problems with training our dog on a leash?
Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at
5:11 pm
our dog is 5-months old and he will not move with a leash on,he is like moving a brick wall,i tried everything that someone tells us and no luck..my wife is scared he will get mad at her when she tried to train him..with the leash on ,i even tried to give a treat,,that was a no,he knew better and just set there and i tried to pull him and it did no good…HELP
Tagged with: Leash • problems • Training
Filed under: Dog Leash Training
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at 5 months if he’s not yet able to walk on a leash, you need to spend a few bucks and take him to a training class. You can go to one at Petsmart for like 120$ for 8 weeks, I believe they do it every Sunday. But either way, you need to sign him up somewhere… He’s getting too old to not walk on a leash!
Try using a Halti, like a horse collar, the theory is that where the head goes the body follows. I have only had to use 1 once with dogs that I have trained and after less than a week the dog was walking perfectley on a normal leash
Hmm, well we’ve got a 2 year old German Shepherd boy and he was a little rascal very naughty and seem’d uncontrolable.
Now he’s calmed down a hell of a lot since we’ve gave him the chop underneath (your dog is a boy. it is recommended to give them the snip underneath, as it calms them down a lot)
A dog can only have one master. more than one will make the dog confused, take your time with him.
dont let him have hes own way all of the time, or the dog will control you, and you dont want that.
At five months, that really sucks
So far you have done everything wrong. Start again fresh, with a proper guidance.
Put the leash on him and make him drag it everywhere he goes. He has to play with it on, sleep with it (of course when you guys are home to make sure he doesn’t get hurt), and eat with it. He will eventually learn to like his leash. Good luck!
Have you tried different types of leashes? There’s ones that attach to the collar, one’s that loop over the head as a collar and leash, body harnesses and head harnesses.
To get him used to the leash and not to see it as a threat, let him wear it around the house to drag around, he’ll get used to how it feels to have the weight on. then pick up the leash and walk him around the house like it’s nothing special or out of the ordinary. If you make a big deal about something, so will you dog, they can read us instantly!
When he does walk well, use your voice and praise him but don’t stop the momentum, keep it going. I would do this many times throughout a day and step outside if possible. Get his mind frame into a moving forwards mode. Some dogs like to travel faster so maybe take him out on a bike or jog.
Good luck!
i don’t know if u tried this but put the leash on him in the house or his pen where ever he spends a lot of time. then just walk off, or start playing with him w/o holding the other end of the leash. this will let him get used to having it on. the other thing is you can’t expect for him to not budge. be very optomistic. Do this for a while… also make sure you have a long leash so that when you do finally pick it up you don’t have to be directly on top of him. A retractable leash is not the best because it just about always has some kind of tension on it.. Good luck!. Oh and do praise him once he does start walking with it… and if he doesn’t budge don’t be like its ok boy you can do it.. etc.
Enroll in a beginning obedience class with him. It will help you learn how to work with him & give him effective commands and it will teach him how to respond to them.
To your first answer – 5 months is NOT too young to walk on a leash! The little one in my picture is 3 months and already leash broken!
try going to a training class…….
Take some treats outside with you, put the dog on the lead and if he moves towards you treat him. Get high value treats (his favourite) and roll them away from the dog (on his lead) if he goes after it reward him with the treat on the floor (pick it up and give it to him though so he knows it’s a reward)
Training Class sounds a good plan though – if you can get him in there on a lead. You don’t say what breed he is – you can hardly pick up a 5 month old giant breed and carry him in.
The first thing you need to ask yourself is if the animal has any fears of where you are taking him. If he does, walk him around the house or somewhere he isn’t scared to walk on a leash. If he is scare of the leash itself, you need to associate putting the leash on with something rewarding, something he loves more than anything in the world. My dog was tied to a tree for the first year of his life so attention is his biggest love. He loves it more than treats. So, maybe trying to reward your dog with something other than treats might work.
If rewarding does not work, you may need to try out some different types of collars. Personally, because I have a pit bull that weighs 50 pounds and is bery muscular, I use a metal pinch collar. They do not hurt the dog but do make it very uncomfortable to resist. The martingdale, or the pinch collars little sister as I like to call it, is a collar I haven’t tried but it seems to work much better for other dog owners.
Another completely harmless collar for teaching a dog to walk is called the gentle leader. It looks like a rope muzzle and when the dog refuses to come or look in the way you wish it or disobeys, you tug on the gentle leader and it makes the dog uncomfortable.
I hope this helps you with your walking. Don’t worry about being mean to the dog. You are doing it a favor getting it to walk. Otherwise it would just sit around the house being lazy. Plus, your dog will respect you a lot more if you make it respect itself and you.
Good luck…
Library is full of books ~ well, not full, many. Outside of a few misfits,
dogs desire to please.
Much information on line, also. Check out the list of books here at her site and what she has to say.
http://www.dogtrainingbasics.com/
I believe in the old school working only with the dog’s desire to please- no snacks, favors, etc. And, can’t tell you what a crate is although I read reference to them on occasion linked to training.
Good luck. . . .
Have you had any success with leash training, I have had the same problem, I had to pull my dog in to the vet’s belly surfing, just one problem he is about 70 pds now, I have not got this behavior out of him yet…
Jerrie
sounds like basic training, check out some video lessons
http://en.teachme.tv/category/72/dog_training/
i found some good videos on youtube too