Training not to pull or run on leash...

[LittleLolasMom]

any tips? i know i am throwing alot at my pup at once, with training, but i do want her to stop pulling on her leash and darting after people and things.

any tips or tricks?

[BLowry]

Chattiesmom makes a front lead harness,.,.the "D" ring is in the front....I have 2 pullers....this harness has really helped

[yorkietalkjilly]

Just stop dead in your tracks when she pulls until she stops pulling and lets the lead go slack and then you go forward again. Repeat until she learns that stopping pulling and a slack lead will result in her getting what she wants - going forward. It takes repetition for a few walks with the young ones but they soon get it.

[LittleLolasMom]

thanks, i have been trying to have the leash at a decent distant and when she pulls i say "easy" and say good girl when she walks beside me. when people or sounds come tho she tries to dart and pull. i said "lola sit nice, relax relax" but she is so excited by people she goes nuts.

[southernbelle04]

I was wondering about this as well. Thanks for asking!

[gemy]

Originally Posted by LittleLolasMom

thanks, i have been trying to have the leash at a decent distant and when she pulls i say "easy" and say good girl when she walks beside me. when people or sounds come tho she tries to dart and pull. i said "lola sit nice, relax relax" but she is so excited by people she goes nuts.

Awh she sounds so lovely and friendly and not a nervous pup!. So with a friendly inquisitive brave soul like you have, here is what I suggest:

Start close to home; say in your backyard; do some basic training first; here you want always want to first teach Attention, Attention, Attention to you!. Basic precept for more advanced obedience work. If you can get your pup to focus on you; afterall you want to be the prime source of all the great things in her world it is 80% of the basis for obedience work - this attention to you.
Attention work: Have her sit ; she sits you immediately reward - she looks at you reward, she breaks sit, have her sit, she sits - you reward, she looks at you - reward.
Focus work - you can even use the command Focus: She looks at you reward she will probably look away, as soon as she looks back at you reward, repeat for up to 5 minutes.

Once she is pretty consistent with this: introduce what is called distractions. Perhaps invite a neighbour over into the backyard, or a friend. Here the goal is for her to focus on you and not dart about and try to rush to greet the friend.

It is helpful prior to having the friend over, you work with her in the backyard with the attention/focus/ sit/reward etc.
Have the friend/neighbour enter quietly and "ignore" the dog. If she darts towards, quick correction on lead, and walk her away from person. Reward immediately if she comes with you. Then slowly walk toward stranger (if possible stranger is just sitting quietly), and have her sit - she sits - you reward. Do small walk forwards with sits until finally she is by stranger. Then you talk to friend/neighbour and if she breaks sit - correct - she sits reward. Do this several times in that day. And repeat another day of the week with someone else.

When she gets good at this; it is time to take the exercise to the streets. Arrange a walking play date with a friend with another dog. Have them come from opposite end of trail and first you both keep big distance between dogs. If she walks by without pulling - reward and make a big deal out of her good behaviour. If she starts to pull, slight correction on lead, walk by, and go past 100 yards or so and turn around, and repeat exercise with your friend. Maybe the first dozen times or so she doesn't ignore the dog or person, but on that time she does - it is SUPER big reward time - treats praise, play.

So think about each "skill" and break that skill down into it's component parts. Teach each component separately, and then a couple of parts of each component together until your girl has shown consistency in each and combo components.

I hope this has helped.

[LittleLolasMom]

Originally Posted by gemy

Awh she sounds so lovely and friendly and not a nervous pup!. So with a friendly inquisitive brave soul like you have, here is what I suggest:

Start close to home; say in your backyard; do some basic training first; here you want always want to first teach Attention, Attention, Attention to you!. Basic precept for more advanced obedience work. If you can get your pup to focus on you; afterall you want to be the prime source of all the great things in her world it is 80% of the basis for obedience work - this attention to you.
Attention work: Have her sit ; she sits you immediately reward - she looks at you reward, she breaks sit, have her sit, she sits - you reward, she looks at you - reward.
Focus work - you can even use the command Focus: She looks at you reward she will probably look away, as soon as she looks back at you reward, repeat for up to 5 minutes.

Once she is pretty consistent with this: introduce what is called distractions. Perhaps invite a neighbour over into the backyard, or a friend. Here the goal is for her to focus on you and not dart about and try to rush to greet the friend.

It is helpful prior to having the friend over, you work with her in the backyard with the attention/focus/ sit/reward etc.
Have the friend/neighbour enter quietly and "ignore" the dog. If she darts towards, quick correction on lead, and walk her away from person. Reward immediately if she comes with you. Then slowly walk toward stranger (if possible stranger is just sitting quietly), and have her sit - she sits - you reward. Do small walk forwards with sits until finally she is by stranger. Then you talk to friend/neighbour and if she breaks sit - correct - she sits reward. Do this several times in that day. And repeat another day of the week with someone else.

When she gets good at this; it is time to take the exercise to the streets. Arrange a walking play date with a friend with another dog. Have them come from opposite end of trail and first you both keep big distance between dogs. If she walks by without pulling - reward and make a big deal out of her good behaviour. If she starts to pull, slight correction on lead, walk by, and go past 100 yards or so and turn around, and repeat exercise with your friend. Maybe the first dozen times or so she doesn't ignore the dog or person, but on that time she does - it is SUPER big reward time - treats praise, play.

So think about each "skill" and break that skill down into it's component parts. Teach each component separately, and then a couple of parts of each component together until your girl has shown consistency in each and combo components.

I hope this has helped.

