leash resistance

[sakirby]

hi guys :) so, oscar is growing!!!!! i feel like he gets bigger every day. he is sleeping through the night. i can even get up at any time in the night or morning, and go back to bed and he doesn't bark anymore. yeah!!!! he also isn't barking anymore when i leave him alone in the kitchen. i feel great!!! one question i have now....

when i walk him on my block, he sits down and won't come. he tries to go up everyones stairs (i live in philly where there are a lot of brownstones with stairs). he will NOT walk on my block. but, as soon as we get past my block, he is fine. he walks right next to me. i have tried giving him treats when he come when called on my block. i take him out to the bathroom, and then walk him a bit, and i don't want him to feel like coming outside to go to the bathroom is a punishment where i will drag him around my block. i don't know what to do. any suggestions?

[franp]

Is there an older dog that can walk with you? Pups seem to learn to walk when there is another dog to follow.

As for steps and doors; to this day,every door and flight of steps is an invitation for Dari to go visit.

[sakirby]

:lol: silly dogs

yeah, i have started to carry oscar past my block. or, i just cross the street right away and he seems a bit better. it is weird, it seems like he just walks when he wants to. sometimes he is great, sometimes, he drags his feet and just tries to sit there. don't know what is with the inconsistancy. luckily, he is small enough where i can carry him but, he is getting heavier :)

[quinnybear]

when i took rocky to a family picnic sunday, i put a leash on him ( first time). when i started to walk with him he sat down. i tried gentle tugging but he started thrashing his head back and forth and pulling back. i didnt want him hurting himself so i tried bribing him with treats and still no go. i tried a few times since then and still he refuses. anyone have any ideas?

[Borgan]

Is your guy on a harness?
If he's got a regular collar,
maybe he feels like he's being strangled,
hence the freaking out.
I would try a harness instead.

If you do have a harness,
maybe he just needs encouragement;
try asking him in a really happy, excited
voice, "Do you want to go to the ____?!!!!"
or "Where's the ______?!!!"

Luna responds really well to, "Time to go!"
which I say in a really happy voice
when she's lollygagging. She knows it
means, "If you don't move your butt,
we're going to leave without you!"

B.

[quinnybear]

i guess i could try a harness. but i was considering showing him and if i do ,he will have to be leash trained. my niece works at our local petsmart and they have puppy classes there. i dont know if they already have to be leash trained or if that is something they help with. and is there a different class for people wanting to show ?

[franp]

Obiedience classes are totally different from handling(showing ) classes. And from what I understand you should not take a show pup to obiedience.

Call your local AKC club and find out where the local handling classes are held.Most people use a show lead called a Martingale.

Handling classes are all about stacking and down and back and getting the dog used to the judge touching. Also teaching you what to do.

[Martina]

I have used Martingale leashes on Gigi and Lola and really love the feel, handle and responsivesness of the dog on a Martingale. I now use a regular collar and leash so that I can leave their tags on all the time ... but, of course, I worry that they should be on harnesses. That said, here's my two cents about leash work:

When my two first arrived, I read some book that talked about (1) showing the dog the leash (2) letting the dog walk around the house with the leash on the collar pulling behind them to get used to the noises and feel of something hanging off the collar. (3) Then you pick up the leash while the dog is playing in one spot for them to feel YOU holding onto the leash. (4) You follow the dog wherever s/he wants to with you holding onto the leash - but don't tug or pull in any way and completely follow the dog's lead. After the dog feels completely safe under this series of steps and realizes that the leash is simply there, you can proceed to lead with the leash.

Which, of course, takes the same sort of baby steps. First just lead to another person a few feet away - praise, praise, praise. Then around the kitchen/living room etc - praise, praise, praise. Then out the door - PPP. Around the yard - PPP. Once you get the pup feeling secure walking with you on leash in its safe environment - then you head out the front door. And, you guessed it, more baby steps!

Does this work better than any other system? I have no clue!! All I know is that my two have been devine on-leash from practically the beginning. The one thing that did give us a bit of problem was the stopping ala Oscar. The recommendation from the book was to simply stop and stand still at leash's length with your back to the dog. Don't pull and make sure that the leash is slack, yet with enough tension for the pet to know that s/he should be moving in your direction (does that make sense?). And now you wait - patience is a virtue! Sooner or later your dog will realize that the only way to go is with you and begin following/walking with you again - and then praise, praise, praise. Everytime he stops - follow the same procedure. Sooner or later, the stopping is supposed to stop - it sure did with us. And it was sooner!

