[Ruby Robertson]

I love walking my dog, she is a great companion. However, when we go out for a walk as a family her behavior completely changes. The kids will generally be on bikes or scooters out ahead of us, and this drives my dog crazy! She pulls so uncontrollably hard, barking a whining for the whole walk, even while wearing a prong collar. I have given up family walks because it is just too difficult. Anyone else experience this problem? Any advice?

 

[storyist]

Yup. Don't take her on walks with kids on bikes and scooters.

 

[Lillith]

Sounds like she's frustrated because she's on leash and can't run about and play with the kids. Is she a herding type dog, by chance? They can be even worse with this because they want to "control" the rouge children, lol!

If you can get your family to work with you, you can likely teach her that the kids riding around isn't a big deal. Start with one kid one their bike or scooter, but have the kid not go far. They should be right beside you. Reward the dog for continuing to calmly walk and not pull on the leash. Slowly have the children increase their distance from you and the dog over the course of a few walks, rewarding for calmness the whole time. This will likely take more than a few walks, so make sure your kids are committed!

 

[3GSD4IPO]

She wants to play and chase (prey drive is a dog thing). But she must be leashed.

So, you need to train her to walk on a loose leash and you need to teach her to focus on you. Without kids, work on the loose leash walking. Use the prong collar but adjust it so that it is tight and high on her neck. Corrections are delivered with a loose leash and should be a quick snap and return to loose coupled with a three times better reward for being returning focus to you and not pulling. The correction needs to be meaningful. If you have to repeat it you are doing it wrong.

There are other effective ways to train loose leash walking without a correction collar. I would explore those.

When you get loose leash walking down without kids and family, then you add one child on a bike and you have the dog sit and watch as the child goes by. This can only be done if the sit command is solid EVERYWHERE you go so teach that first.

Have the dog sit. have your child ride by slowly. The dog's JOB is to remain sitting. You cannot correct the dog for it's emotions, but you can most certainly correct for breaking the sit. As soon as the dog returns to a sit after correction, you reward with a very high value food. The object is to make sitting rewarding to the dog regardless of the activity around it. When you get that going.. add speed.. noise from the child and so forth. Then add the second bike..

When that is reliable you start walking and again, one bike goes by slowly. You can correct for not keeping the leash loose and the instant you get the loose leash after correction REWARD LIKE CRAZY. Rinse and repeat.

Do not over load the dog. If the child rides past and the dog loses it, then the child needs to STOP until you get the dog back in a sit etc.

This is not a quick process but it should work if you put in the time.

 

[3GSD4IPO]

FWIW a steady pull on a prong collar is not effective. Keeping the leash loose so you can give a correction is how it should work. Prong collar low on the neck is also not effective.

I personally do use a prong collar but it must be remembered that this device makes the correction PERSONAL. It is IMPERATIVE that corrections be MEANINGFUL and not be repetitive nagging. If you must correct and you find you are repeating the correction over and over you are doing it wrong. Come up with a new strategy.