Pulling on lead

[Charley]

nice 1 charley keep us posted

will do!

[Charley]

i have a walking belt too - lifesaver with mine - this is where we got ours from (sid_wolf has the same 1) http://www.dogtraininginfo.co.uk/dog-collars.htm <--- its at the bottom of the page - its just under £30 including postage

might sound a bit stupid but... what lead do you use with a walking belt? can you use anykind? x

[SarahNukka&Shadow]

might sound a bit stupid but... what lead do you use with a walking belt? can you use anykind? x

You need a good carabina to hook the belt to a lead if you order from sass I beleive it comes with one or if you order from kisi you can get a good carabina from ebay for about a fiver... but basically yeah any lead is fine I personally use double ended police leads as I like that I can make them longer or shorter depending on the situation!

[Shadowpup]

Awesome post Stacey, I really need to teach Yuri to walk to heal before he yanks my arm off but no one has yet explained it as well as you have!

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

yup with the sass belt u get the caribiner with it - i used double ended leads on mine (but only because they are the only leads i have - and it lets me shorten or lenthen the leads if i need t) and also because my male has 2 wear a collar AND a harness because he can slip collars n break harnesses lol

heres a vid of mine walking on their walking belt - u can see the leads

TIMf81vG_Sc

[Staceybob]

Awesome post Stacey, I really need to teach Yuri to walk to heal before he yanks my arm off but no one has yet explained it as well as you have!

Thanks very much, that's really nice of you to say.

For more help feel free to contact me any time =]

Stacey xxx

[TreyRust]

I do things slightly differently from the video. There are honestly countless of variations of this technique.

When my starts to tug, I immediately apply a slight pressure to the lead. Just to get her attention. and She turns right around and goes the other direction.

It didn't start out that way. When I started training her for loose leash walking, she would pull as hard as she could. And I would just stop and pull.

It wasn't gental at all. But she was already pulling way harder I doubt it phased her.

If your having husky is taking a while with his method, remember patience. They are EXTREMELY prey motivated. And that's why I'm having trouble.

You see, I'm in the country, and walking her ten feet means thousands of scents. Some studies have shown that dogs may have smelling of up to a hundred million times as powerful as ours.

So, she forgets all her training and goes into prey mode, but I've only been working with her for about a day. I did walk back and fourth for two hours though, lol!

An ideal envirnment would be a ten thousand foot square concrete slab, that is fenced in and is bleached daily by men in cazmats. That way they don't get distracted. Shes fine until she finds a smell.

I would like to bring up a topic for discussion, at risk of hijacking this thread...

But do you think pulling is instinctual, since they DID breed them for sled pulling. or do you think its just something that they are good at and novice owners get them and don't remove the behavior?

Trey.

[SarahNukka&Shadow]

But do you think pulling is instinctual, since they DID breed them for sled pulling. or do you think its just something that they are good at and novice owners get them and don't remove the behavior?

Trey.

Trey its abit of both.. what that boils down to is the nature nuture debate and my personal take on that is that its usually equal amounts of both. Yes huskies were bred to pull sleds so that is their general instinct but having said that any dog will pull on a lead unless taught otherwise. So like any breed huskies can be trained to walk to heel, but with their bred instincts and stubborn nature it can sometimes be more difficult than with other breeds. Hope that makes sence!

[Charley]

I think it is instict, but a dog can be trained out of an instinct so it's up to us to correct the behaviour and train them to walk the way we want them to. If they are never corrected then they will carry on. That's how I understand it to be now - my prbloem was I didn't know how to train the behaviour out of her.

Stacey your advice has been really helpful and is beginning to work while we're out walking she still pulls for probably the first 15-20 minutes but we just keep stopping and starting each time. I have to admit I am using a bit of Treys technique by putting tension on the lead of she pulls and if she suddenly jolts I do pull her back.

I'm going to stick with it -espec since we saw another husky walking on loose lead today and Millie walked nicely the whole time we were with them (unfortunatly they walk at different times to us usually ortherwise could have made it a daily thing).

Thanks everyone for the advice, I'll keep you posted on our progress x

[Removed #2]

Have you considered getting a walky dog instead and running your dog with the bike? We find it tires the boys out much more than just going for a walk and barely have to pedal!

[Charley]

Have you considered getting a walky dog instead and running your dog with the bike? We find it tires the boys out much more than just going for a walk and barely have to pedal!

I have considered running with a bike but the way she has pulled me over before has put me off the idea as Im not sure how Id be able to control her while on a bike. Im hoping once she is walking properly we can start jogging then maybe consider the bike idea. What's a walky dog? x

[TreyRust]

its probably not a good idea to chain a dog to a bike that can't even walk next to you. there is a lot more to it than just hooking them up to the bike.

Trey

[Charley]

its probably not a good idea to chain a dog to a bike that can't even walk next to you. there is a lot more to it than just hooking them up to the bike.

Trey

Don't think we'll be trying it for quite a while yet anyway lol

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

im looking into getting a bikejoring kit for my boy blaze - he pulls like a steam train so will be good to get some energy burned out of him - my girl doesnt pull tho so i have a walkydog for her - it attachs at the side of the bike so she can run/jog along side the bike rather then out in front

[TreyRust]

A walkydog is defiantly better if they aren't already trained. Its also a decent method for training to pull as far as I know. As long as you give the standard commands for turning, slowing down E.t.c. when your doing it. That way they learn to start turning when you say your about it.

And I did make some more progress with Chukchi, I was just turning around whenever she started to tug, and did that for hours. Which I don't blame on the technique, but the envirnment.

What started doing was, whenever I started to turn around, I yelled (more like grunted) "hup!". and so I was queuing her turning around. So every time I yelled "hup", she would already start to turn around.

I started queuing her when I turned around when she as pulling. She got used to starting to turn as soon as I said that. So with an imidiant turn around, I didn't feel any tension of the lead hardly.

I also started by folding half of the leash before I turned around, and then letting go as soon as I turned, that why she wouldn't snag on the lead.

I would then turn around a lot. and just yell hup every couple of seconds, turning around. to 30 seconds. The goal here is to get the dog to where she doesn't get used to any one direction. and She was always watching me, to see if I was gonna turn.

She even ended up walking on my side, behind me.

One thing that seems to get her messed up is, when she is ahead of me, she has no idea if she is going just a little bit to fast. Which is why I started to only turn around when her head passed the side of my leg. So that she always has me in her peripheral vision so she won't even pull because she doesn't know how fast I'm going.

And one more tip. Since she really only starts pulling now because of scents, I turn around as soon as I feel she is loosing concentration on me.

you should let them sniff though, thats very important. They have a nose a hundred million times as powerful as ours, they should be given the chance to use it.

Trey.

[HeatherHendricks]

I've noticed that with Aura- she can walk loose leash when it's certain situations: our normal walk routes, jogging, and with some corrective on a martin-gayle collar (sp?). Now if another dog walks in front of us in clear view or if we go to a new park or she hasn't been walked in 8 hours...She will PULL!

I've also learned that she responds to food treats.. so recently I brought small treats and said "heel" - when she stayed beside me loosely for several paces- I rewarded her both verbally and with a treat. I think with time and practice of the heel command first in our neighbourhood THEN in other locations- things might improve.

do you guys find that your huskies are harder to get focused and not pull when you go to public parks or busy walking trails??

Heather

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

I've noticed that with Aura- she can walk loose leash when it's certain situations: our normal walk routes, jogging, and with some corrective on a martin-gayle collar (sp?). Now if another dog walks in front of us in clear view or if we go to a new park or she hasn't been walked in 8 hours...She will PULL!

I've also learned that she responds to food treats.. so recently I brought small treats and said "heel" - when she stayed beside me loosely for several paces- I rewarded her both verbally and with a treat. I think with time and practice of the heel command first in our neighbourhood THEN in other locations- things might improve.

do you guys find that your huskies are harder to get focused and not pull when you go to public parks or busy walking trails??

Heather

mine are deffinately worse if we go sumwhere we dont normally walk i try not to walk where theres lots of dogs tho as my boy doesnt like other dogs

[andy holgate]

I think its pretty much the same for most breeds to be honest, although huskies will from what I've learned take a foot if you give em an inch. It sounds to me as though you are doing well with the training. Its just the distraction is greater then the reward at present. I know some peeps may disagree with this but we found the same problem while heel training Mya. She picked up the heel command really quickly but when introducing her to distractions such as other dogs she would forget the rules and break away. We used negative reinforcement rather the positive reinforcement. A bit of water in a squeezy bottle. When she broke heel to the distraction a quick squirt on water on the muzzle to startle and saying NO did the trick. Only needed to do it twice and she picked up NO meant NO. We usually carry a little bottle around with us now so if she gets a bit giddy on the lead we just show her it and say no and she stops straight away.

[Charley]

I think its pretty much the same for most breeds to be honest, although huskies will from what I've learned take a foot if you give em an inch. It sounds to me as though you are doing well with the training. Its just the distraction is greater then the reward at present. I know some peeps may disagree with this but we found the same problem while heel training Mya. She picked up the heel command really quickly but when introducing her to distractions such as other dogs she would forget the rules and break away. We used negative reinforcement rather the positive reinforcement. A bit of water in a squeezy bottle. When she broke heel to the distraction a quick squirt on water on the muzzle to startle and saying NO did the trick. Only needed to do it twice and she picked up NO meant NO. We usually carry a little bottle around with us now so if she gets a bit giddy on the lead we just show her it and say no and she stops straight away.

Great tip:thankyou:

might try this tomorrow for those moments she sees other pups and suddenly i dont exist to her lol!

[TreyRust]

Heather,

Like I was saying in my earlier post, yes. its harder for me to walk chukchi because she is in an really woodzie area.

I believe you can teach a dog anything with positive reinforcement.

For me, punishment/negative reinforcement (whatever you want to call it) is just a lazy way to train your dog. I used to do it, my mom dogs it, my sister does it. Because its easier to setup.

