Roscoe Has Horrible Leash Manners

[DevilDog]

I never realized how BAD Roscoe's leash manners were until Sage came along.

 

Before Sage, I was able to 'steer' Roscoe, either verbally or with the leash. He's the type who likes to stop every 5 feet (Literally!!!) and sniff for 10 minutes if I let him. Sniff, taste-test, pee and thatch the crap out of the grass, move 5 feet to the next one.. He's constantly trying to pull me to the left.. then the right.. then he slides around behind me to try and backtrack.... I'm forced to do a large portion of our walking in the parking lot so there's no bushes close by. It helps him to walk with me, but whenever we pass a grassy area, he pulls to get to it. I was constantly correcting him "No!", "Roscoe come on", "This way!".. and it worked ok but it was never ending. After about 15-20 minutes he gets 'tired' (of me telling him where to go probably) and I practically have to drag him home.

 

He is VERY stubborn, kind of a dope and stuck in his ways. I guess I got complacent.

 

So Sage comes along and she is very nice on walks. She sniffs very little, usually only to do her business, and the rest of the time she does pretty well at keeping with my pace. No pulling, twirling, zig zagging..

 

Roscoe is driving me crazy. He's really really pi$$ing me off lately.

 

Suggestions?

[GreyKarma]

A Harness.....Molleigh pulls too much and chokes herself with just a collar....sometimes I use both to steer her.

[GeorgeofNE]

Teach him how to heel. When you're walking (as in to get from point A to point B, or for exercise) he should keep YOUR pace, not vice versa. Just 'cause he wants to stop and sniff doesn't mean he has to!

 

Any book on training a dog will cover heeling/leash walking quite nicely.

[Trihounds]

I thought I had the most stubborn dog (Bumper) in the world. You are describing him to a T!

 

I balance time on the road with sniffing time now and keep pace no matter what when it is road time. If he stops to sniff and I keep walking, well, he feels the encouragement to hurry along pretty clearly. It has not taken him long to realize that sometimes I am at the end of my rope. It's not like he's been deprived of sniffing, but he got bossy and stubborn about it, so he lost a bit of privilege. His brother, Brucie, can take advantage as well, but will immediately respond and fall in line when I ask him to. Bumper is just more stubborn. I am simply more consistent and relentless about it and he has learned when he's allowed sniff time and when we have to bust-a-move down the road.

[rascalsmom]

I know Cesar Milan is controversial, but I've found that when I enforce some of his techniques, things are easier. Make the dogs walk BESIDE me, not in front; keep MY pace, not theirs (not stopping every 2 feet). Don't let them stop every time they want--when I'm doing this (which, admittedly, isn't all the time) I allow them to stop once per block. I'm not totally unreasonable! I know it's THEIR walk, too.

 

Then we got Jack. He was initially REALLY clueless about walks, but has since calmed down. He really wants to walk ahead of me, and if I try and get him to walk beside me he keeps moving in front of me, almost tripping me. So I let him go in front. Ruby walks well, Rascal is the one who makes me She is FOREVER stopping to check her pee mail, and even when I say "Let's go" she resists...can't imagine that feels good to be pulled (gently; I don't jerk her)...and she marks every other blade of grass.

 

It's so much easier with two people!! Anyway, I suggest basic Cesar leash training, like I mentioned above.

[DevilDog]

I thought I had the most stubborn dog (Bumper) in the world. You are describing him to a T!

 

I balance time on the road with sniffing time now and keep pace no matter what when it is road time. If he stops to sniff and I keep walking, well, he feels the encouragement to hurry along pretty clearly. It has not taken him long to realize that sometimes I am at the end of my rope. It's not like he's been deprived of sniffing, but he got bossy and stubborn about it, so he lost a bit of privilege. His brother, Brucie, can take advantage as well, but will immediately respond and fall in line when I ask him to. Bumper is just more stubborn. I am simply more consistent and relentless about it and he has learned when he's allowed sniff time and when we have to bust-a-move down the road.

 

Ah yes, I do this. I'll keep walking and when he reaches the end of the leash he gets pulled. Trouble is, he'll often decide he wants to sniff more than come with me and pull as hard as he can to stay in his spot.

 

I'm not consistent with it though. I need to take control again! He's gotten bad.

[rascalsmom]

I thought I had the most stubborn dog (Bumper) in the world. You are describing him to a T!

 

I balance time on the road with sniffing time now and keep pace no matter what when it is road time. If he stops to sniff and I keep walking, well, he feels the encouragement to hurry along pretty clearly. It has not taken him long to realize that sometimes I am at the end of my rope. It's not like he's been deprived of sniffing, but he got bossy and stubborn about it, so he lost a bit of privilege. His brother, Brucie, can take advantage as well, but will immediately respond and fall in line when I ask him to. Bumper is just more stubborn. I am simply more consistent and relentless about it and he has learned when he's allowed sniff time and when we have to bust-a-move down the road.

