Hiya

I'm trying to teach Ollie heel by turning in the opposite direction when he pulls and click and treat when he's in the right position. How long will it take to teach him completely? Other people who walk him won't be able to do this, so would that put back training? He's now a year old and has been pulling since he was a puppy. He pulls through a halti harness (lead on front), halti headcollar and a normal harness and chokes himself in a collar. I don't think any gadget will work with him to be honest. I can't really teach him to heel for months on end as I am busy and I can't spend all my walks teaching him this. Is there any gadget that stops pulling 100%?

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I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

One word with a cocker FOREVER !!!!!!

If you can invent an anti pulling device that works 100% you will be a VERY rich person indeed

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"I am not perfect and i don't have to be, before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean" - Bob Marley

https://sites.google.com/site/blisschalet/

The problem is that it's a health problem for the person walking them, because he can strain your hand, crush your fingers, pull your shoulder muscle etc, so it really needs to be sorted.

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I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

I taught Alfie at 20 months which is when I got him, by choosing a set part of each walk that he had to walk properly to heel. I too couldn't possibly spend the whole walk doing heel training. Just not enough hours in the day
It took about a year to perfect, so that he did it on command every walk.
Also I used different leads, so that he knew that when he was on his blue slip lead, he HAD to behave

Some people try all their lives and never resolve it.

Springers are particularly renowned for being pullers.

A Halti will resolve the health issue but then thats not training a dog to walk to heel.

I used one for a while with Os as a training aid because i got sick of being dragged down the road and it improved.

I used the normal treat coaxing method and i can walk him to heel perfectly in controlled environment and back from walks but he still pulls like a train going to the park. It improves a bit every day but its like anything, there is no quick fix.

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"I am not perfect and i don't have to be, before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean" - Bob Marley

https://sites.google.com/site/blisschalet/

Ollie walks on a slack lead on the way to the park, but pulls like a train home. if he's on the way home, he pulls horribly, but when he leaves the house for a walk, he's ok and good. We always go on a circular walk too so he seems to recognise the roads and knows he's nearly home.

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I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

Sounds the same as Oscar but in reverse. Just keep at it. I use the stop and go method and it's slowy getting there. I can now walk about 85% of the way to the park entrance if i focus on him. I may never get the final 15 but nones perfect

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"I am not perfect and i don't have to be, before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean" - Bob Marley

https://sites.google.com/site/blisschalet/

Depends on two factors really.

1). If he pays attention to you.

2). If you ahve the committment to teach him.

Him pulling all of the time isn't doing any of you any good so you really do need to put the time in.

Everyone has their own method for this but I'll give you mine. Try a few though as you will find that some work better than others.

I have taught both my dogs the "Stop!" command so that they do what it is, they stop moving forward. Again it is upto you how you teach this but I did it through a game I use called "Stop and Go". You say "Go!" and run or move around like a lunatic in all directions, the dog will follow you on this without doubt. When you want to you say "Stop!" and you stay absolutely still until the dog does. Once they stop you say "Go!" and set off again. Each time the dog stops give them praise but don' move to give them a treat or anything or you are teaching them that the rule can be broken. The time it takes for the dog to stop will decrease over a couple of 15min sessions.

Once your dog knows stop you can walk him on his lead and when he gets in front you can say "Stop!" before he reaches the end of the lead, a training lead works well in this case.

Now for the slack lead walking bit.

Get your dog in a sit and stay position, walk in front so the lead is not pulling on him but you are the lead length away (about 4ft), keep looking over your shoulder at him as you give the heel command or wahtever you want and if he moves passed the point where you want him you say "Stop!", get him to sit and stay, walk out in front of him and start again. After a few goes at this they learn that there is goign to be a stop command coming up at a certain point and they try to second guess you so they slow down right at the point where you want them. At this point your say the heel command you want and after a few more yards you give verbal praise. You can;t give treats or physical praise because you will have to turn around and he is not where you want him so you must give him verbal praise for being exactly where he is. You can use your little "Woah woah what do you think you;re doing sunshine?" noise, I use "Ah-ah-ah!" if he starts to creep forward but again you have the stop command as a weapon of choice.

Once you get this you can teach them to walk wherever you want. I use the following:

"Slowly" - sounds nice when said slowly so means how it sounds.On this they are expected to walk behind me either on lead or off.

"On me" - I use this to invite them up alongside me so I walking between their noses.

"Too far" - this is to let them know that they are venturing out of what I call the safety zone where they can do what they want - sniff, explore, etc - but I still have close control over them. I use an imaginary circle of about 20m diameter and i used a long trainign lead to teach that.

If you want to try it and want a bit more info on it let me know.

Hiya,
Sounds like you are doing all of the right things. I found that with mine, it took a while and lots of consistency and patience but then it just suddenly clicked (like what I did there? ).

Gadget wise, IMO there is nothing that will 100% solve pulling, consistency is the key really.
I know someone however, who swears by Mekuti Harnesses and others who like headcollars, another who likes non-pull harnesses.
Really depends.
It's hard with "busy" dogs likes cockers, springers, collies, shepherds etc too because they just want to get going!

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Many dogs have this issue - you've all seen those wonderful Border Collies doing great heelwork in obedience classes, or doing fabulous rounds in agility, but what do you see when the show has finished and the dogs are being walked back home...? Lots of them in Haltis! and still straining against the lead!

For many breeds of working dog it's not natural to them to be at heel - they are meant to be apart from the handler, sometimes way out in front (BC for instance), working independently. That's why they are working dogs really, not meant to be waiting in the background but having initiative to do what they do.

Yes Merly can walk nicely to heel but most of the time he won't. Every single day of his life with me so far (3.5 years and counting) on every walk he is reminded what we learned at class and I make sure he spends *some* time doing what he was trained to do, walk nicely at heel watching me. he'll do it for a while, but then it's back to normal dog stuff, sniffing, marking, being "a dog". We have a compromise though - if I ever stop still, he automatically 'reins in' and comes back to the heel position.

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