Leading?

[bullmastiff2]

We have a 57 lbs 5 month bullmastiff and she will not walk on a lead without pulling. I am following instructions on for walking her with a leash, and she will obey a little and for treats, but whenever she wants to, she takes off with us. She is uncontrollable in the woods. She is already too strong for my husband or I, and when in the woods, we have decided just to take the leash off, since she always stays within our sight and always comes to us for a treat. We felt it was better to give her the message that it is ok to run free, jump and run fast since we are away from danger. But even then we want to be able to recall her in case of emergency. She is expected to reach up to 115 lbs and very muscular.

But we want to teach her to be under our control for her own safety and our pleasure, particularly when we are walking on the road. We live in a very rural area and there are no dog parks or any park that even allows dog in the nearby towns.

Thanks for advice.

[foxi7778]

Hi there, can totally sympathise with your problem as I have 2 extremely large puppies who also thought it was fun to try and drag me everywhere After a bit of research and talking to other large breed owners I decided to try a 'canny collar' on my dogs with great results. It's a type of head collar, but unlike a 'halti' it doesn't pull their head to the side which can cause neck injuries if used incorrectly. I can now walk both of them easily by myself.....my dog's combined weights are more than I weigh myself
If your dog's recall is not 100%, you could try attaching him to a lunge line like horse trainers use. These come in a variety of lengths, so your dog still gets the feeling of freedom, but you have the security of knowing you still have some control of your dog. I have used the lunge lines as my dog's have an extremely high prey drive and there recall is little to non existant

[bullmastiff2]

Thanks so much to taking the time to reply. I hope someday I can also have something to share to help someone

I will research about the canny collar. I hadn't heard of it, but then I hadn't tried. It sounds like just what I need. It is coincidental that I tried a halti collar and I just didn't like the way it felt, so I quit using it. I am so appreciative that you told me about the possibility of neck injury.

Fortunately we do have a large fenced yard where she can play, but the long lead will be helpful for when we go in the woods. Up to now, she does stay within our sight, and always runs to us for a treat.

Perhaps someday we will meet somewhere while beeing dragged by our dogs.

[foxi7778]

lol you never know, I'm sure my two could drag me quite a distance if I let them. I had tried Haltis but didn't like them as they were to easy for my two to slip off and didn't really give me that much more control of them to be honest. I tried random walking and several other methods of getting your dog to walk to heel before taking what some trainers deem to be the easy way out....they haven't met my two I doubt if I'll ever be able to let my dogs off lead in an unenclosed area, but I was aware of this when I researched the breed. We also live in a rural area and I'd prefer them not to be shot by a farmer for worrying livestock!!!

[Jaime Blanch]

Hi,

I had the same problem with my dogs (not as big as yours) and what finally help me was to practice in my garden, there are no distractions there, no new smells and they focused for much longer on me, once they new what was expected from them and what the corrections meant it was so much easier outside, I only use the lead to walk to the doggy park and use to take me 4 mins before they stop pulling, it takes me 6 mins now!

Good luck!

Jaime