Extending leads

[pwhite48]

I've read lots of conflicting advice on whether extendable leads are any good or not.

Honey is a typical Cocker on the lead - pulling all the time to the point where she ends up choking and coughing. This morning she even made herself sick outside the school gates (my wife was well pleased :oops: ).

So we are going to try a halti-harness thingy, but wondered if an extendable lead would help or hinder the process?                    

[Shirley]

I'd say, steer well clear of extendable leads, they are bad news :? .  If your near roads (ie picking kids up from school) they are dangerous and they also give your dog the OK to run on ahead and forget about you.  I made this very mistake with Morgan and once I realised what I'd done I went back to a normal lead straight away.  The damage was already done though and he still pulls a bit for the first 5 minutes of a walk - though nowhere near as much as before.  There are lots of old threads with advice on teaching your dog to walk without pulling.  Will have a look just now and see if I can spot any                      

[PennyB]

I agree its worth teaching your dog to walk to heel without pulling (and cockers can do this without help from harnesses/haltis with patience). Mine will pull if I let them (I've got 2 though!) but we're getting there and patience is a virtue as with everything—we use the stop–start method and I know if I practised enough we'd get there and its worth it. Its not so much about walking without pulling its more about getting your dog to walk to heel. Have you tried a good training class or better still 1-2-1 who can show you. I'm a great believer in training classes as no matter what you read in books a good trainer is worth their weight in gold, as it were (if only to show you the different ways for your dog, as books often generalize—my dog trainer makes exceptions for cockers as they differ from the norm in general dog training because of their unpredictability and keen nose and the great need to focus them, which is the hardest to do!)

I don't like the extendable leads either.                    

[*Jay*]

I used the flexi-lead with Vegas as a pup and he now pulls like a train. His gums actually go blue and he makes himself sick on EVERY walk - thats how bad he is.  I didn't use one with Dallas but he just copied what his big brother did :evil:  I would steer clear of them if I were you and try and train her to walk to heel(maybe some yummy treats to reward her when shes by your leg might help :wink: ). My boys actually walk to heel at training class which makes their pulling outside even more annoying.

Good luck.                    

[bluesmum]

I started Blue walking on an extendible lead and boy do I regret it now!

I'm now having to use the stop/start method and seem to be doing alot more stopping than starting! :?  

My advise to you would be to stick with the lead and teach him to walk to heel, it's far better to correct your pup's behaviour now than to have to correct your mistakes later!                    

[picklesmum]

I can echo everything that's been said here. We used an extendable lead for Pickle's first few weeks of walks and he is now a wee monkey on the lead, pulling like mad. I think all Cockers will try to pull, but it is something that can be overcome with a lot of patience.
One other thing about the extendable - once or twice Pickle ran at top speed forgetting that he was attached to the lead, and got a nasty jerk to the neck when he got to the end of it. So I would persevere with a normal lead, I think - much safer all round.
Emma and Pickle xx                    

[Shirley]

His gums actually go blue and he makes himself sick on EVERY walk - thats how bad he is.

 :roll:  :roll:   Morgan used to do this and his tongue would go blue  :shock:  :roll:                      

[Ange]

Poppy also pulls terribly on her lead, I have tried everything except one to one trainer.  Does anyone have a cocker that walks nicely on lead, and how did they train?  Any advise would be much appreciated

Ange                    

[PennyB]

I got the help of a 1-2-1 trainer who showed me exactly how to do it and watched me do it so he could tell me where I was going wrong (its often the owner's fault!), and of late he's shown me how to walk to to heel (and some exercise to get the dogs working together). I think sometimes you need someone to show you. A friend kept telling me she was doing a version of it but it was just that a version that didn't work. No matter how much I told her that the idea wasn't to keep the dog on such a short/tight lead all the time—the idea is for the dog to walk to heel on a loose lead not be pulled on a shorter lead than normal. What she wouldn't do either is practise with the dog on their own rather than always on the way to somewhere where she was in a hurry.

I got a lot out of our 1-2-1 as the trainer was very helpful in all sorts of areas.

Its something that takes a lot of patience but worth it if only to practise for a short period each day. I don't practise enough so its not perfect. Mind you in Ruby's intermediate class the other night we were praised for doing it so well, until that is Ruby got bored and decided to throw herself at a 90 degree angle to scavenge all those treats others had dropped on the floor (and they were obviously far much more interesting than hers so she temporarily went deaf on me little :evil: )