Hi,
Newbie here, We have used this great forum as a knowledge base for the last couple of months, and the great thing is, that any issues, there’s always loads who have had the same problem, it makes you feel like it’s not just us!
our female working cocker, Poppy is purely a family pet, she’s 19 weeks old, and we’ve nearly finished her initial training.
The training is not specific to cockers and whilst we’ve persevered with the training method for walking, and it’s shown a slight improvement over time, I was thinking of getting some more focused walking training when this finished.
Anyway, the method we are learning is based on loose lead, but stopping when she pulls, plus some training in getting Poppy to our side rather than in front and getting her to focus on us and our change of direction.
Anyway our trainer recommended using a harness, so I brought a no pull harness and after using if for the last 3 days we have seen a rapid improvement. We use the front (no pull connection) and it has completely stopped the lurches forward where she pulls on the lead and hangs with 2 front paws in the air, we still get a bit of side to side, but she seems to walk happily at my side for most of the walk now, I used to hate when she pulled so hard she would start breathing heavily. I don’t know wether this is a fluke and she was improving slightly already, but the walks are a lot less stressful now, probably for both of us!