Leash Walking

[Roland]

Dare I ask? How did you guys teach your young French Bulldog puppy to walk on a leash? All the training books say how to teach a dog that pulls; but my 16 week old Frenchie doesn't pull-she drags her behind! And she stops to stare at everything we encounter. I think you know what I mean! Our trainer says to lure her with treats, which is what we've been doing. Everytime she stops walking/following I encourage her to walk with the command "come" and a treat. I click and treat for walking forward in my direction, but it is very slow going.

So, how did your dogs learn?

[FrankEinstein]

Ha ha. Our puppy does the same. She's just a bit older and has fortunately gotten better. The treats actually do help, but she's now very treat focused. In fact, she ran into a curb because she was looking at me for a treat rather than straight ahead of her. I do have to tug her occasionally, especially when she digs in. The harness has worked much better, so that we're not tugging at her neck. It's a slow process, but each week I notice improvement. So many other dogs her age seem so much better, but one day I hope we'll be there too.

Frank

[gmacleod]

I think your trainer has it exactly right :) Reward the small steps, rather than waiting for the finished product - it'll be much faster in the end. So reward her when she takes one step toward you. Then two. Then half a dozen. That's the faster way to get her compliance than to try to get a whole walk out of her in one go ;)

Incidentally, things like peanut butter on a spoon held in front of her nose can work very well too :) Just don't forget to let her have some of the reward.

[cookiesmug]

Dobby does the same thing, he's 17.5 weeks now. It's funny how different he is from Cookie, our 3-yr Boston, who always pulls on the leash! When we first got him, he didn't much enjoy walking on the leash, sometimes he'd just sit there and look at you :o Now he's a lot better, when it's good he actually struts happily alongside us! We've also been using the treat method, works okay, but I think my husband is too heavy on the treats. So just this evening when I took both out for a walk, Dobby kind of walked a little bit, I gave him a treat, he followed a bit more, then stopped and sat there and didn't want to move until I gave him another treat! It repeated several times during the walk :mad: I guess this is the complete opposite effect from the treat training, oh well...

[wendykei]

Sidney was the exact same way!! He's now 20 weeks and much better. He still gets pretty distracted by stuff, but if I offer a treat, he usually starts moving. Some times when he's being stubborn and I've run out of treats I just give him one quick tug and he'll start moving again. I've also found that when both my boyfriend and I are walking with him he's more apt to walk along with little resistance. I don't know why, but he's much better when we're both there than if only one of us is trying to walk him. (We also use a front-ring harness if we're going on a long walk to avoid tugging on his neck.)

[RufusRules]

I have the opposite problem, Rufus pulls and drags ME! It is pretty embarassing to be dragged down the street by a 23 pound dog. I have tried everything to stop this, to no avail. I have decided he is just hyper-exuberant. :lol: