puppy and walks

[Ronnie & Emma]

Emma has been fully vaccinated with her shots since last monday. I've brought her out to parks and around our neighborhood.

She does yank on the leash alot from the excitement/anxiety. So i just keep on pulling on her training collar and said no..she would stop and if she does it again.i said no..and if she not pull..i praise her.
is this how you do it?

Another thing. i started with 10-15 minute walk for the first day i brought her out. on her third day, I took her out for a 30-40 minute....it was such a nice day today. now she's zonked out. I hope i did not overdo it ..i know excessive long walks can cause hip dysplasia. How long of a walk do you take your pups out? and how many times? Im so used to letting her to do her business in th back yard..i just realized during the walks..im supposed to teach emma to do her business there.

ideas? thoughts from other DKers?

[Lindsey, Lee, Whopper and Simba]

As far as the pulling, my recommendation would be either to stop and refuse to move whenever she pulls or to turn and walk in the other direction. If she can't get to where she wants to go, she'll learn to stop pulling and walk with you. Initially your walks won't take you very far but this technique has worked for us.

[Melissa]

You can also try the Gentle Leader easy walk harness. THe leash attaches to the front so that if the dog pulls it forces him/her to turn. We have had pretty good luck with that. Like all things all dogs are different. It might help. Good luck!

[BG and Gavin]

I think its a blessing if Emma does not do her business on walks. Our guy gets it all out of the way at home before we leave so no picking up poo or stopping to pee on other people's yards.

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

Yes, the stop method works great. Start walking and the instant she pulls that leash taut, stop dead in your tracks. Wait for her to look at you (eye contact) and then treat her, now the leash is slack again, so start walking. This might take you 10 minutes to go one block, but if she is as smart as other Doodles, she will learn really fast. This also teaches her to watch you when the leash is tight. Eventually this can be shaped into the "heel" command, where the dog should be walking by your side and frequently looking at you for direction.

[Melissa]

We were also told to turn around and change direction when the dog pulled ahead of you.

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

Yes, that works well. I used this as a tool to teach Malu in the backyard about how to watch me for directional cues. I tethered him to my belt loop, then proceeded to walk around the backyard like a crazy person, changing directions unexpectedly. This will ensure that your puppy has to watch you know where you are going. And at the same time teaches them not to pull on the leash, as you stop if they get ahead of you. This is the time to treat them for eye contact. If you use a clicker for training, click and then treat any time they pull but then turn around and make eye contact.

Malu has been walking on the leash without pulling since about 10 weeks of age, and was a STAR in Puppy Kindergarten class last night with his demonstration of great leash walking!!

[Leslie J]

I have a two-tier method for leash training Cocoa and it seems to be working pretty well. When I have time I use the regular collar and stop, tell her "no pull" and have her sit whenever she pulls. Sometimes she does great and we can go for a long walk... other times she forgets and pulls so we get around one block with numerous stops along the way. We live in the city, so I also have her sit before we ever cross a street.

When I can't spend the time training (such as when I am going for a walk with a friend or my kids) I use a "no pull" harness. I don't like to use the harness all the time, as it doesn't train- it just prevents the pulling.

http://www.softouchconcepts.com/

That's smart to have your dog go potty before you head out- I always forget and have to carry plastic bags with me when we walk.

[Ronnie & Emma]

hi guys,
i went for a walk with her earlier..using your advices/tips. she did so much better than yesterday ! most of the time she was either behind me or we were at the same pace. i would stop or turn around with a tug on the collar when she is ahead of me.
she gave me a few eye contact on the walk. i didnt bring any treats with me .but i praised her.

[Hunter and Daisy's Doodle Mom]

When we first got Daisy and Hunter we had to get them leash and collar trained first :-) They had no clue what we were doing, but we knew we had to get them used to the collar, then the leash attached to it, then that whomever is holding the leash, that's where they need to be. We walked around our yard first for the first week or two and did the stop method if they pulled or started to wiggle around. Once they were focused on us (with me it's Daisy and with my husband, it's Hunter) we would praise them for focusing on us and not thrashing around. They caught on to the leash pretty quick and we were walking down the street in no time. I think our first walk was for about 15 minutes and we slowly moved up to 45 minutes. We played it by ear, knowing full well that their energy level far exceeded ours :-) Sometimes we let them run around the back yard for a while to get some steam out of them then buckle down and start the walk. I think starting out in grass and not the pavement helped and the only thing they've done on a walk so far is #1. It's funny that you can read and listen to 10 different experts and get 10 different answers or theories. It's hard to know sometimes what you're supposed to do and not do :-)