[Ludo]

Hiya! I have a bit of a leash training issue.

See, I have a 9 month old, 70lb Husky/Heeler mix pup. He loves his walks. I love walking him...most of the time. The problem is, he pulls with all 70lbs of his weight. We have tried all of the tricks! Walking him with a harness, with a collar, stopping when he pulls, walking the opposite way when he pulls etc etc. All to no avail. Still he pulls to the point that he can actually knock most people off their feet. This means, only I can walk him for safety sake.

I know he would love to walk more and I would love to walk him more! I just don't know how to handle Ludo's excessive pulling!

FYI...this is one of a few training issues we are having. But one at a time, I say!

[cshellenberger]

Try an Easy Walk or Sensi halter. It works by taking the reward out of pulling. Then use this to teach your dog to loose leash walk.

(Loose Leash Walking Using Positive Reinforcers)Loose Leash Walking Using Positive Reinforcers

[Ludo]

Originally Posted by cshellenberger

Try an Easy Walk or Sensi halter. It works by taking the reward out of pulling. Then use this to teach your dog to loose leash walk.

(Loose Leash Walking Using Positive Reinforcers)Loose Leash Walking Using Positive Reinforcers

I am sorry I didn't make this clear, along with traditional "no pull" harnesses, we have tried the Easy Walk harness as well. All to no avail. I am confident that there must be something out there that can allow my Ludo to enjoy many a walk!

[TooneyDogs]

The "something" you're looking for is teaching the dog EXACTLY where you want him to walk...not out front, not 6' to the side and not 6' behind you. Ideally, we'd all like our dogs to walk nicely at our side.....that's the sweet spot and the place that needs to be rewarded every time he's at your hip. Pulling?....turn around...putting him behind you and when he reaches your side treat and praise. You're showing/rewarding him for walking in the right place.

[Ludo]

Originally Posted by TooneyDogs

The "something" you're looking for is teaching the dog EXACTLY where you want him to walk...not out front, not 6' to the side and not 6' behind you. Ideally, we'd all like our dogs to walk nicely at our side.....that's the sweet spot and the place that needs to be rewarded every time he's at your hip. Pulling?....turn around...putting him behind you and when he reaches your side treat and praise. You're showing/rewarding him for walking in the right place.

We have already tried all of these suggestions. We reward him when right next to us and turn around when he pulls. Again, all to no avail. He is like teflon when it comes to leash walking. NOTHING STICKS! You would think that, with 3-4 walks every day (about 10 minutes each) for the past seven months he would have gotten it by now. He got most other things. But no!

We have even worked with two professional trainers (both of whom came with great references) who couldn't get him to loose leash walk.

Crazy!

[blunder]

I think you are missing the obvious. Your dogs attention is anywhere but on you.
Get your dog in the back yard with no one else around where there are fewer distractions. Work on "head up" and "look at me". Do the figure 8 where the dog needs to speed up when on the outside of the circle and slow down when on the inside of the circle. When the dog is on the outside of the circle the command is "here" and the leash correction is a forward pop strait forward in line with the dogs nose, when the dog is on the inside of the circle the command is "heel" and the leash correction is a strait rearward pop in line with the dogs spine. As the dog becomes proficient with the figure 8 start making the circles smaller and smaller eventually to where when on the inside of the circle the dog has to back up and turn away from you and on the outside of the circle go forward and turn in toward you.
The dog can't do this exercise and move it's attention away from you.
The kind of collar you are using has absolutely no bearing on the problem. I often take the shoe strings out of my groovy diggers to use as a collar & lead to demonstrate this to a class when they are all caught up in which collar is best to use.
Bring him over, bet 5 buck I can have him on a loose lead in fewer minutes than the bucks in the bet. Problem is the dog won't remember the lesson unless it is repeated. So your trainer doesn't need to teach the dog, he needs to teach you.

[TooneyDogs]

Originally Posted by Ludo

We have already tried all of these suggestions.

As stated earlier the other part of this is attention training...one way to get that attention on walks without using force is to do a left about turn (if your dog is walking on the left). You're cutting the dog off before he can get in front and he has to pay attention to you and where you're going.
You're taking over the lead....it's not his lead...it's yours.
The other thing you can do is touch the side of his neck when he gets in front of you and say UTTT or Place or Heel or whatever command you're using to say walk by your side.
You said you've tried all of these and they're not working so, I can only guess that you've really not too concerned about him going out front otherwise you would not allow him to do it. That inconsistency may be the real problem.

[Kathyy]

Sassy didn't understand about the leash for ages either. She always put some pressure on it, would wrap around me so it looked like she was heeling loose leash but she was still pulling slightly.

Have you done basic attention exercises outside walks? Do doggy zen, a sticky at the top of this board. Use meal times for training. You do provide everything good for the dog, make sure the dog understands this. The Nothing In Life Is Free, NILIF, sticky at the top of the board may be of help as well.

The last of many retraining of leash walking was training off leash in the back yard. Inside the house is fine but it needs to be an enclosed area so the dog is safe off leash. Take a number of tasty treats, the sort the dog begs for, outside and start walking around like an idiot. Change direction and speed. Once your curious dog comes up and is more or less in heel position, GOOD DOG and drop your hand to your side to feed the cookie to the dog so the dog's nose is in heel position. Repeat until it is difficult to lose the dog, she sticks to that heel position like glue. Once you both are having fun in the back yard move to another safe place and retrain. I then leashed the dog and moved into the boring street in front of my house. Did the same training many times always with treats and then moved to the be a tree part. I would BAT without a treat and do random rewards for nice walking during the walk.

A puppy husky/heeler mix is probably very interested in its own best interests and not particularly interested in your happiness. My Sassy was very soft and over whelmed and hadn't a clue about paying me any attention. Food. She loved food. She could pay attention if food was around. I hope a few well placed cookies will teach your dog you are worthy of attention. Pairing praise words with the treats helps make praise rewarding for the dog.

Sassy loved to run as a young dog. I was able to tie her leash to the seat post of my bike and run her safely. She is much smaller than your dog, I don't know if it would be safe to run a dog that could change direction unexpectedly that was so strong. I would expect that your dog would adore the running and be more cooperative than when just walking, most dogs love biking. I had a crazy Jack Russell Terrier who was much better behaved running with the bike than walking, 20 pounds though! You might want to look into running with a bike with your large puppy.

[cshellenberger]

Part of your problem may be that he IS part Husky, Huskies LOVE to pull, it's in their blood so to speak.

Here's another suggestion, Get with someone who trains Huskies to pull competitively (sledding) and channel THAT energy, then work on teaching the difference in when he's allowed to pull and when he's not. Remember that for a Husky (or Husky mix) a walk just may not be the appropriate or enough exercise, nothing says that's the ONLY excercise you have to do. The key is breed specific excercise to have a happy, and well behaved dog.

I'm sure those here on the board that have sled dogs can help you find a trainer for the breed.