Again, I don't know if this a technique that would work for everyone, but it really, really worked for us. Oh yeah, don't engage the dog at all during the waiting time. Don't talk, don't tell him/her to 'hurry up,' don't get mad at the dog -- just wait him out. And of course, praise to high heaven when they do what they're supposed to. It's the same philosophy for pulling on leash - stop and wait them out.

Of my two, Lola is the lolly-gagger and she'd walk at a snail's pace if I let her. So, when I know that she's going to want to slow down and stop to sniff at something, I will slow down my pace, but say "keep walking" and she will speed up again - and I will praise, praise, praise. I slow down so we don't get in a tug of war pulling contest.

I hope that this helps someone out there. It's pretty slow going to work up to, but I can honestly say that we have never had any sort of serious walking/leashing problem.

But, if all else fails - just pick him up :p

[sakirby]

that is a good idea martina....about the stopping. i could also do that when he pulls at the leash and tries to run up other peoples stairs. it is weird, oscar is so good on the lease sometimes, but, other times he just wants to drag his feet. so far, i have just been dragging him for the blocks he wants to stop but, i felt like that wasn't a good way to do it. i don't want to hurt him :) so, i will try the stopping thing tomorrow. thanks for the advice guys!!!

[EmD, MD]

My little girl used to be kind of rotten on the leash. Without my doing much of anything, she has improved significantly. She still stops once in a while, but I wait about 10 seconds, then give her a little tug as if to say "hey!" and she starts walking again right next to me. It's like she needs a little reminder that, hey, we're walking here!
The other thing that helped was to get a martingale collar. First I had her on a harness and she really didn't mind being tugged or pulled by the harness. She didn't care about leash tension. With the martingale she seems to have learned, slowly but surely, that leash tension is uncomfortable and that the best way to not be uncomfortable is to walk.
I don't believe in "punishment" per se, and I realize negative reinforcement doesn't get the strong result that comes from positive reinforcement, but sometimes a tug on the leash is all that will get her attention, which is sometimes a real safety issue (eating garbage, getting away from an opening door, etc.)

One thing they showed us in puppy school is to carry a treat in your leash-holding hand to capture the puppy's attention. Of course you do have to occasionally give him the treat or else he will lose interest. The other thing that I'm dabbling in is clicker training, where a clicker sound is used in association with treats. That way if it is impractical to give a treat (like when you're mid-stride) the clicker serves as a signal "you're doing well, this is the correct behavior, you WILL get a treat." When Penny is walking well beside me, I click the clicker periodically and say "good girl." When we stop at the corner, sit, click, treat.

[Chris&Eti]

Eti used to be really bad on leash-charging ahead and lunging at everything. I tried the "gentle leader" which worked- but really chafed his nose/muzzle so I abandoned it after the first day. A trainer friend then suggested these 2 harnesses-<http://www.softouchconcepts.com/>:
<http://www.sporn.com/> which work on a similar principle as the gentle leader of pulling the dog forward as opposed to backward. He has a regular harness that happens to have a ring on the chest to which i attach his lead -and it works great ,and thats how I walk him all the time now. He's much better-until a squirrel shows up. I've read and been advised by my vet that in general harnesses are better for frenchies as collars can cause neck/upper spine problems.

[sakirby]

martina, or anyone else who knows :)...what is a martingale collar? i looked online at the brand but, am not sure which type to use. which ones do you use for your dogs? i just have oscar on a lead leash with collar. my boyfriend walked oscar this morning and he said that the ignoring thing worked well. he said if he just kept walking but, allowed a lot of the lead slack, that he would get far enough away that oscar would come running. one other problem is his lunging. (oscar, not my boyfriend...hehe) when we get to our block, or really whenever he wants to bolt, he lunges on the leash. both his front legs come off the ground and it looks as though he is trying to strangle himself. do i just pull him back? stop? thanks guys.

[franp]

A martingale collar is a type of collar that is mostly used at dog shows..
Go to one of the on line pet supply companies; Foster and Smith or Pet Edge and you can see what they look like.

One lesson I learned the hard way; NO choke collars for Frenchies; not metal or cloth. I tried one on Dari when she was young cause she pulled so badly; she ignored it and FAINTED!!These dogs are so dam stubborn.

Besides fainting; I have been told that choke collars can damage the windpipe;many Frenchies have small windpipes.

[EmD, MD]

I got my martingale collar at www.bigdogboutique.com.

[Linnysmommy]

We got our martingale collar at a recent dog show.