Thank you so much for the reply! She is a very friendly, happy and curious puppy. She loves people and other dogs. She wishes everyone would stop and play with her, but where we live alot of people are in a rush to get somewhere (bus stop, restaraunt etc) and though most will stop to engage with her sometimes they dont and i feel bad. she gest all excited and i have to contain her and then the person walks off.

I have been training her each night with commands. Last night we worked alot on Sit, Sit pretty, down. she did good. Sit pretty is taking awhile because it requires alot of balance. (sit pretty for her is the kinda of sit/stand/beg position) which is cute.

while on walks i try to stop for no reason and say "lola, COME" and when she does i reward with pats and lots of praise. but i have to continue to work on getting her to listen to me when others are around. i dont watn to yank her on a leash and do it taht way you know? thank u for the help

[Teresa Ford]

Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

Just stop dead in your tracks when she pulls until she stops pulling and lets the lead go slack and then you go forward again. Repeat until she learns that stopping pulling and a slack lead will result in her getting what she wants - going forward. It takes repetition for a few walks with the young ones but they soon get it.

The above exercise works well for young puppies and is a good method. I would like to also suggest : 1. Yorkies and other toy breeds should have a short regular leash, hooked to a halter. Never hook a leash to their neck collar. Do not use a flex-leash or long leash for training.
2. With the dog sitting on your left, pat your left knee and Give the CUE word 'HEEL', start off with your left foot. (Heel is different than a free will walk. Heel means stay right by my leg and pay attention to me, we are working now.) I do not teach that dogs must heel all the time. But they must heel when cued to heel, until released with Sniff Around. Several times on a walk, I release with Sniff Around and allow them to sniff, potty and explore. Then I cue them with Heel and pat my left knee. to resume our walk.
3.The reason dogs surge ahead is because they are Not Watching You, They are not following a leader, they are checking doggie mail (who left pee or poo messages) and looking for adventure. A cat to chase, other dogs to meet, candy bar wrappers and so on. You must teach your dog to follow you. Teach your dog to heel in the house first. You teach this like any other lesson, once they can obey and understand in the the house and your own yard, then you move the training outside where there are distractions.
4. There is a difference in teaching your dog to heel and Correcting him when he doesn't heel. If a dog bolts you can say NO firmly and stop in your tracks. Eventually the dog will realize you are not coming and will come back to you, to see why you are not following him. After awhile he will understand, that you have to walk together. That you will stop if he gets in front. Another way to correct is as soon as he runs in front, Say NO and make a sharp turn going the opposite direction. This does make him to keep an eye on you and does tell the dog, I am leading you. But it is still correcting.
5. There are different exercises you can use to train your dog to look at you, for leadership and direction. I hope this helps.

[LittleLolasMom]

Originally Posted by Teresa Ford

The above exercise works well for young puppies and is a good method. I would like to also suggest : 1. Yorkies and other toy breeds should have a short regular leash, hooked to a halter. Never hook a leash to their neck collar. Do not use a flex-leash or long leash for training.
2. With the dog sitting on your left, pat your left knee and Give the CUE word 'HEEL', start off with your left foot. (Heel is different than a free will walk. Heel means stay right by my leg and pay attention to me, we are working now.) I do not teach that dogs must heel all the time. But they must heel when cued to heel, until released with Sniff Around. Several times on a walk, I release with Sniff Around and allow them to sniff, potty and explore. Then I cue them with Heel and pat my left knee. to resume our walk.
3.The reason dogs surge ahead is because they are Not Watching You, They are not following a leader, they are checking doggie mail (who left pee or poo messages) and looking for adventure. A cat to chase, other dogs to meet, candy bar wrappers and so on. You must teach your dog to follow you. Teach your dog to heel in the house first. You teach this like any other lesson, once they can obey and understand in the the house and your own yard, then you move the training outside where there are distractions.
4. There is a difference in teaching your dog to heel and Correcting him when he doesn't heel. If a dog bolts you can say NO firmly and stop in your tracks. Eventually the dog will realize you are not coming and will come back to you, to see why you are not following him. After awhile he will understand, that you have to walk together. That you will stop if he gets in front. Another way to correct is as soon as he runs in front, Say NO and make a sharp turn going the opposite direction. This does make him to keep an eye on you and does tell the dog, I am leading you. But it is still correcting.
5. There are different exercises you can use to train your dog to look at you, for leadership and direction. I hope this helps.

This is explained very well, thank you. I must work at making sure my pup knows who is the leader and who is the follower. Somethign that i have not done well while allowing her to roam and sniff on leash to primarily do her "business". but i will work on the walking ettiquette and heal when she is not going potty.

i am walking her not other way around. very dead on. thank you!

[Britster]

Great advice given already.

I love the Premier Easy Walk harness with the d-ring on front. It works great on a young puppy that I watch and it also helped teach Jackson how to walk properly.

I also advise you to take a peek at these YouTube channels -- awesome advice given on all of them:
Zakgeorge21
pamelamarxsen
kikopup
tab289

[LittleLolasMom]

the first video channel was super helpful. we will work on this starting tonight for a bit

[LittleLolasMom]

Update: Last night we used our hallway to practice some of this. I took a cheese pull string with me and had lola walk beside me on the left side. she stayed very close. if she pulled a bit i stopped. i would say "here" and point to my side. she would come there. every 10-15 seconds of good walking i would put a piece of the cheese by the back of my left heel. she stayed by me very well.

Now once we went outside she did good too. however in order to let her go pee pee or potty i had to let the leash go longer, will this confuse her? i couldnt let her up on the grass or anythign withotu giving her some room... then after she was done it was back to wlaking with the cheese and her next to me.