Dutch Shepherd Forum

Hello Everyone. We are having difficulty with our Dutchie pulling on the leash when walking. We recently took her off her pinch collar and are working with her walking beside us without pulling. There is no difficulty with a pinch collar, but I really don't like it. Here are my questions...
1. Has anyone used the Gentle Leader?
2. Do you have a different collar/harness you would recommend
3. Do you have any advice or tricks to help us help our dog to understand what we want from her?

Personally I like the pinch, but I have a very light hand. Its my power steering. I did tons and tons of recall and heel work then I can just put them in a flat collar and they will still respond.

Tons and tons of training with lots of happy dances. Let her really know what you want and really show how pleased you are when she does it.

I have used head collars for years, and really like them if the dog is conditioned to it. Honestly, I still use it on my senior guys when we go for walks where I don't want to have to care about their exact position. They simply can't pull and I don't have to feel the need to correct - we're just out for fun anyway. Sensation harnesses also work well.

Any devise can cause discomfort. I have seen chaffing under a dogs front legs from the harnesses. I have seen bumps on the top of dog's noses from head collars. So conditioning and paying attention are needed so you aren't causing more damage than any pinch could.

I know the antage of "If you aren't correcting it, you are training it." And I believe it is true. But I also believe "If you are preventing the undesired behavior, you aren't forced to correct it." And sometimes I just want to enjoy their company.

Something I saw on a dog trainer show..."Dogs in the City" I think...was have treats with you, then walk a couple of steps then stopping and asking the dog to sit, then treat to reward. Walk a couple of more steps, then stop, the sit, then treat...and keep repeating. I tried this technique whenever mine would want to pull ahead, and it worked really well. Got her focused much more on me (which resulted in walking beside me instead of pulling ahead) and sitting whenever I stopped.

These dogs are very food motivated and smart, so it should catch on pretty quickly. Then you can go longer between stopping once your dog catches on and understands better what is expected.

May be this will help with the pulling, i.e for a leasure walk where sniffing and such is allowed - not for heeling exercise:
Just stop whenever the leash is under tension and start walking again when they release the tension, i.e. move a bit back towards you. When they figure out they are not going anywhere with a tense leash, they will stop pulling. Since they are very smart, it probably will not take long.

Schlussdibusti wrote:May be this will help with the pulling, i.e for a leasure walk where sniffing and such is allowed - not for heeling exercise:
Just stop whenever the leash is under tension and start walking again when they release the tension, i.e. move a bit back towards you. When they figure out they are not going anywhere with a tense leash, they will stop pulling. Since they are very smart, it probably will not take long.

I´ve tried this for months and it didn´t work very well. Either I was doing something wrong, or just wasn´t consistent. I talked to a dog trainer few days ago, and now I do something simillar, and I see progress in only a couple of walks:

I hold leash short, but loose, And walk slowly, step by step. When he goes forward, i tighten the leash for a second then let it loose. Praise when he walks nicely, stop often, change direction and pace often and ask for attention.

Great to hear about the progress!

E-collar works well.