Walking on a lead

[Sarahdol75]

Harley is rarely on a lead nowadays, when we go to Wales, he is always off the lead, for walks, he is by our side, or just in front of us exploring.

The same at home we can walk around our village, with him by our side and very rarely do I put him on a lead.

My problem is when we do need to put him on a lead, if we need to take him with us if we go to the shops or out walking in Wales, then wander into the town.

He is like a mad thing pulling, I am looking rather stupid because it looks like I cant handle him, which to be honest I cant, he is so strong.

How can I get him to walk nicely on the lead and not look like he is taking me for a walk

[Pollydoodle]

Stand still.
No really as annoying as it is simply stand still. He is clever enough to eventually twig and come back to you.His reward is walking forward again.
Oh, you need to practice this, there is no other way.

[Bid]

You've just hit on one of my real bugbears! I HATE it when people walk their dogs off lead on roads - no matter how quiet it is. Apart from it being against the law, no dog is 100% proof on behaviour - there is ALWAYS something that will make a dog break a wait or a heel. It may be a rabbit, your OH appearing somewhere you are not expecting them to be, a mouse, a squirrel, a ball. There will be something that you cannot predict one day. I have had dogs leap out in front of my car - thankfully I've not hit one yet, but a friend of mine hit and killed a dog last week - it was not his fault - the dog was walking off lead on a quiet lane (you can't get much quieter than our village!) and the dog darted in front of his tractor - poor man was really cut up about it, but it was the owner who killed the dog really, through negligence

Loose lead training is very straightforward - as Pollydoodle says - just stop as soon as he pulls. He will soon learn that he doesn't get where he wants to get if he pulls. You have to be 100% consistent though, and you can spend whole walks not getting anywhere, but it works. I have three standard doodles all of whom I can walk on loose leads - I've not yet mastered Beamish's lunging but we will!

[We5Kings]

"Be A Post" is The only method that really works with pulling. And a nice comfy harness helps( I find) if your doodle is big.
Like Bid, we live in a village where some people walk their dogs off lead. I find it mystifying! Not only is it dangerous but also we've experienced off lead dogs rushing across the lane growling at Dude! Anny

[Sarahdol75]

Thankyou, someone else said to stand still and not walk or turn around and walk the other way so you are just literally turning constantly, I will get dizzy lol.

When Harley walks off the lead, I didnt actually mean I walk him all around the village off the lead, just literally to the field, which is at the bottom of my road. I know Harley would definitely chase rabbits, squirrels, cats, so I wouldnt risk that.

I will have to keep trying, I will get there.

[mundstick]

We are having this with Bailey at the moment although he is only young so not strong enough to pull us if we don't want him too.

We are doing the same, the more he pulls, the slower we go until we are standing still. It can take ages to get to the park and he can come off the lead but I am hoping the effort will be worth it in the long run. I really don't want a dog that pulls all the time.

[We5Kings]

I can recommend a Ruffwear harness for walking on lead. This isn't a "non pull" harness as such, but it really helps with no pulling. Certainly works brilliantly with Dude who walks to heel with a loose lead clipped to the back of his Ruffwear. There is also an attachment on the front if you want to clip on in 2places. He's not huge ( a slim 25kgs) but, for me, the harness makes walking a pleasure. Anny

[dexysback]

I dont like to see dogs of lead by road ,just in case,you could try a gentle leader .I always put one on dexter.

[Decky]

Here's a tip for loose lead walking which I find works on our Dandy, the effect is amazing and immediate.
At a time when Harley is walking well and before the next pull on the lead, try to imagine your conciousness as being not in your head but around just below where your navel is. This technique has several names like centring or one-point and is used in the martial arts. I find it difficult to keep up the concentration for a long time so I try to imagine my conciousness as a little man working me with levers. Immediately I concetrate on this Dandy walks by my side perfectly and stays there, if my concentration strays so does Dandy. When I last took her for walk she kept lunging and pulling as usual in the first 20 minutes but as soon as I applied this technique she never strayed once from the heel position for the remaining 40 minutes.
It sounds crazy, I don't know how it works but it does for me and Dandy. I'll be interested to see if it works for anyone else.

[We5Kings]

My husband practices Ki Aikido, so I showed him your post about your success with Dandy. He is very familiar with using "Ki" but hasn't done so with Dude on his lead!
I will report back! Anny

[Archielabradoodle]

Perhaps you have sorted this now, but just in case here's how we managed to correct Archie's pulling on the lead.

Every time Archie ran ahead and started to pull, I would stop and have a treat in my hand, he recognises treats as the word 'treaties' so he responds quickly to this. He would come back to get the treat every time and each time he came back I would say 'close', or you could use the word 'heel' etc. but make sure you use the same word each time, do not change it up. (We use 'close' when Archie is on our left hand side and the word 'heel' when he is on my right) This way he learns that 'close' or 'heel' is him walking next to you with the lead slack. It helps if you have a treat held in your hand at all times so his mouth is constantly touching your hand by your side as you walk. This way the lead will always be loose and your labradoodle will start to walk nicely without even having to think about it.

We found this really helped with walking Archie and I hope you see some improvement!

Just one more thing, this means the walk can sometimes take ages especially at the beginning. When we first started training Archie, a simply 10 minute walk would end up taking about 40 minutes due to the constant stopping and calling Archie back to my side!! But he soon learned pretty quickly how to walk 'close' and it really was worth the time and effort.