"As we walk, if he pulls on the leash I stop and call him back. When he comes back, I give him a treat. "
"He gets to play with some other puppies walking by, but I feel like this one I'm not as strict. He still gets to play if there's tension on the leash but the other dog walks over "
These two situations will cause pulling to persist. It sounds like you are doing a lot of other things well, like bringing high value treats, stopping for a longer period if your puppy gets very stimulated, not letting him say hi to a dog if he's pulling towards it, etc. But think about this like a slot machine - if your dog gets reinforced AT ALL for pulling, even if 80% of the time you are rewarding loose leash walking and stopping when he pulls, that other 20% will cause him to keep pulling at times to see if it pays off.
The two biggest things I'd recommend are:
1. Getting a harness that allows front clipping and let front-clip be 'leisure mode'. Let him pull when you clip him like that. But continue to do 15+ minutes loose leash training on top of that. You can even do a mix each walk. For example, let's say my dog is wearing a collar and a harness on a 30 minute walk to the park. I can clip him on the collar and do 5 min of training, then clip him to the front of the harness and let him pull the rest of the way to the park (but the front clip will reduce the strength of the pulling for you). After my dog plays in the park I can clip to the collar and train on the way home.
2. Lower your expectations for your puppy's walking habits. He's only 5 months old and a strict at-your-side heel is not very fun for most dogs. When you are training, it doesn't mean you need to let him walk all over the place. But give him a wider area to be correct, so to speak. Also, a lot of adolescent puppies are not very interested in strictly walking. They are teething and hormones are kicking in, so they are much more interested in sniffing, biting things, romping, etc. So if you want to work on heeling type walking, do shorter reps and expect more when your puppy gets older. For now, it's okay to spend most of your outside time playing and working on short spurts of loose leash training.
There are probably other things to work on. Like you mentioned your puppy forges ahead the moment treats are gone, which makes me wonder if you are inadvertently luring rather than rewarding. But these two tips should hopefully make your daily routine a lot easier.
"He gets to play with some other puppies walking by, but I feel like this one I'm not as strict. He still gets to play if there's tension on the leash but the other dog walks over "
These two situations will cause pulling to persist. It sounds like you are doing a lot of other things well, like bringing high value treats, stopping for a longer period if your puppy gets very stimulated, not letting him say hi to a dog if he's pulling towards it, etc. But think about this like a slot machine - if your dog gets reinforced AT ALL for pulling, even if 80% of the time you are rewarding loose leash walking and stopping when he pulls, that other 20% will cause him to keep pulling at times to see if it pays off.
The two biggest things I'd recommend are:
1. Getting a harness that allows front clipping and let front-clip be 'leisure mode'. Let him pull when you clip him like that. But continue to do 15+ minutes loose leash training on top of that. You can even do a mix each walk. For example, let's say my dog is wearing a collar and a harness on a 30 minute walk to the park. I can clip him on the collar and do 5 min of training, then clip him to the front of the harness and let him pull the rest of the way to the park (but the front clip will reduce the strength of the pulling for you). After my dog plays in the park I can clip to the collar and train on the way home.
2. Lower your expectations for your puppy's walking habits. He's only 5 months old and a strict at-your-side heel is not very fun for most dogs. When you are training, it doesn't mean you need to let him walk all over the place. But give him a wider area to be correct, so to speak. Also, a lot of adolescent puppies are not very interested in strictly walking. They are teething and hormones are kicking in, so they are much more interested in sniffing, biting things, romping, etc. So if you want to work on heeling type walking, do shorter reps and expect more when your puppy gets older. For now, it's okay to spend most of your outside time playing and working on short spurts of loose leash training.
There are probably other things to work on. Like you mentioned your puppy forges ahead the moment treats are gone, which makes me wonder if you are inadvertently luring rather than rewarding. But these two tips should hopefully make your daily routine a lot easier.