But in the long run, it actually takes more time to teach than a proper positive reinforcement technique. And leaves the dog in a fearful state, rather than a willing to please that. Its better for the dog to not do something, because he knows he will get a reward for being good, rather than he doesn't want to be punished.

What you should do is, USE the distractions to your advantage. use the dogs as the reward.

For instance, while your walking your dog, And he notices a distraction. While your far enough away for him not to be to far out of it. You should do something like, stopping. Then when he looks at you, you click and move forward (if you use a clicker, which I highly recommend). Which will prove to be a self rewarding process. And as you get closer, lengthen the time they have to look at you.

Thats something I might start doing with with Chukchi, every dog is different. But you NEVER need to use punishment to train them.

She seems like she will do well with what I posted above, just turning every so ofton, that way she is always paying attention to me and not anything else.

And I try to always give the queue, and turn as soon as she stops paying attention.

I recommend you all check out this guys channel:

http://youtube.com/tab289

Hes really helped me become a better dog trainer.

Here is the first video on a two part series on distractions he did:

Of course, he has a german shepherd. So what he was doing was about as fast as a hot nife cutting through icecream, but the same rules apply to Huskies. They just take a lot more time.

Trey.

[soundeffects]

I had trouble walking Juno on a loose leash too. She'd be fine while we're walking away from the house, but as soon as we turn around to go home (or she realises we're near home if we're walking in a loop) she'd pull as hard as she could to get home. I've tried the stop/turn around method with her but she never got it. I've recently started taking her to puppy school and this is the method they taught us. It took her a while to catch on but once she realised what I wanted she was great.

Make Millie sit calmly next to your left leg (lure her in to a sit with a treat if necessary) with a short but loose leash. Once she's sitting, say 'let's go!' in a happy voice and take a step with your left leg. If she pulls the leash or tries to bolt, stand still. As soon as the leash goes slack, say 'yes!' (or whatever your reward word is, some people use clickers instead) and give her a treat. Try and take another step with your left foot; if she pulls, stop. Once you're able to take three steps without her pulling on the leash, give her a treat and lots of praise. Keep repeating until you're able to walk three steps without her pulling at all, then start giving her rewards when you can take four steps with no pulling, five steps etc.

Good luck with her. (:

[Bec]

I think its pretty much the same for most breeds to be honest, although huskies will from what I've learned take a foot if you give em an inch. It sounds to me as though you are doing well with the training. Its just the distraction is greater then the reward at present. I know some peeps may disagree with this but we found the same problem while heel training Mya. She picked up the heel command really quickly but when introducing her to distractions such as other dogs she would forget the rules and break away. We used negative reinforcement rather the positive reinforcement. A bit of water in a squeezy bottle. When she broke heel to the distraction a quick squirt on water on the muzzle to startle and saying NO did the trick. Only needed to do it twice and she picked up NO meant NO. We usually carry a little bottle around with us now so if she gets a bit giddy on the lead we just show her it and say no and she stops straight away.

I don't recommend using a water bottle to spray your dog in the face when they get distracted.

It's not fair to punish your dog due to your poor training. Asking your dog for focus or to perform a behaviour in an area of high distraction before they have been trained to that level is not fair, and it's bad training on our part. It's also a very common problem.

Lots of people will train their dog to do something at home/in a very low level of distraction and then automatically assume that the dog should be able to perform that behaviour anywhere at anytime regardless of the level of distraction - and if the dog fails to focus or perform the command, then it's the dogs fault and the dog is being "intentionally disobedient".

Distractions need to be introduced to our dogs on a gradual scale so we can set them up for success. If I've introduced distractions too quickly and my dogs are unable to focus that is my problem, not the dog's problem. It's also important to remember that untrained dogs have a short attention span and training needs to be kept short and finish before the dog starts to lose focus and attention.

[TreyRust]

I don't recommend using a water bottle to spray your dog in the face when they get distracted.

It's not fair to punish your dog due to your poor training. Asking your dog for focus or to perform a behaviour in an area of high distraction before they have been trained to that level is not fair, and it's bad training on our part. It's also a very common problem.

Lots of people will train their dog to do something at home/in a very low level of distraction and then automatically assume that the dog should be able to perform that behaviour anywhere at anytime regardless of the level of distraction - and if the dog fails to focus or perform the command, then it's the dogs fault and the dog is being "intentionally disobedient".

Distractions need to be introduced to our dogs on a gradual scale so we can set them up for success. If I've introduced distractions too quickly and my dogs are unable to focus that is my problem, not the dog's problem. It's also important to remember that untrained dogs have a short attention span and training needs to be kept short and finish before the dog starts to lose focus and attention.

Agreed 100%! Thats exactly what I was trying to say...

Trey.

[snowpups]

I use to use a rattle bottle with ice and lots of praise when he walked to heel as soon as he pulled to hard I said heel pull his lead and turn in other direction if he didn't stop the pulling I rattled the bottle and he would follow me then I would reward him.

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

i use the word ignore - a quick tug on the lead (not hard) to the side usually gets the focus back and gets them to keep walking then they get praised to high heaven lol