Having trouble with Max

[Kathirin]

I know i posted about this before and how he pulls a lot when walking and i got some really good advice and i have tried almost everything. Anyway just right now i decided to put him on the leash and try practicing with him right in my yard. i took out some new treats that he REALLY really loves. Put em in my pocket and figured that way i will have his attention and he wont be pulling because he will stay by my side. He did stay by my side HOWEVER, he was not patient and didnt want to learn. He again jumped all over me used his teeth my hand (it hurt and its bleeding) but noit too much i think i may have just scratched myself on his teeth. IT seemed like all he wanted was the treats. He would sit when i told but only after i yelled at him to sit and basically grabbed him real tight by his collar. I'm just so frustrated. All i want to do is be able to take him for a nice walk without having my arm being pulled out or my hand turning blue from lack of blood flow because i have to wrap the leash so tight around my hand so i dont lose grip of it. Plus its embarassing when i have to sit there and try and get him to stop jumping on me which to other ppl may look like he is attacking me. He is such a good dog. he listens so well in the house. Like right now when i brought him in after attempting to teach him to walk instead of pull i sat him in the corner and told him to stay and he knew i was angry because i got so frustrated i yelled at him. He is so well behaved in the house. He doesnt chew on anything, he doesnt jump on the couch or the beds. I can basically trust him to be alone all day without worrying about what he will do because i know he wont do anything bad in the house. But as soon as we go outside he is a completely different dog and its not like i dont take him out enough to where he is so excited to be out of the house. Even with all the issues i have with walking him and taking him out, i still make sure he gets his outside time in during the day so he isnt cooped up in the house all the time. *sigh* i feel like crying. Idk whats wrong with him. Idk why he wont listen or learn and i dont know why he gets so rough when we take him out.

[Stormy]

One of your first issues for a start is how anxious you are getting yourself and you say you get frustrated and yell at him etc.... this tends to not work with them and they will just be worse because of this. You need to try and be calm when you are walking out that door and be calm through out the whole walk ignore his bad behaviour stay calm do not yell at him! It is a nightmare and it is awful being dragged about but you will not be able to train him by feeling so anxious and frustrated all the time.

What do you walk him on?

[Kathirin]

I am very calm when i walk out the door and i dont show my frustration until we are back in the house. I used to use a really short leash but i have switched. I tried using choke collars but i didnt like those very much. I am now using a harness that HELPS me get better control of him where he cant pull me so hard but that has not stopped the pulling completely it has just helped me have better control.

[Stormy]

[MENTION=2703]Staceybob[/MENTION] will be able to help you better than me

[LittleLuka]

don't beat yourself up. he's a husky. They have to be trained because they're bred to do what? PULL.

Trust me, it's super frustrating. I'm only 5'2 and even though Luka isn't even fully grown he drags me around. My trainer told me the best thing to do is don't even think about what's going to happen before your walk. If you go into it already expecting the worst even though you may not think you're showing it he can tell. That just makes him have anxiety because you have anxiety.

Just take a deep breath and keep working with him. I was instructed to stop walking every time he pulled. When he turns around to look at you (which Luka does everytime) i give him an encouragement like "comeon buddy or lets go luka" in a very positive tone and continue to walk. After a couple of weeks this has helped wonders.

I'm no trainer and i'm sure stacy will be able to help you loads because it seems every dog she touches on here is wonderfully trained lol (too bad she's so far from me) but Good luck!

[Kathirin]

I didnt have this much trouble with my previous husky. He gave me trouble in the beginning but he was a puppy and i was able to teach him. He would look at me every once in a while as we took our walks and would normally walk right next to me but he stopped pulling after a while. But again he was a puppy when i got him and i was able to train him easily. With max he was 13 months when i got him very well trained in the house but i dont think his previous owners took much time to lose leash train him. Their excuse was he is a husky and thats what he does he pulls. That to me is not an excuse. Just because he is a husky that doesnt mean he cant learn to not pull. Now that i have him i been trying train him to lose leash walk but its a lot harder to train 60+pound husky then it is to train 2-4 month old husky. So i know i gotta be patient i just dont wanna get hurt in the training process.

[Stormy]

I didnt have this much trouble with my previous husky. He gave me trouble in the beginning but he was a puppy and i was able to teach him. He would look at me every once in a while as we took our walks and would normally walk right next to me but he stopped pulling after a while. But again he was a puppy when i got him and i was able to train him easily. With max he was 13 months when i got him very well trained in the house but i dont think his previous owners took much time to lose leash train him. Their excuse was he is a husky and thats what he does he pulls. That to me is not an excuse. Just because he is a husky that doesnt mean he cant learn to not pull. Now that i have him i been trying train him to lose leash walk but its a lot harder to train 60+pound husky then it is to train 2-4 month old husky. So i know i gotta be patient i just dont wanna get hurt in the training process.

Its never to difficult.. My male who is over 2 i went to see a dog trainer and the next day did it myself and had him walking to heel within a minute! Unfortunately i havn't been able to keep this up due to home difficulties but i will be carrying it on again soon! So it is possible

[Elyse]

I, too, adopted my husky. Mine is 76-78 pounds, so a little heavier than yours. (summer-winter weight)

This is what I did to stop my dog from pulling all the time (now he only 'jerk pulls' to get at trees and such, but we're working on that too!) :

- Bought a martingale collar (different than a choke collar as it doesn't close all the way!)

- While on walks, I made sure the martingale was tight enough (but not too tight!) and I made sure it was almost always at the top part of his neck (like this: http://4leggedkids.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/collar-fit-combo.jpg)

- When he would START to pull, I would jerk the leash/correct him to the SIDE (as to not hurt his trachea) which would pull him sideways. Every time he would start to pull, or when I felt a pressure on the leash, I would do this. At first, I'd admit, I had to be a little rough on him (would pull to the side a little harder than you were supposed to) because he's way more than half my weight and I didn't want to be hurt by him if he decided to suddenly pull me to a pole or something. (Have fallen pretty bad in the past a few times)

- Even though I was honestly fearful of him pulling me down again, I tried to put on a brave face and 'radiate' confidence. I found that helped alot, even though I was really anxious he seemed to not pick up on it (or didn't show he picked up on it)

- I would 'lead' the walk. So, if Suka wanted to go one way, I would go the other way to show him that I had control over him and not the other way around. Even if it would deviate from our usual route.

- Whenever he showed interest in pulling or getting at something, I would give a light check/jerk to distract him. That usually worked.

I didn't do the whole 'turn around when he would start to pull' because that never worked for him.

Now, maybe I was lucky with training him because he's a good boy and a sweetheart.

Like your boy, he's very good in the house (when I invite him up onto couches, for example, he always hesitates as if he's thinking: "No, are you CRAZY!? That's BAD!" and never goes up. Now, he was older when I started training him (adopted him at 4 years old), and perhaps he was suffering from arthritis even at that age (he was diagnosed with it a year later) so maybe he felt he didn't want to pull anymore anyways.

He now walks loose-leash (most of the time) and I managed to train him to not go after animals/dogs while walking. Before, I was shit scared (excuse my french) whenever an animal or a dog crossed our paths while on walks because he would go crazy. But now, he looks at it and he's just like "meh".

[Staceybob]

You need to work on patience. You have to be persistant in that they can't have the treat unless they relax. Just hold the treat in your clenched fist and don't say anything. When they move their nose away, open the fist, if they go to take it without your request, close your fist again. Repeat until the dog doesn't take it from your open palm, Then say ok or take it as your que that they can have it. Practice this regularly, indoors and outdoors.

Stacey xxx