what are your dogs leash manners like?
- Thread starter Paige
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Juno's great. Took a LONG time to get there though. She's dog reactive but not too bad, totally manageable but she wears a prong when we're in "reaction likely" scenarios so that we don't even have to deal with it.
Happy's pretty good, right out of the gate she wants to take off running but she just needs a couple reminders and then she settles back and walks nicely, although she likes to stop and sniff everyyyyything.
Cajun is definitely a work in progress still but even she isn't THAT bad. She wears a prong in the meantime.
Lucy is completely perfect and I am in the habit of looking over my shoulder to make sure she's still there, lol the leash just dangles there and it doesn't feel like a dog is even attached.
Happy's pretty good, right out of the gate she wants to take off running but she just needs a couple reminders and then she settles back and walks nicely, although she likes to stop and sniff everyyyyything.
Cajun is definitely a work in progress still but even she isn't THAT bad. She wears a prong in the meantime.
Lucy is completely perfect and I am in the habit of looking over my shoulder to make sure she's still there, lol the leash just dangles there and it doesn't feel like a dog is even attached.
I seriously thinking about making a thread today in the training section about this.
Adrian was awful when I got her-- always on a flexi, leaning sideways into the leash 100% of the time. She literally took like 2 weeks to train, and now she never ever pulls. If she forgets, a light jingle on the leash gets her attention right back.
Fleetwood is not so perfect. He's much, much better off-leash than on-leash. He hates being on leash so much. To be fair, he doesn't pull hardly ever. But it's like, physically impossible for him to walk on a 'loose' leash, or at my side unless we're doing a focused heel. He can't maintain a relaxed heel what-so-ever.
Adrian was awful when I got her-- always on a flexi, leaning sideways into the leash 100% of the time. She literally took like 2 weeks to train, and now she never ever pulls. If she forgets, a light jingle on the leash gets her attention right back.
Fleetwood is not so perfect. He's much, much better off-leash than on-leash. He hates being on leash so much. To be fair, he doesn't pull hardly ever. But it's like, physically impossible for him to walk on a 'loose' leash, or at my side unless we're doing a focused heel. He can't maintain a relaxed heel what-so-ever.
Arya is the worst for tangling me. Bandit never does and whiles he keeps her leash loose more often she walks behind me and switches sides. Or she will switch back and forth sides with Bandit while sniffing. She irritates both of us.
I'm really impressed with how fast I've taught two dogs to LLW for the most part while walking them together.
I'm really impressed with how fast I've taught two dogs to LLW for the most part while walking them together.
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Aside from being a ducking glass mole and suddenly stopping to sniff if I let her get too far behind me, Roxie's an angel. Doesn't get further than my knee, lifts her paw without even needing a command when the leash gets caught up, etc.
She could do with being more consistent with pulling on harness when we aren't on a hike, though. But her LLW is really good. Took a while to train and I will use a prong if we're going somewhere super crowded/canny collar if I don't care about her heeling but don't want to use the harness, but on just her collar she's great.
I used a chain collar (upgraded/proofed with prong) at first, stopping whenever she got to the end of the lead. Roxie had to back up to a heel, and we'd start again. The chain noise became like a warning- if the links were closing (Rox's neck is 14in and I used a 20in chain), she needed to slow down. If she felt pressure on her neck, she needed to stop and come back to me and sit until I began walking again. I would also give corrections with the chain collar, but for the most part kept the leash the same and Roxie would self correct.
I didn't start letting Roxie pull until she was good with heeling/understood what was expected though, and I had to teach her that it was okay to pull in a harness, but not in a collar. Bit confusing at first for her, but now it's much more pleasant... She knows that she's still going to get to pull and be a dog in her harness, and I think that's really helped her calm down for collar walks.
She could do with being more consistent with pulling on harness when we aren't on a hike, though. But her LLW is really good. Took a while to train and I will use a prong if we're going somewhere super crowded/canny collar if I don't care about her heeling but don't want to use the harness, but on just her collar she's great.
I used a chain collar (upgraded/proofed with prong) at first, stopping whenever she got to the end of the lead. Roxie had to back up to a heel, and we'd start again. The chain noise became like a warning- if the links were closing (Rox's neck is 14in and I used a 20in chain), she needed to slow down. If she felt pressure on her neck, she needed to stop and come back to me and sit until I began walking again. I would also give corrections with the chain collar, but for the most part kept the leash the same and Roxie would self correct.
I didn't start letting Roxie pull until she was good with heeling/understood what was expected though, and I had to teach her that it was okay to pull in a harness, but not in a collar. Bit confusing at first for her, but now it's much more pleasant... She knows that she's still going to get to pull and be a dog in her harness, and I think that's really helped her calm down for collar walks.
Pen is really good now, but started out terribly LOL. Bubbles is just terrible. I've been working for literally years with her (especially necessary since I want her to do therapy work eventually) and we've made not that much progress. Though there have been a lot of backslides - her going away for a couple of months a couple of times, the whole, "sick to the point of almost dying" thing after the puppies... She's on harness when I know I can't focus on just her and she just keeps the leash taut, but she's actually starting to do pretty well on a regular collar when it's just us walking and I can reinforce the good stuff more frequently. One day we will get there.
Kimma is fantastic now, and Jari will be in like a year when maybe he doesn't think that the world is such an awesome and magical place that's different every time we step outside our door.
As a whole, bad LLW is just something I cannot have since they do get some exercise that way I sometimes need to walk more than one dog at once, due to my ridiculous schedule.
Don't know how they are off lead in the real world because it never happens except for training classes
Kimma is fantastic now, and Jari will be in like a year when maybe he doesn't think that the world is such an awesome and magical place that's different every time we step outside our door.
As a whole, bad LLW is just something I cannot have since they do get some exercise that way I sometimes need to walk more than one dog at once, due to my ridiculous schedule.
Don't know how they are off lead in the real world because it never happens except for training classes
As we've always had dogs/breeds on the larger size (75-125 pounds), walking well on a lead was a fairly important priority. We've never had a puppy who wasn't, pretty much, "perfect" on lead, well before the end of week one. Most, after a couple of days, "had it".
Our current boy is normally off-lead, in an informal heel. My "big" complaint with him in this regard is that, from day one, he has insisted and persisted on walking slightly ahead, with his shoulder beside my leg ...
Our breeder had told me that this was typical, and something I would never be able to correct; it took me considerable time and effort to (finally) realize that she was right all along. Apparently, he feels that he must be able to scan for potential problems, with a clear 180+ degree view in front.
Our current boy is normally off-lead, in an informal heel. My "big" complaint with him in this regard is that, from day one, he has insisted and persisted on walking slightly ahead, with his shoulder beside my leg ...
Our breeder had told me that this was typical, and something I would never be able to correct; it took me considerable time and effort to (finally) realize that she was right all along. Apparently, he feels that he must be able to scan for potential problems, with a clear 180+ degree view in front.
