Lead walking- will i ever get there?!........

[Vixter]

Hi all,
just starting to get to the end of my patience with lead walking really.  Don't get me wrong we have made loads of progress, and we practice constantly but some days Isla is just a disaster walking and pulls my arm off.  We do all the right things, clicker training, lots of high value rewards when distractions, front clip harness, weekly training classes etc etc but still it's an uphill battle!
I think it's worse when I walk with friends and their dogs trot along beautifully without having to put much effort in. I know spaniels are hard to train to lead walk, but some days it feels like we will never get there .....
Please tell me there are some success stories out there?  I know Isla is still young (just turned 1) so I fully expect another year of consistent training to make progress, but would love to hear from others who have achieved a cocker that walks nicely all the time

[lescef]

Hi. I too still have trouble getting Maddie to walk nicely and she's four. Bramble, on the other hand just ambles nicely by my side. I don't really understand why this is other than different personalities.
With Maddie I think it depends on the sniffing conditions! Some days she will walk really well and others she's desperate to sniff every leaf, cigarette end, and any rubbish she can see.
I do the end of the lead,  bring back to my side, treat etc and she usually has to be reminded at the start of every walk. In an attempt to be more interesting than the sniffs I have just started doing this: as she walks by my side she will 'check in' by looking at me. I click or say good, make her sit then feed her three very tasty treats, one at a time whilst praising her. Walk on for only a few steps, hope she checks in again and repeat. Now I vary the treat -sometimes just one, sometimes just praise, sometimes two or three treats so it keeps her guessing! At the moment it's working well but whether she will get wise to it I don't know!  I know I couldn't get her to walk well if I was with anybody else though!

[twiceover2]

Pippa pulls on the lead still.  She's nearly 4.  We've given up as our much bigger (literally) problem is our setter x harrier who also pulls only weighs 2.5 times more and is at least 2.5 times stronger.     Pippa's puling doesn't seem like much of an issue in comparison plus she's off-lead for 80 percent of our walks! That's probably not much help to you. 

By way of advice, we did get our basset fauve to walk nicely by stopping every time he pulled ahead and calling him back before setting off again.  It took a long time and lots of patience and he still needs a couple of reminders each time we set off to this day but it did work in the end.  We are now doing the same with the setter x harrier!

[MIN]

you will get there. it has taken us 3 years but Gemma will walk nicely with just a reminder tug when her mind wanders 

[Curlylocks]

I am girding my loins to start training our 12-month-old working cocker to walk on a loose lead (she pulls like a train). One good tip I read online was to buy a "Gentle Leader" and use it all the times you are **not** training, i.e. when real life happens and you actually need to get somewhere without stopping every 30 seconds. When they have a Gentle Leader on they aren't capable of pulling. This means that you can be consistent with the training: every time you have a normal lead on you stick to the rules (stop whenever they pull, etc). And if you're not training, walk with the Gentle Leader so that they can't pull. Hope that makes sense! (BTW Jean Donaldson is great on training tips for loose-lead walking.) Good luck! And I really must stop putting off the training myself.... ever since I bought the Gentle Leader it's so easy to walk Lily it kind of removes the incentive to train her properly!

[kate2]

I didn't want to use a no-pull harness so it was suggested to me to work on heel work without the lead (in the garden, etc..) but I did that and have a video on my phone of Lilly walking at my ankle perfectly off lead, I clip the lead on and she pulls like a husky pulling a sled, I take the lead off and she goes back to being by my side again !! I'm now using "WOTSTHIS?" and bribes to get the nice walk on lead! and a stupid high pitched happy voice when they're where I want them, seems to work mostly, and throwing kibble on the floor randomly as I walk so they watch me, they're still not perfect but not yanking my arm out tooo much any more! 

[barnfind]

I use a harness and extending lead for morning walks so that B has a bit more freedom to sniff about and do the 'necessary' but switch to lead and collar for pm training walk and he seems to understand the difference and walks to heel!!

We even manage the 'sit and stay' while I do the 'hide behind the hedge' routine and I must say we have mastered that!! . We don't even have to give commands in a silly voice either!

Just appointed a behaviourist (at vast expense) to overcome the sudden fear aggression problem and then on to 'perfect recall' by whistle training...................................simple!! 

IN MY DREAMS? 

[Wyldie85]

Spencer is a nightmare on the lead with just a collar. He pulls like mad and nearly chokes himself.

We've tried the stop technique whereby everytime you feel a pull you stop walking until the lead goes slack. Unfortunately this means that you never get anywhere.
We've also tried the 'other direction' whereby you lean in with a swooping movement and call their name and say 'this way' and change direction. This basically means that as the dog doesn't know which way you're going to go next they keep close by. Also means that you end up walking up and down and around the same part and the neighbours think you're completely mental.

We've used a no pull harness and this has helped dramatically. Walks are not quite the manic pulling session they were. In the last couple of weeks Spencer has started to pull again slightly, even with his harness on but it's nothing like when he's on a collar and lead. He does seem to like wearing his harness now and will happily bring it to you and put his feet in it when it's time to go out.

I hope you find a solution soon!