Cocker Specific Discussion > Behaviour & Training

Walks are stressing me out!

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russ-g:
Hi,

Walking Stanley is really stressing me out. I've spent weeks trying to train him to walk nicely, and I just don't feel like Im getting anywhere. Some walks are better than others, but even the good ones consist of me constantly trying to keep his attention on me, or more specifically the handful of treats I have to keep feeding him.

What worked for you? I'm currently using a slip lead which seems to have made zero difference to his appetite for pulling like mad. I can get him to heel momentarily, but then he's off again the moment we start moving. I can sometimes get him to focus on me for 5-10 steps, but it never lasts. I've tried repeatedly stopping and waiting, tried walking backwards, tried randomly changing directions, nothing seems to work unless we're in a confined space with no distractions. The moment we're on the pavement, it's a nightmare. I'm starting to worry he's going to hurt his neck or throat.

Since everyone here is a cocker owner, I'd love to hear what worked for you. At my wits end!

Russ

vixen:
I do think you are expecting too much of young Stanley.  I think you are doing well getting him to walk 10 steps at heel.
I feel the thing that worked for me was relaxing and not expecting my young dog to walk to heel like an obedience dog. You said you are getting stressed and Stanley is probably picking up on that.  I don’t mind if Maisie or Ned walk in front of me as long as they don’t pull and the leads are loose.
My girl is 15 months and my boy near 7 months.  I just stop when the lead goes taunt.  Yes, it is really really tedious and means you can’t be in a hurry to go anywhere   :005:  I don’t use treats, their reward is continuing the walk. When I am walking them together I just use ordinary collars and leads but occasionally if walking them separately i will use a slip lead.  The slip lead works better on Maisie than Ned.  It was difficult at first walking them together both on the left of me, but we are getting better. 
I told myself not to get inpatient and just give a year to it.  Yes, a year may seem a long time at the moment, but if you can give them the time, hopefully you will get another 12 plus years of nice lead walking.  You have to be consistent too.  I never let them get away with pulling cos if I do, its like a step backwards.
Dogs are like children, you can’t compare them with others.  You may see another dog of Stanley’s age walking beautifully on the lead and you may despair but they are all different and it’s natural for a working dog to want to follow his nose.  You have probably seen the trainers on YouTube who can get a dog to walk to heel in ten minutes  :005:
I am sure you will get lots of advice from other owners who may do things differently to me, we all have our own methods and what works well for one dog, may not for another.  Just be consistent, don’t stress, don’t expect too much too soon and you will get there.

bizzylizzy:
I‘m 100 percent with Vixen!!!
Since I joined the group here nearly seven years ago, I think pulling has probably been the most discussed topic because its an issue that ALL cocker owners will have faced at some time or other.
There are loads of youtube videos and training guides  (very rarely featuring cockers I would point out, :lol2 ) and all sorts of training methods and I don’t think there’s anything I didn‘t try.
One day the penny dropped however and I realized that if I changed my expectations and accepted that cockers just aren’t  like a lot of other breeds and stopped trying to fight him, I was more relaxed and Humphrey was less stressed and walks became much less of a struggle.
I‘m not suggesting you don‘t aim to train a relaxed walk but do try and avoid making it an ongoing battle like I did. Keep the training sessions short and be consistent and so you’re setting Stanley up for success rather than frustration. If possible, train for short periods in a low distraction environment and build it up.
But it does take time, - when my first trainer suggested it‘d be 3 years before Humphrey started to calm down, I did think she was joking - she wasn’t!  ;)

ejp:
Agree with all that has been said previously.  He is just a baby, enjoy the walks and build up a good rapport while doing bits of training.  Walks are for him to enjoy, they are not one big long training class.  that's no fun for either of you.

sophie.ivy:
Hi Russ, teaching loose lead/heelwork with cockers is certainly a journey...! I walk a pack of 4 and have a working cocker myself and they all have their own little 'quirks' with lead walking!! One of the pack is a very well trained working dog and she's the worst puller of all! Off lead heelwalking is fantastic though.

With my girl, I tried being very strict with walking to heel on a slip lead when she was young, but it wasn't fun for either of us really and it didn't seem to 'click' for her. Then I did the stop/start method and had a bit more success, but no success at all with changing directions as it just seemed to slingshot her round!

The thing that worked in the end was a combination of stopping dead every time she pulled and only moving off again if she was in a heel. We trained heelwalking with really high value treats (that's sausages and cheese for my girl) starting in the house and garden, then short walks, then longer ones. I would get her to walk to heel with a tasty treat placed low and just in front of her nose repeating the word 'heel' and giving her the treat every so often paired with a 'yes' so now she just needs the 'yes' as a reward (although, I do have to get the cheese back out if there's a really good scent around or if she can see one of her friends in the park!)

Now, she loose lead walks (which is absoutely fine for me) and I'll ask her to get back into a heel if she's getting a bit pull-y. It's still a work in progress but I'm pretty happy with her walking on lead and it should get better as she gets older. 

Something else we started doing that helped was asking her to wait when we open the front door, we walk through first then she can follow. We found it helped bring her excitement down a bit and get her to focus on us from the very start of the walk.

I think I put too much pressure on her (and myself) to get her to heelwalk perfectly when she was a pup, but it's really tough for them. I did find a perfect fit harness and 2m lead helped take the edge off the pulling when she was young and helped with her training.

Good luck with your boy - loose lead walking is a tough one, but you're not alone in the struggle!

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