and tries to forge ahead I slowly start walking backwards, and continue walking backwards until the dog has come all the way back into the 'zone'. This does not mean I stop walking backwards when the leash is just no longer taut. The Game Rules state: only dogs in the 'zone' will have forward movement! Once I start moving forward again with my dog in my zone, I make sure I get a couple of paces of good 'zone' work, and reward that lovely response!

Wow, that took forever and a day to write up! Really, it's a very easy, fun,
straightforward process where I had all my dogs heeling nicely within two weeks of starting the Game.

One last thing: Stopping on walks - not allowed! I often walk all three dogs at once. The Rules State: All dogs on walks must be in heel position at all times, and while sniffing is allowed, no one gets to stop the parade! I have a No Elimination on walks rule as well. These are simple rules to enforce, as these are not part of the game! If you're not moving with me, you're not in the 'zone', and you're not playing the game! If you're taking a leak on a tree, you're not with me, and you're not playing the game! This sounds harsh, but my dogs love going for walks! But it would impossible to walk three dogs with them randomly pulling, peeing, and stopping all over the place. Now we all get to have a wonderful time together without stress!

Good luck with the loose leash walking!

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