Leash training

[Jason&Kirby]

Hi all. Kirby is my 12 week old pointing lab and we have been following the practices of Julie Knutson's "Training the Pointing Labrador" as close as we can. One item her book does not cover (or maybe I missed it) is getting Kirby used to his leash and walking alongside me. I'm not asking for formal obedience with a heel command. Just lookng to get him calmly walking with me so there is a reasonable amount of control when going to public places and such. Anyway, everytime we go for walks in the fields he drags a light check cord. We have used it for a little bit of "here" training without any major issues. My problem is that when I try to use the cord to keep him at a "short" distance he struggles hard and bites at the cord that "has ahold of him". I try to keep the pressure on so he does not learn that fighting gets him the relief but I have not seen any progress with my approach. He just acts so used to being free to roam at his leisure that he cannot rationalize that I want him to stay close. The struggle in my mind is that I don't want him thinking that he always needs to be at my side, afraid that he will not get out in front of me to hunt. As you can tell I am very confused at how I need to approach this. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jason&Kirby

[HuntMac]

I am far far from experienced but I used the method that Delmar Smith recommends in the book about his method. My pup was terrified of a leash from day one and was until I staked him out in some shade for an hour a day for a week. I made the tie out long enough that he could get moving and feel the jerk but short enough that he couldn't hang himself from anything. Just get a stake out or even just a garden post tie him to it in the shade with some water and let him fight it out by himself. Go check on him every few minutes to make sure he isn't twisted up and eventually he will give to the chain and not fight it anymore. My pup will still pull on the leash but he doesn't bite it nor is he afraid of it. Just my experience. Good luck!

- Huntmac

[DonF]

Formal obedience and the heel command is what you want.

[mnaj_springer]

A chain gang may help.

[Sharon]

Hi all. Kirby is my 12 week old pointing lab and we have been following the practices of Julie Knutson's "Training the Pointing Labrador" as close as we can. One item her book does not cover (or maybe I missed it) is getting Kirby used to his leash and walking alongside me. I'm not asking for formal obedience with a heel command. Just lookng to get him calmly walking with me so there is a reasonable amount of control when going to public places and such. Anyway, everytime we go for walks in the fields he drags a light check cord. We have used it for a little bit of "here" training without any major issues. My problem is that when I try to use the cord to keep him at a "short" distance he struggles hard and bites at the cord that "has ahold of him". I try to keep the pressure on so he does not learn that fighting gets him the relief but I have not seen any progress with my approach. He just acts so used to being free to roam at his leisure that he cannot rationalize that I want him to stay close. The struggle in my mind is that I don't want him thinking that he always needs to be at my side, afraid that he will not get out in front of me to hunt. As you can tell I am very confused at how I need to approach this. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jason&Kirby

Welcome to the forum.
There 's a time to hunt and a time to heel closely.
viewtopic.php?f=89&t=43993&p=412684&hil ... ng#p412684

[Brazosvalleyvizslas]

A chain gang may help.

Or the rest of the "gang" could completely intimidate such a young pup and ruin him. Depends on personality but I personally don't put 12 week old dogs on a gang. Rather make the PUPPY associate the leash as a positive thing and not a negative at this age. Stop letting it drag it around the field for now until it is comfortable with the first step. All of mine go BALLISTIC when I grab the leashes because it means something good is about to happen but they become angels when hooked up. Don't be too Macho to use treats to help you at this age.

[Bluesky2012]

Dude it's a 12 week old pup. How about slowing down and worrying less? Seriously. It doesn't matter, let it pull. It's okay.

[Jason&Kirby]

Thank you all for the replies. I intend to put him on a tie out this weekend and through this next week. He will need to get used to that when I take him to the family lake house and other semi-public places. Last night's training session was a bit of a struggle, but I felt a little progress was made. I will experiment with the treat training as well as he has responded well to treat training when learning to sit. Thanks again for the help. I will update on Kirby's progress after this weekend's training work.
Jason&Kirby

[Jason&Kirby]

So I've been working with Kirby on the leash with treats and that really seemed to calm him down and understand his limits. I tied him out on a short cable one day but that did not go so well. I tried again with about a 50 ft cord and he seemed to do better on it. In fact he may fight it a lil bit but then just learns to deal with it. Later I shortened it up to the short cable again and he seemed to understand the new limit pretty well. So all in all progress has been good. I'm sure learning a lot about how he responds to different training approaches. Thanks for everyone's suggestions and guidance.

