Leaf chasing

[katie94]

Hiya all!
Rufus is doing well, toilet training is abit hit and miss but he's learn commands such as sit, stay, lie down and paw, and his recall whilst out and about at the park is pretty good (Disappears completely in the garden though  )
Whilst out on walks he walks fairly nicely, pulls abit on the way home but not too badly. He's discovered the joy of chasing leaves, though. Its been quite windy here and with leaves flying everywhere, he likes to run after them.. often running straight into the road. He gets pulled back onto the pavement and told 'no' whenever he does this. Is their anything else we can do to stop him doing this, other than walking him on a tight lead? I dont want to risk him running after one when theirs a car coming, especially since we have to walk along quite a busy road to get to the local park.

Thanks!

[piph]

I'd have him on a tight lead until you get to the park - until you can get him walking by your side on a loose lead. He's very young yet, so it may take some time before he does that.

Modified to ask - what sort of lead are you using - if it's an extendable one, I'd junk it for the time being - never a good idea for a pup to be on that sort of a lead, especially walking along a busy road - they are too unpredictable.  A normal lead or a double ended training lead is best at this age.

[JeffandAnnie]

Pulling him back on the lead and saying no is unlikely to work; both are post action negative reinforcements which are difficult for a dog to interpret. You need to try and prevent him from chasing leaves in the first place. Aim to teach him a good "heel" - this is a decent example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQYlAkA8gDg

[polarbear]

I was going to post today how cute I thought leaf chasing in the wind was!

Cooper was doing it on his walk today and I thought it was so endearing    He's never gonna catch 'em all!

But we were walking down a rural lane and not by a busy road so I understand your concern.  But what a shame to have to discourage it for pup's own safety.

[Cassie01]

We're still working on the 'walk to the park' technique - this is the time Theis will pull on the lead, on other pavement walks he's fine.

I have no magic answer other than the well documented stop dead in your tracks approach with a suitable aah-aah from you. Wait until your pup's stopped and then start again.  It can take a while to get there some days, stopping and starting every 5 seconds or so, but apparently I'm lead to believe that perseverance will pay off in the end - here's hoping they're right 

[YvonneC22]

Alex does exactly the same 
He is on a short lead but he looks sooooooo cute trying to get them,