Hi All,

Have read a couple of the old threads on collars (halti's), the dogmatic and gentle leader one but would like advice as what is best to suit me and our male Lab. He's generally a friendly and good boy but the excitement on walks sometimes (when he is on his lead) sometimes just gets too much, I get stressed and my arms are killing me when I get home.
If I'm stationary I can overcome this by a trick taught at dog class - which is stand on the metre lead (which I'm currently using; it's a quality 'Hunter' one - as I feel it's the safest to manage him with), we don't look at him, nor talk to him etc and it does work in that he doesn't have the leverage to jump up at the person I'm talking to and generally sits down after a few unsuccessful attempts.....but when I'm on the move and passing dogs or sometimes runners etc then it becomes difficult just through his sheer strength. He's 6 months now and still very much a puppy (despite being a big lad). We do try to walk to heel and he is pretty good when there's no distractions around, and obviously my 6 foot hubby finds him easier to control when he does play up....so I need the help mainly. Also to change direction and 'walk the other way' is not always an option - nor do I wish to manage it like this ideally.

Your fantastic advice is most welcome on how it's best to 'suit and boot' him up for walks.

Thank you,

GJ

Don't buy a headcollar. Teach him not to lunge.

What and how much do you feed him, and how much & what sort of exercise / training does he get?

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Jack - Black Labrador
Nalsy & Ponch - Purebred bedwarming moggies

I am trying to teach him not to lunge - but that's easier said than done!!!! I always carry treats, try to distract etc....but that only works for so long and he'll want to get to the other dog....losing interest on treats no matter what I try.

Dried food, 26% protein, eats twice a day, weighed every week as just about every body has informed me of the weight issues....which I'm aware of anyway (and he is fine on that).....walked twice a day off lead and on (in fields, and countryside mainly)...around 40 mins each time but we do take him to more built up places as well.

He's a very sociable and friendly dog who wants to meet everyone (humans and dogs)....and there's lots around where we are. I want him to almost ignore things which I'm hoping will start to happen as he ages.

I need further 'tools' to help.....not "teach him not to lunge" advice. He is also entering adolescence now; so all in all it's going to be a very trying time.

Hi, I don't use one personally, but, a lot of Dog owners I meet use the Halti and swear by it, I don't know how successful it would be in your case, but, surely worth a try!, I know that I overcame my dog's tendency to pull and lunge by the tried and tested changing direction method but as you've already said this is not for you perhaps other members have their own ideas on solving this problem. wayne.

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665 Friend of the beast

I would prefer if possible a good harness with front & top clip ideally that fits well, and is safety aid. I used a small or medium, Halti double clip harness on considerably smaller dog that was reactive spinning & lunging dangerously on standard lead and it helped very much.

That's an interim allowing you to safely work on polite walking. With such you can quite easily steer the dog round or stop, and as he appears keen to meet other dogs, and may need extra recall training the top clip can help when using a long lead.

Try and reward calm passing behaviour, using distance where possible to be able to reinforce success. Food reward may not be sufficiently reinforcing, dogs can lose interest, but enjoy play reward or praise; especially as they leave puppy phase. Probably the functional reward of greeting the dog would be a good one to use for things like recall or politely obedient behaviour.

Head collars whilst popular, have drawbacks - needing habituation, in lunging dog the neck is vulnerable. The big advantage being able to gently turn an aggressive dogs head away from passing dogs so it does not fixate would not appear to apply in your case.

Thanks Wayne, I'm not a great lover of the Halti type affairs either...but I've got to try a different method. It would all be soooo much easier if he wasn't a lab! These are the times you wish you'd bought a weeny dog I don't even know if it's too late and it won't make a difference anyway to the pulling behaviour......but we'll see what others advise.

Thanks

I use the halti on my youngest dog if I know we're walking somewhere with dogs, the more and more we walk past them without letting him say hello the less he is lunging. HE has the halti on otherwise I won't have control over him.

Another month I think and I'll start taking it off to walk past dogs, at the moment he's doing great and will walk loosely on a lead except with other dogs

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Yes....I can try and work on the distance idea Rob, thanks. Thinking about it we're not getting much opportunity to ignore things as we pass them with distance involved because it's usually a very near scenario and the dogs can touch etc. I would have to keep him on the lead though for this as he'll be off over to them if he wasn't....but I'll def work on this.

Yes, it doesn't help Nicole when other dog owners just let their dogs run up to you as you're trying to carry out training to just ignore and walk on past. This has just happened with a large male Visla this afternoon.......it even got growly with Fred so I told the owner it should be on a lead!!!! Letting a dog that is going to approach another dog (that is leaded) whilst the other is off is naughty in my book. Fine if their dog isn't interested in going up to a leashed dog - but rude on the owners part me thinks.

The sticky on getting your dogs attention may help to! To all those with dogs who lack attention, or are obsessed with other dogs
Perhaps you can do tug with a fetch ball on rope or something, to be an attention getter?

With the GR I walk weekly now, and occasionally every week day, he tends to decide to greet dogs without an OK, I found he was amenable though, but simply avoiding boredom due to relatively fast progress (cycle plus Border Collie) helped me get a grip on it. It was quite funny as with us, he picked up sheepdog commands like "C'm by" and did a nice veer away from a Labradoodle last time I took him out.

I've used premacking idea with him, I know he loves to swim, so I reward a good recall with dashing to the beach. I also tried to get close to the action, should there be a dog he might greet off own bat. He's definitely improved and his owners are working with him, lately switching to liver cake has increased the reinforcement effect of food rewards apparently to. I actually don't treat the dog that much, the activities are rewarding in themselves.

Now in general, I am very relaxed about dogs socialising & greeting, my pup met very many dogs, and he gets to choose now with off leash dogs; very often he is ignoring them because he's a Collie and is just wangling working for me all the time. But at arrival at Agility it's different, and he's very sociable.