[Nutmeg247]

At his age, on the loose-leash walking front, consider taking a couple walks where you simply stop whenever he's pulling. Only a slack leash buys forward progress. Initially it's really boring and you won't get far, but some pups catch on just by doing this. There are variations involving penalty yards for pulling. Formal heeling I'd wait a bit for.

[duckn66]

He's doing what a 12 week old puppy is suppose to do. Let him bite the leash and play all he wants. He will soon get over this and onto more exciting things that he finds way more fun.

[TonyS]

To stop all that nonsense, you need to put a leash on him and let him just walk around with it. Yeah, it may get caught in something but when it does You come to the rescue and let him loose. After the pup gets used to the leash then pick it up and walk with the pup. If puppy pulls stop. But remember this is a process; it can't be done all at once.

But having the pup under control is vital to his life. It only takes a split second of running into the street to turn the whole thing bad.

[MikeB]

As an all breed dog obedience instructor believe me your pup can learn to walk fairly calmly next to you at a young age. One technique I have recommended for many years is teach a young pup to accept a leash attached to it's collar with being scared or overly excited. A 2 to 3 ft. light weight rope with a clip tied to one end and the other end with nothing. Attach this lead while the dog is in the house so it learns not to get excited and crazy when you bring the leash out. Start with 5 minutes at first for a few times then longer as you go. Don't rush it. Let the dog drag it around while you watch the dog. ONLY while your watching the dog. You can do this in the yard too. Don't go out the door until the dog is calm then control the length of the lead to keep the dog close to you. NO COMMAND is needed. Your pup will learn to walk near you over time. A puppy obedience class would be a great idea along with the needed socialization it will get. No matter what you plan to do with a dog basic obedience training can never hurt.

You can find a lot of good info on the subject at YOUTUBE.com
Hope this helps,

Mike Bolton The Dog Trainer
So. California
E-mail thedogtrainer@yahoo.com

[gonehuntin']

Dude it's a 12 week old pup. How about slowing down and worrying less? Seriously. It doesn't matter, let it pull. It's okay.

+1. Don't worry about it now, that will come later.

[Tooling]

Biting and carrying the leash in his mouth etc…all normal. If you are training your dog to be a working dog in the future this is not a problem but rather an opportunity.

1. If pup wants to mouth his lead, let him so long as he is moving forward with you..he will eventually stop chewing it on his own and besides, who cares if he takes himself for a walk at this stage…you WANT a dog that explores and his curiosity now (which is likely why he is chewing the lead) will never be exceeded more than at this time in his life - you do want him to be bold when he’s older so let him be a bit bold now while showing him some limits.

2. As already suggested..when he reaches the end of the lead..LET him pull the lead taught..once he does simply stop and say nothing…he will eventually get it and you will know because he will begin to stop when you do or reaches the end of the lead…he may even sit down - this is good because he is now waiting for you and you are the cue for forward movement..again, good stuff here and not a word spoken.

3. Once this is the norm..begin telling him “slow it down”, “wait”, or whatever cue you would like to use once he nears the end of the lead. At first he will continue to go to the end of the lead and when he does, just stop saying nothing (don’t avoid eye contact but don’t stare him down once he looks at you either - this is happy time)…this will transform into pup shortening it up on his own upon your cue because he WANTS to continue forward and knows that he won’t because he now is beginning to understand that somehow he is connected to you and that what you say goes.

4. Once he totally understands or has a notion of what it is you are telling him, overlay this a bit when off lead - if pup stops or even slows down when you tell him to “keep it close” you have done your job and you can then begin with a slip lead and begin introducing him to “heel” - take it slow and ease into it. Ultimately while off lead you want pup to simply slow it down continuing forward movement WITHOUT looking at you for a command (there will be another command for that)


You can abruptly go into formal training but pup is very young and not quite “yours” yet - in the future you will be a team and a pup that understands and trusts while loving what he was born to do is a happy and eager pup that will live to hunt and to please you. Once he is older and while afield pup will begin to range. In dense cover or whatever the situation may be it will be nice to be able to shorten his range up a bit by simply telling him “keep it close” or whatever you decide to say...THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY! It all comes full circle if you have a bigger plan….don’t be in a rush and allow ample time for pup to learn. At this stage you are not teaching so much as you are allowing pup to teach himself - that is your job as his caregiver, owner, and hunting partner. He will only be a pup once and a LOT of fundamental groundwork can be achieved prior to formal training that will be conducive to that end resulting in a dog that picks it up quickly while hopefully producing a more biddable dog overall...that's the goal.

He is a bird dog - let him be one.

[CDN_Cocker]

Formal obedience and the heel command is what you want.

Glad I'm not the only one who was confused. Don nailed it.