[MoosMom]

Moo is coming up on 6 months now and the leash thing still isnt going well. He def knows when the leash is on his collar, I have less control and will pull, lunge and wrap himself around me or my other half. When I put his gentle leader on he has a cow and tries to paw his face off. We walk him everyday and everyday he acts the same. Usually about a mile into the walk he stops trying to paw his face off and then he just leans into the gentle leader and still pulls the whole walk. I dont pull back, I pull him to the side to bring him back to focus, but that is short lived. I have stopped dead and he just sits like he is supposed to and we continue and he does it all over again. I turn into him OVER AND OVER until I am dizzy and he STILL wont pay attention to me. I dont let him sniff the ground or explore, but he still isnt focused. I was thinking of moving on to a prong collar, but I wonder if that's really going to address the issue of him not paying attention to me. What would you guys do.

[Chels_girl]

Play About turns with him. Put him on a leash an take a step, if he outsteps you turn around as sharp as you can an walk away from him. Totally ignore him other than that. When he comes into step right beside you give him a treat.
He'll learn really fast that walking ahead of you gets him jerked around, but keeping in line get's hiim a treat. Then I would also start a heavy Doggy Zen regime. There's a link in the stickies for it, and I would start with a treat, then move up to things outsie he likes. He needs to learn self control, at six months he's starting to test these little things, how far he can go with some things. Leashes and walking position are usually a big one for most adolesent dogs, but with some good work he'll do fine.

[Dog_Shrink]

hehe Doggie zen (sorry had to )

She's right on about the turn arounds and sticking close to you exercise. I use "here" and introduce it at a young age so that you still have the laws of social attractionon your side from your pup. We do a lot of zig zags and turn abouts and hand slap our thigh and say here to encourage toe dog to be with us. Bury a treat under your thumb or behind the finger that you are encouraging the here with and let him take it if he completes 2-3 paces staying with you thenchange course a different direction and repeat. It gets so fast paced that huskies really love it (I've had 3 so far that have had a blast and can now go off lead because of this exercise).

[Cracker]

I also want to add that the halti/gentle leader seems to be not the ideal thing for him (he finds it uncomfortable AND it is not helping with your control). A prong can slow him down a bit but does little to TEACH him anything, I highly recommend the antipull harnesses like the EasyWalk.

Training to walk on the leash is kind of separate from the actual walking if that makes sense. You use the easywalk for control when you are "exercising" and then you work in your home, in the hallways, in the yard, along the sidewalk etc for the training part so that he can LEARN. A couple of fifteen minute sessions a day of the same thirty feet of ground (so it's BORING), rewarding every step that he doesn't pull, then every third step etc, gradually building up. Doggy Zen is great, as is the Name Game (say his name, treat, say his name, treat)...you want a dog that, when you call his name, LOOKS at you...then you give the cue for what him to do.

[MoosMom]

Well we started the Doggy Zen tonite. I have to say very effective and also entertaining! LOL We will go pick up a clicker and start doing that. Lots of great advise here. Thank you so much