As someone who has six rescue dogs who have come from different circumstances I am proud of the fact that I can walk 5 of them on leads without them pulling (albeit only at the start of a walk, as they then go off lead).
Our sixth dog though is different. She's an almost blind, ex puppy farm breeding working cocker bitch. She is highly intelligent. She spent the first six years of her life locked in a shed, starving, uncared for and producing litters of puppies. To say that she is 'over stimulated' when out on a walk is the understatement of the year!
I've tried hours and hours and hours of training, I've tried training her on her own, training her with our steadiest dog, training using leads, long lines, harnesses, you name it, I've tried it. Because she's almost blind, she has to stay on some sort of lead (and even then I have to be very vigilant to make sure she doesn't run into trees). She gets so excited when she's out that despite frequent returns to sit with me to calm down, she rarely listens when she's in full flight, which is all of the rest of the time.
So, to stop her damaging her neck and to stop my arms and neck from being damaged, I use a harness. Maybe I'm avoiding training issues, but I honestly don't see a better way of doing this at the moment....
