Bad leash behavior.

[Eileen Ross and Cody]

I'm sure this has been discussed but I really need help. Whenever I put on Cody's leash, he jumps up to grab it and then tries to play tug of war. This has been escalating. I have sprayed it with Bitter Apple, put pepper on it to no avail. It makes going on a simple walk impossible. The only way he will drop it is for a treat. We can be having a walk when out of the blue he will start jumping and trying to grab it. He is 15 mos. old.

[Adina P]

Are you going to obedience classes? Does he know how to heel? Heeling on leash is incompatible with jumping and grabbing the leash.

[Susan Davis]

I've had families with similar problems who have said that training and using the "Gentle Leader" head collar and leash made all the difference. I haven't personally tried it yet because my gang does ok on the leash. I also have found that something about that 13-18 month age can be tough... it's like having a pre-teen with all the attitude to match.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I agree that obedience classes/ training is the only way to solve this in the long-term; but in the short term, until Cody has mastered heeling/loose leash walking, I would try a Gentle Leader Harness or Head Collar so you can walk him without a problem. The head collar would obviously solve the problem immediately (again, for the short-term) but even the harness would make it pretty difficult for him to grab the leash when you're walking.

[LuvMyAbby&Kaela]

I have the bottom one, the gentle leader works like magic. The first bit will be the dog trying to get it off but I just kept on top of her "NO LEAVE IT!" and then she walked easy without pulling. I also find the pinch collar works well to stop the pulling. Something about it on they just automatically walk easy and dont even pull to get pinched.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

We use the Gentle Leader Head Collar (Bottom one) on both of our girls. We started at about 4 months when they started pulling really hard on the leash. We were using a regular harness (big mistake I think) on them at that point. Think that just taught them to pull harder! Anyway, the gentle leader works wonders on our girls. Not only does it keep them from pulling, but it just seems to keep them somewhat calmer. (Rubbing on their face supposedly releases endorphins just like when we exercise and they are supposedly calming. There is no way that I can walk both of them myself with a regular collar. But with the gentle leader I can take them anywhere by myself with one hand. I could probably walk one of them on a regular collar but it wouldn't be too much fun probably. I know that the correct way to train on a regular collar is to stop everytime they start to pull, even if it is every single step, but I have just never had the patience to do it! Note though if you plan to do therapy work or get your CGC you may as well just train now for no pulling, without the gentle leader as not too many therapy groups will allow the gentle leader (Delta Society does but I don't know of any others). I've tried the halter style, but have returned them on 2 separate occassions because I just didn't seem to get the same results as the head collar. Others on here love the harness type ..... think it just depends on the dog. In hindsite, I really wish the trainer had not given us the gentle leader but just insisted that we work with them with the regular collar. Then that would be all behind me.

I agree with everyone else on obedience classes though ..... If you aren't taking some you really might want to because I can't even tell you how much I learned! We would never have survived with our two without having gone to classes. I'm a visual and ask questions kind of person so book reading or even watching a video doesn't work so well for me. I need to be right there with the person training and doing the talking so I can ask questions that are specific to my situation. It was well worth every penny we spent!

Oh and BTW, they now have the Gentle Leaders in a print material with matching leashes. Haven't seen them in stores yet but have seen them on line. They also have a piece of felt under the part that goes over the nose that pads it a little bit. I have the Red (Little Angel/Little Devil) one for our Lucy and I love it. I got the purple one for Sophie and I don't like the way that it messes up the fur on her nose as it keeps pushing it up in her eyes so I went back to just the beige one on her.

Good Luck.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I have used the "EZ walk" harness (top picture) for several years, and it completely stopped Jack's pulling from day 1, much better than the choke collar did. (The leash doesn't really stand straight out like in the picture, it will come along side the dog the way it does in the second photo...I am clarifying this because someone once thought from the picture that you had to walk in front of the dog, lol)
The EZ walk is different from other harnesses because of the way the leash attaches to a martingale type arrangement at the front of the chest. Cody would not be able to take the leash in his mouth without turning his head around like the Exorcist!

[Libby & Bentley]

I would put him on a sit hold whenever he does that. Instruct him to leave it, Wait for him to get it out of his system (no walking) until he stops, and then start walking again. DO THIS EVERY TIME.

Sounds like you have you work cut out for you... :) Goodluck

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I do know Cody is very lively. We have used the Gentle Leader or Halti on our Springer and with success. Everyone has given you great advice. How about trying a chain type leash for now? It isn't tooth friendly. Also I would put it on and let Cody drag it around the house. We just consulted a trainer about another matter, but he emphasized that any attention is good - from the dog's point of view. He said that if we aren't careful we reinforce the undesired behavior; like grabbing the dog to pull him away from something rather than jerking the collar or leash as a correction. He also said the touch in itself is reinforcing even though we mean it in a "not nice" way?

[Eileen Ross and Cody]

He does this even with a gentle leader. He does it with a prong collar as well. Yes I do have to go back to obedience class.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Someone here suggested lemon juice as a deterent. Perhaps Cody won't like lemon juice concentrate on his leash.

[Kyoko]

With the shelter dogs that are leash biters, I keep their leash really short. Like 1 1/2 ft. This way, there is not much room for them to bite and pull.... I used to keep the leash really long for them since I did not want them to work up to where my hand was and end up biting my hand...But it worked negatively. They don't leash bite when the leash is short.