Advice for lead walking please.

[Marina]

I have a 13 month old German Shepherd x Belgian Shepherd. He spent the first 5 months of his life in a shelter and wasn't socialised at all.

His behaviour has now improved in all areas but I am still struggling a bit on walks.

He now walks in the same direction as me, without yanking my arm off and we can pass other dogs without incident. Cats are another story but we are working on that!

The problem is that whatever length of lead I use, he wants to walk ahead of me and to the extent of the lead. There is always tension on it. My other dog, who is normally the dominant one, will walk along beside me on a loose lead and I would like to get Harry doing this too.

I feel I need to walk him on a prong collar in order to be able to maintain control should he decide to eat a cat. I don't feel I would have this control using a Halti.

I have tried gently pulling him into place, a firm correction on the collar, stopping and starting and walking in the other direction. Any of these techniques will work for a few minutes only.

I am using the Alpha dog techniques constantly throughout the day.

I would be very grateful for any suggestions.

[elmariachino]

Hello Marina,

A 13 month od sehpherd is a strong dog that's not easy to control if he has not received proper education at a smaller age.

I would suggest walking the 2 dogs seprately at a first stage.
While walking Harry, stop the walk as soon as he starts to pull on the lead. The walk shall not continue until he stops pulling. Your walks risk not to be very long in the beginning as you will have to stop more than u will be walking.

Another technique that is useful to combine with this one, is the random walking (twice or thrice a week, it's very tyring for dog). While walking Harry, in an open space without major attractions, change directions suddenly every few meters. Like every 5 to 15 steps change your direction unpredictably. Do this exercise for no more than 20 minutes. You will be surprised by the results.

In your case, using a prong collar or a martingale would be efficient to be more in control. But never use a slip or choke collar.

It's a matter of days before you can walk both of your dogs together beside you.

Good luck.

[Marina]

Thank you very much for the suggestions. I will give them a try. I don't know what a martingale is though, could you explain please?

[elmariachino]

Hello Marina,
This is a sample of martingale, it's dog collar usually used for dogs whose head is very small that a normal collar can slips out easily (like the greyhound). But it can be used for other dogs as well.
It's like a prong collar, except that it doesn't have those spines that pinche the loose skin around the dog's neck.
Personally, though I don't like any of those not normal collars, I prefer the martingale over the slip and the prong collars.
Any progress with Harry??

[Marina]

Thanks for the picture. I have seen those but didn't know what they are called.

It was so cold and windy this morning that I couldn't bear to keep stopping on the walk! It was more a case of covering the distance but getting it over as quickly as possible I'm afraid!
I did some of the changing direction walking this afternoon and that seemed to go well.
Unfortunately for the next couple of days I'm just not going to have time to walk the dogs seperately so it'll have to be together as usual but hopefully by next week I'll have more time again to be able to concentrate on Harry.
After that I'm on holiday for a couple of weeks and the dogs will be left with housesitters so I doubt Harry will get the training he needs. To be honest as long as the sitters take the dogs out for excersise, I would prefer them not to try to "train" Harry as I would be afraid they might not do it correctly. We'll just have to get back on track when I return.

[elmariachino]

You are right, dogs prefer to be trained by one handler.
Good luck.

[Marina]

Well, training is still a work in progress I'm afraid. I've tried the suggestions and harry now walks beautifully...for about 3 paces!

A big problem with him is that he's so nervous of everything around him that he tends not to be focused on the training. If I work with him in a quiet place, all is well but as soon as we go on our normal walk, he is fearful again. As we live on the coast this is going to worsen as the area gets busy throughout the summer. I really want to be able to walk him along the seafront and for both of us to enjoy the walk.

So many people have suggested a halti, so I'm going to give it a go. I bought one this morning but at the moment he absolutely hates it. Unless I have a piece of chicken at the end of his nose, he's just going bananas leaping around and trying to claw it off. He's ok with it on in the house but a different story when I attach a lead.

I'd be very grateful for any suggestions.

[Todd]

Hi there Marina

Halti's aren't a dogs best friend for a while so what he is doing is completely normal. I do have a few ideas to help with the halti.

Try leaving it around his food bowl and bed when you are there. The more he sees it in good situations the better associations he will have with it.

When you do put it on him don't put a lead on him at the same time. Let him get his frustration out for a bit before you put the lead on.

But most importantly don't give up, just like putting a saddle on a horse for the first time it can be very frustrating. but trust me the benefits are huge.

Now for the fear of things.
I think the best thing is to start socialising him at home where he feels safe and under control.
Get friends, semi-strangers and other dogs to come over, but one at a time. get Harry to sit. have them a few metres apart and slowly get him to walk closer and closer.

When he is being fearful completely ignore him. Don't look, touch or speak to him. But the second he starts to show that confidence praise him as much as you can. The more good associations he has with other people etc the better. He can keep advancing as long as he is being confident.

Try a number of sessions with different people etc before venturing out.
When you are on a walk follow the same principles, praise confidence and ignore fear. When some one approaches make him sit and wait for them to come close. Start with a quiet area and as he gets more confident try dog parks the beach etc.

take it slowly and give him time to build his confidence up. Remind people greeting him to be quiet and don't rush him. Let him come to them.

Another thing that may help is some rescue remedy or sedapet before you take him on a walk. This will take the edge off and make him much more receptive to strangers.

Good luck and let me know if i can help anymore

Todd

[Lappys_alpha]

Marina,
I have also had success with a anti-pull harness. It is a body harness that applies pressure to under arm area of dogs to reduce pulling. The more he pulls the more the harness increases the pressure. Then they will back off from pulling....It took about a week for my dog to get the hang of it. You can google this to see what it looks like. They are readily available.

[Marina]

I'll keep the harness in mind, though he is getting used to the hali and its not bothering him too much now.

The suggestions for the fear are all things that I've tried or am still trying, so its nice to know I'm on the right track.

Thanks for the ideas.