walking advice

[PennyDoodle]

Good morning!

We have a 5 month old goldendoodle, Penny, who we adore and is such a good girl.  We have been taking her on long walks in our neighborhood and working on not pulling and not stopping every 5 seconds to sniff.

If she's pulling, we stop walking until she calms down and most of the time she will sit and stay until we're ready to continue.

She does ok in our neighborhood, but when we take her to the park, she goes nuts!  It's like sensory overload for her - she loves people and other dogs and we can't walk more than a couple feet before she's pulling to get to someone.  If we are in an area of the park where we're alone, she still won't walk because she's stopping to sniff every 2 feet.  Even after going to the bathroom multiple times.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do in the park?  When we see people coming we do sometimes make her sit and stay, but we can't do it every time because we'd never get anywhere!  If this part of her still being young?  What can I do?

[F, Calla & Luca]

Penny needs training which I recommend highly. But also you should consider prong collars which I have written about many times. A trainer can help you with this collar, how to fit it etc. we have lots of info you can search for.

[Adina P]

You are right, it is sensory overload.  But all this means is she needs training to get to the point where she can walk around exciting things and still obey commands like "heel."  Are you enrolled in an obedience training class? 

I would compare an untrained dog in a park like a teenage aspiring basketball player thrown into a professional basketball game.  The teenage boy just won't succeed...he's too young and not yet trained to a level where he can manage in that arena.  He has to work up to that level with training.

So does your pup.  You have to work him in training with easy distractions and work up to tougher distractions.  Sitting and staying are good things to work on, but they don't accomplish the task of being able to walk past difficult distractions without neck craned and leash being pulled. 

If you can't enroll in training right now, then you could try one of those no-pull harnesses (Gentle leader or Easy Walk) or a Gentle leader head harness or Halti.  But some dogs do NOT take well to the head harnesses without some prep work.

[Cara Shannon]

Please don't put a prong collar on a five month old puppy! Absolutely unnecessary!!!!

Look for a harness called a Freedom Harness. Many trainers sell them. They aren't carried in some pet stores yet so if there isn't a trainer nearby that sells them, order one online. They are soooooo worthwhile. I used to own a dog training business and we sold so many of these because they were a gentle way to correct even the most powerful of pullers. There were a handful of dogs they wouldn't work for but a five month old puppy is going to do fine on it.

Then, get to a good class. Look on ccpdt.org for a trainer near you. You can search by zipcode.

If you want lots of good advice go to dogstardaily.com - tons of free videos and training advice. Good luck!

Cara

[F, Calla & Luca]

I used one on Luca when he was about 6 months ol. Both my dogs still wear them and I believe they are humane and effective. You make it sound otherwise and this is just not true.

[Catharine Symbleme]

I have a few other tricks you can try at OurDeafDogs.com, under Training, and another one under the Blog (which I need to transfer over to Training). I used all three techniques with Blanche and Rose, along with a little inside work with treats. The "reverse direction" technique was especially helpful.

Blanche and Rose were also five months old when I started working with them. In a perfect world, I would have done what the trainers suggest and started them inside, then moved them into more stimulating environments gradually, but in the real world, we don't have a fenced-in yard, so we had to take them to the park to do their business, and they kind of had everything thrown at them at once. However, they are eight months old now, and they have FINALLY started walking nicely with loose leashes consistently (although squirrels are still an issue, so we still have some work to do. :-) 

So be patient, calm, consistent, and persistent; it'll take awhile for Penny to de-sensitize to all the stimuli. But heck, if I can do it, anybody can!

[Catharine Symbleme]

P.S. If you're trying to actually get somewhere--and I SO hear you on that one!--the technique I talk about in the blog is useful. It also helps the pup get used to walking at YOUR pace, not hers. http://www.ourdeafdogs.com/Blog

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Continue taking her to the park OFTEN and everywhere you can think of so that she is exposed to as many different situations as you can come up with.  As she gets exposed to more and more she will behave as she does in your neighborhood.  I would take her places and sit and let her watch the activity.

[Catharine Symbleme]

Where's that "Like" button? :-)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Well as far as I'm concerned the timing of this is perfect!  Five months is IMO the very best age to start some serious training....time to teach her HOW SHE SHOULD BE ACTING ON A WALK.  There's a time for walking right by your side and a time for sniffing....and it's up to you to teach her that.  I always started with teaching the Doods to walk right by my side....no pulling or sniffing.  I don't demand a strict heel, but I do insist that they are right by my side and paying attention to me.  When I think it's okay for them to have a bit more freedom and "sniff" I give them a "free" command.  I start with no distracted "walk" training and when they really understand what I'm expecting I start adding in distractions....little by little.  I use a combination of corrections (and I don't think it matters a whole lot which tool you use as long as your consistent and the corrections are fair and effective) and rewards.  It sounds like the park is too much for her to handle without some basic training....please don't allow her to practice all those behaviors....it will only take you longer to break her of them.  Have you thought about getting a trainer to help with this?

[PennyDoodle]

thank you all very much!  I really appreciate the help!