 

Ah yes, I do this. I'll keep walking and when he reaches the end of the leash he gets pulled. Trouble is, he'll often decide he wants to sniff more than come with me and pull as hard as he can to stay in his spot.

I'm not consistent with it though. I need to take control again! He's gotten bad.

That's what Rascal does. A friend once told me that when you pull them off of a scent, it's like someone ripping a newspaper out of your hands before you're done reading. My response: "I guess Rascal needs remedial reading then."

[Guest Fluffy]

Badger is starting to get the hang of leash walking (as is my first-ever-dog-owning butt!), two weeks in. The main things I am sticking to are: 1) he walks on my left, always (I always thought it was silly for people to make their dogs walk on one side or the other, until I realized that that helped head off zigzags and tripping and left my right hand free to pooper-scoop) and 2) he may be attached to a six-foot leash, but he only has about a foot and a half of it that's not wrapped around my hand. With so little slack, he can't zig in front of me or get much momentum behind his yanks. He was never a super-pully guy, his problem was more more well-intentioned obliviousness, but it took him a while to realize that pulling would only get him reeled in closer, at best, and make me stop walking entirely, at worst. He gets to choose some sniff-stops, but since we walk on a block full of houses with nice yards, I keep him moving past the ones I feel it would be rude to poop in (even though I always clean up after him, there's still...residue) and let him sniff and squat in the ones that have curbside areas I think the residents are less likely to wander around in.

 

Of course, all bets are off if he sees a squirrel. Then, he statues with his ears straight up and I'm the doofy girl tugging on the collar of a dog who doesn't even know I'm there.

[Guest kydie]

I thought I had the King Sniffer I do this, when I first start I let him sniff for a short time, then we walk, toward the end I let him sniff awhile , he does walk beside me or slightly to the back I try to keep his attention by talking to him, but if there is a strong smell of something yucky, he thinks is smelling interesting, and he wants to stop, and I keep walking, well we stop, his 82 pounds of muscle is going to win over my 102 pounds of old tired flesh

[rallyp]

Make walking next to you more fun/interesting than stopping to smell stuff. When I have a poor leash walker, I take a bag of kibble with me and constantly 'treat' the dog whenever it is walking nicely. It works well in conjunction with the 'heel' command. When I say 'heel' and the dog heels properly, he/she gets a piece of kibble.

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

When I met Jayne at a meet and greet before we adopted her she had horrid leash manners. I took her for a stroll and she pulled and kept tripping me up. Granted, she was a bit overstimulated because we were at the track while races were going on out the window, she wanted to be out there, and she didn't know me.

 

I immediately purchased a Gentle Leader head collar. I'm far too lazy to walk a dog with bad leash manners, but that wasn't going to stop me from adopting her because I knew she could learn. The head collar is wonderful. In the first few days she tried to lunge several times, but the head collar brought her around before I could even feel the strain on the leash. Now only six weeks later she will walk right past rabbits, although her little head will turn and follow them until it's no longer pysically possible. She perks her head up and does a bit of a prancy dance as we walk toward rabbits and robins, but she's learned that pulling is useless. I let her stop and sniff a bit, but she hasn't had a problem not coming with when I walk on.

[Guest Drumhellergrey]

I don't know how long your leash is, but if he is sniffing a lot, even on a 4 foot leash, just give him less of the leash.

 

Males will tend to do this more than females because of their desire to mark.

[45MPHK9]

walking two dogs by myself i find that it is much easier with four foot leashes. we rarely use six foot leashes at all anymore. i don't know what length leash you are using, though.

[cleptogrey]

lots of good suggestions listed above. but one thing i would like to suggest is to try to impliment them one at a time and ALONE! it's a royal pain, but you need to get your dog to focus on you and what you want him to do. too confusing w/ another pup around, no matter how well behaved she is. try some practice sessions just down the block and back, use your food/treat, gentle leader or what ever and praise him for staying w/ you. short sessions will help the acquire the desired walk. a regular harness will not assist in this situation, they are good security for keeping a spooky pup around, but there is absoutley no control w/ a harness. a series of obedience classes at a local school will really help. the intructions from a professional and their feedback and corrections will make all the difference.

[DevilDog]

thanks for the suggestions all. I use 6' leads.. I think I'll buy shorter ones. Never even thought of that.

 

Today on our walk I decided to shorten the leashes up a lot and take control of the situation. I think i got pretty lazy in the past. Roscoe didn't do too bad- he knew Mommy meant business. I will say he passed out when we got home. He's not used to actually walking on his walks!

[Guest zoolaine]

Zuki is terrible on the leash - but she is just a puppy. Last time we went she kept laying down - like every 3 minutes she down she would go So frustrating when you just want them to walk already.

Edited April 23, 2010 by zoolaine

[cleptogrey]

yes!!!! if he passed out when you returned home that means he was not only using his body but his mind!!! thinking can be exhausting, i know. when my pups return home from obedience classes they zonk out big time! way to go!