Lead Training My Girl Properly

[Zanki]

Shadow is an awesome dog, but in the seven years she's been around, she hasn't been lead trained by any of her owners. She was so awful to walk when I got her I could barely take her to the end of the street. Buying my Halti head harness saved both of us a lot of trouble, but she hates it and the marks on her face really bother me, so now she's a lot better at walking I've started to really lead train her. She is so stubborn though. It took us 20-30 minutes to do a five minute walk and I'm not sure who won this morning. Tonight though, she was trying it on even more. This time though I got the sarcastic flopping to the ground when I stopped and when I turned around to walk her back, she started refusing to walk with me, so I was half dragging her. Eventually I won and I made it into the other park, but it took us forever. On the way home she was worse though, but she was too tired to really protest and only after a few turning rounds she walked properly for the rest of the trip. It was so awesome to get her walking nicely next to me. I'm hoping with a lot of hard work I can get her to walk properly all the time!

[robke]

I would try a front leading harness for example a walk you dog with love harness...

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

I would also recommend a front leading harness , the

Walkyourdogwithlove harness worked wonders on blaze

[Zanki]

Cool, I'll give them a go. Shadow was having none of the training today, took even longer to get to the park. It's so frustrating but she had an awesome time in the park once we got in, a lot of her friends were there so she was running around like an idiot for a while.

[mydiamond]

I'm not even gonna try to sugarcoat this: lead training/loose-leash walking is the absolute worst of all trainings. Potty training is frustrating, but cleaning accidents don't make your arms sore for days. Mine took three months (or more? can't remember) until he finally walks loose-leash... inside the neighborhood. Took us several more months to maintain the calm pace outside the neighborhood so yeah hang in there. Hopefully the WYDWL helps x

[Elyse]

I used a half-check/martingale to train my boy to walk loose leash. I find it also helps to keep him on a short leash (like a traffic leash) so if he does decide to pull you can quickly correct him or even stop him from pulling you in the first place.

Good luck.

[Rusty]

Good luck! We are trying the stop and start, but now when we stop he sits and waits then as soon as we start he pulls again! Cheeky boy I think it's because he has to sit when we cross the road and he knows that generally when we stop we are going to cross! Still at least he does this without us even telling him now we use the halti head collar too, at first he hated it but seems ok now, , would be tempted to try a front leading harness also as like you I feel bad with the marks on his face even if they do disappear in about 5 secs!

[Aimee]

Hi I have just been reading this as this is our main focus too at the moment, we also have a halti but Blue hates it! I have read good reviews on the WYDWL harness and looked online, what size would you suggest? Blue is tall but skinny about 21kg.

[Zanki]

Ok, I'm really not having any luck here. She is getting worse, not better. I tried to take her on a nice long walk today, we got out of her usual park and I couldn't even get her across the car park onto the street before I had to give up. She was pulling, flopping to the ground, then jumping up and yanking me, refusing to walk unless she was pulling. I just had to turn around and take her home and she walked properly home, but refused to listen to my commands, wait and sit, at all. This is really starting to drive me insane. I know it's only been two weeks, but shouldn't there have been some kind of improvement? She's not acting good at all now, not listening to commands at all or coming back to me when I call her (long leash). I feel like I've taken a gigantic step back even though the only change is not using the halti head harness. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong here. I know she's a stubborn husky and I'm trying really hard with her but everything seems to be going to crap.

[NOBELHOWLUC49]

My GSD Sydney who was a rescue was 4 when I adopted him.  Walking him on a lead was a nightmare, traffic used to stop to let me cross the road.  He was I discovered click trained and if i clicked my fingers he used to settle right down and stay close.  he never liked the lead but as he got older he got better.  

 

Do you have any history??? I use a Halti with safety and they hated it to start with and would fight it, as you say leaving marks, but now walking them is like walking two different dogs, Noah the Husky is like holding on to air.  This did not happen over night and we started this when they were about a year to a year and a half on the advice of our dog trainer, so a lot younger than  her (honestly I thought my arms were going to fall off)  and involved high level treats.