Walk Woes!

[yorkiegirl83]

Do any of you w/multiple dogs have issues w/walks? My gang LOVES to pull, they really just love to do it. I've tried a lot of things.. stopping in my tracks when they pull, shoveling treats when they're next to me, tons of praise, clicker training.. but whenever they are all together on walks it is a nightmare. They will snarl and growl and bark at annnny other dog in the vicinity and w/walking three it's very hard to control that. I usually try to just keep going or have them 'chase" mommy to distract them.

They are 100% non dog aggressive. I think what frustrates them is that I won't let them go up to people and other dogs on our walks. If it's me and only one other dog, that's fine.. but w/3 there is no way I'm stopping, lol! The more I hold them back, the worse the barking gets!

I'm wondering if I should just stop walking them together entirely for a while. Tonight I took each out separately and did a wide two block loop all the while saying GOOD WALK when they were next to me (loose lead) and stopping and saying uh-uh when they pulled. Emma did perfectly, Lula did so so and Bent was not so great ( I was stopping every 5 seconds).

I'm not walking Kenzie yet because she doesn't have all of her vaccinations. I've been carrying her so she can be included and letting her down once the rest of the gang calms down, but it's really hard to juggle them all.

Anyone have any advice?

[maybeiloveyou]

Originally Posted by yorkiegirl83

whenever they are all together on walks it is a nightmare. They will snarl and growl and bark at annnny other dog in the vicinity

They are 100% non dog aggressive.

Contradiction? Anyway, I think the walking them individually will work, and then maybe you can try two at a time, then all three?

[yorkiegirl83]

Originally Posted by maybeiloveyou

Contradiction? Anyway, I think the walking them individually will work, and then maybe you can try two at a time, then all three?

I'm trying to describe the noises they make. By 100 percent non dog aggressive I mean.. they are NOT aggressive . They're ticked at me because I won't let them play w/every dog they see. They go on playdates, doggie daycare occasionally, and are perfect angels. It's only on walks, only all 3.

[Hickey007]

I would work on them individually then add one at a time and vary the two that go along each time. Then when you have all sets of two doing well together go to three.

What I would do for the pulling is grab a leash and a bit of an open area, you sound like you are walking around blocks so maybe you could find a small park or something. We did this with our bloodhound and used our front yard and with a yorkie you are definately not going to need as much room as we did then. Start working with one dog at a time. Begin walking and when they start to pull, actually I wouldn't even let them get to that point I would want them right in front of me (in class we actually kept them right beside us but in the end when you have all three its going to be a bit difficult to have three dogs at your side when you only have two sides), so pick a length that you are willing to let them be in front of you at and when they start to go beyond that point don't stop but turn. You can turn 90 degrees a complete 180 just whatever, mix it up and do it maybe 15 minutes at a time, just long enough that they are starting to stay close. Then practice it the next day. The reason I say find an open area is because in the beginning you are not going to be going very straight, you'll be turning every 2 seconds and making big circles and stuff. Once you are able to walk two dogs one at a time wtihout having to turn (because they are getting too far) then put two together and do the same thing. And mix up those two then eventually all three together. I will say though you should start losing some weight (if you need to) walking all three individually, hey you're tripling you walking time.

[biewerlover]

I have three as well. An 11yr old golden, a 2yr Yorkie (teapot), and a 7mo old Biewer. They generally do good as I have trained them that way, but on occassion, even the best of em get outa control. My golden is an angel, I tie her lead to my belt and she just knows to heel, the two little ones I either use a coupler on one lead, or seperate leads but held on the left side (golden on the right side). I do run into issues at times with other dogs walking past, thats a hard one to get them not to snarl or act crazy (its also embarassing), I generally do the walk fast and get past them move. I would back up to walking each on their own and enforce their heel, then slowly add in another one. I can't say its going to be easy. I've even seen dog walkers getting pulled down the street!!

Kathy

[Pipersmommy]

All 3 walk very well together but I don't walk them by myself. I wait until hubby comes home. I was walking them down to the end of our street one day & a big dog was loose. I didn't know if I could protect all 3 if it had attacked them. I started training one at a time, then we added another. I carried Max until he had all his shots also. He now walks with the girls. Daddy takes Misha & I walk Piper & Max. I don't give them much leash, they walk right by our sides.

[Dior'sMom]

I have 2 and Dior loves to pull. I even bought the no pull leash and she still does it. Diesel is now joining in the pulling because he wants to keep up with his sister. It annoying at times but i am trying to work on it. I might try doing it 1 at a time.

[scrapindee]

i bought a special "harness" that stopped the pulling from petedge.

[Luckyone]

My lab wears a prong collar, much safer than a choke collar and about the only thing that stopped her from pulling me down the street. She was like that even as a puppy. I'm not supposed to walk my two together yet since Bella is just learning.

But I would think taking one by one and adding them in, while teaching them how you want them to walk would be a good idea.

I walk my lab very briskly and keep her collar higher on her neck. She's not allowed to stop and sniff anything and she knows she's supposed to ignore any people or animals we encounter.

My Bella's learning to heel but she does the run real fast then dead stop thing. so we're working on that.

[Gracie2006]

I also purchased the easy walk harness. It works well. Once dogs get in that habit, it is hard to break especially breeds that you can't use a correction collar with. They just get used to the feel of the pull and it no longer bothers them. You need to do something that pulls in a different direction.

[Hickey007]

I haven't bought one of these for Reagan but have three, one for each big dog. Its an anti-pull harness. Here is a link to a craigslist post on it b/c it had the best picture I saw. The top part that is shaped like a triangle in the picture (its a big loop)goes around the neck then those two loops that are coming down, one goes around each leg. At the bottom of the triangle you can see a strap from each of the leg loops comes through and a ring is attached to the end of those, this is where the leash is attached. What happenes is when the dog pulls in tightens up underneath their legs and kinda pinches at that muscle right there and for all three of my big dos instant stop pulling reaction is emerged. For us it worked immediatly and our three big dogs have never grown accustomed to it or whatnot and started pulling again. Now again we haven't tried this on our yorkie but I would imagine the reaction would be the same I just don't know if they make them small enough. We got ours at Wal-mart but I haven't seen smalls there but if you are interested you could still check. When I searched google for "anti pull harness" a good bit of websites came up. I don't know the brand name of the one shown here (its the same as ours from wal-mart though) but there is another brand name "Sporn" that looks like the exact same to me.

Oh just wanted to add that one of our big dogs is a bloodhound as if you don't know much about the breed their nose is constantly on the ground and they are constantly pulling at the leash. They are constantly on a mission and in their own little world and this worked for her.