Lead pulling and then not?

Hi

When I walk Bella by myself, the other half or the kids she is perfect in every way, yet when I take her out with our other dog a Jack Russel x, she pulls like there is no tomorrow, so much so she has worn away her fur under her chin.

Is this normal? The pulling bit lol

She may be trying to get ahead of your other dog & she's getting over excited by the prospect of a game with her pal!

You probably need to do some heel work training with them both - one walking on one side & one walking on the other.

I find that they pull a bit at the start of the walk. I think it's just a bit of built up energy needing to be burned off. If it's an issue just turn around when she starts to pull and have her sit.

Will give it a go. its a knight mare also to get the lead on as she goes mental!

Yer i would try heel training to get her to walk better

I know what you're going through - I've raised many dogs from puppies in my life and have NEVER had as much trouble as I had with our Staffy training him to stay beside us and not pull!!

We tried many things - holding a stick/cane in front of him to stop him (he wanted to bite it), stopping every time he went ahead - the whole neighborhood thought we were nuts the first few months we had him I'm sure.

What I finally found worked for our boy was to start with baby steps, almost literally, and use lots of treats.

Start with him beside you, with a loose lead at your side. Take one step forward - if he doesn't go ahead of your foot, say "good boy" and reward him with a treat. If he does, say no and take a step backward, and start over again. Then move to 2 steps, 3, 10, etc... sounds agonizing I know... and it is, but IT IS SO WORTH IT!!! Walks now are a joy.

Since we've lived in the UK, every staffy owner I see is walking or (should I say being walked) like this:







I should also add that nine out of ten Staffies I see here have harnesses on. I believe a lot of people have been convinced that a harness will give them more control over their staffy.

The truth is actually the exact opposite. The reason dog harnesses were invented by humans in the first place were for the PURPOSE of pulling. Tracking, pulling sleds, carts, etc. Wearing the harness actually increases the need to pull in our staffies. They think they're helping us! Bless them, haha.

In conclusion, DON'T GIVE UP! It will be well worth it in the end. Best of luck to you!!

Not knocking your opinion ditmarscage but...I think i have to disagree on the harness thing, in our case ruby was worse with a collar, we tried everything from half choke, leather, nylon anything, when we got the harness she stopped straight away........in conclusion.......all dogs are different, it's all trial and error

There are some fab videos on YouTube, but the technique ditmarscage has given (baby steps) is brilliant, when you think you have had enough...anythings worth a try xxx

Very true... if it works I say stick with it! Every harness I've seen might not have been used correctly either which probably swayed my opinion as well

ditmarscage wrote:Start with him beside you, with a loose lead at your side. Take one step forward - if he doesn't go ahead of your foot, say "good boy" and reward him with a treat. If he does, say no and take a step backward, and start over again. Then move to 2 steps, 3, 10, etc... sounds agonizing I know... and it is, but IT IS SO WORTH IT!!! Walks now are a joy.

I've been using this method with Spartan for the last couple of weeks on a lead in the house and in my girlfriends back garden. Just did a bit with him every couple of days, his 2nd injection is on Monday so we've still got a short wait yet before he can be taken out fully. We're both very excited to be able to take him for his first walk and know it's going to be great doing it.

ditmarscage wrote:I know what you're going through - I've raised many dogs from puppies in my life and have NEVER had as much trouble as I had with our Staffy training him to stay beside us and not pull!!

We tried many things - holding a stick/cane in front of him to stop him (he wanted to bite it), stopping every time he went ahead - the whole neighborhood thought we were nuts the first few months we had him I'm sure.

What I finally found worked for our boy was to start with baby steps, almost literally, and use lots of treats.

Start with him beside you, with a loose lead at your side. Take one step forward - if he doesn't go ahead of your foot, say "good boy" and reward him with a treat. If he does, say no and take a step backward, and start over again. Then move to 2 steps, 3, 10, etc... sounds agonizing I know... and it is, but IT IS SO WORTH IT!!! Walks now are a joy.

Since we've lived in the UK, every staffy owner I see is walking or (should I say being walked) like this:







I should also add that nine out of ten Staffies I see here have harnesses on. I believe a lot of people have been convinced that a harness will give them more control over their staffy.

The truth is actually the exact opposite. The reason dog harnesses were invented by humans in the first place were for the PURPOSE of pulling. Tracking, pulling sleds, carts, etc. Wearing the harness actually increases the need to pull in our staffies. They think they're helping us! Bless them, haha.

In conclusion, DON'T GIVE UP! It will be well worth it in the end. Best of luck to you!!

LOL thanks for the advice, I look like the one in the last picture!