Rajah Golden Doodle aggressive on leash

[Lois Ehrenfeld de Buren]

Our beloved Doodle Rajah is absolutely marvelous with people & is a sweet, mellow big boy., bu @ t 60-63 lbs. it can be a job keeping him in line when we run into another dog whilst walking in our very hilly area of San Francisco.  He can suddenly lunge, & the harness will not stop his forward momentum, so dangerous for me & for him.  I don’t know what collar I can use to help curb this sudden behavior, Rajah is not like this @all when playing freely off leash.  He maybe trying to protect me, or acting out of fear.  He is now 6 years old.  Any ideas suggestions would be much appreciated.  Thanks Lois & Rajah.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Hi Lois, you may want to post about this in the Training Group; I see you are already a member. Lots of training "experts" who may have tips for you.
There are any number of devices- prong collars, Haltis, harnesses, etc- that help with pulling. But the real solution to this is training. Reactivity on leash is pretty common. Many of us have addressed it at one time or another, and what works long term for the majority of dogs is good basic obedience training. It's never too late.

In the meantime, look into the Gentle Leader head harness, the Halti (similar), and the Easy Walk harness.

[Lois Ehrenfeld de Buren]

Thank you Karen, I will post on Training Group as well.  The easy Walk Harness is the one I’ve been using, it’s okay 

on a flat surface as it pulls the dog from L to R, but not not so good on steep hills sloping downwards!  I will check out your other recommendations as well so thank you again.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I've only had experience with flat surfaces, so I'm not sure any of these devices would work well going down a steep hill. All the more reason to get started with training, lol. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I know that the halti works really well for us to prevent forward movement.  

Riley is VERY strong (she can slide an 8-person solid wood dining table or a 3-seater reclining couch if tethered to it without trying) and the halti makes walking her seem like walking a kitten.  She really can't pull with it at all. It keeps her from pulling towards things she wants to get to like other dogs etc. and saves me from a dislocated shoulder :p

The dog can however "back out" of the halti so if they really want it off it's easy for them to get out of it.  It has a safety strap so if they do get the headcollar off you are still attached to their regular collar.

[Lois Ehrenfeld de Buren]

OMG thank you, I will definitely try the Halti Riley sounds like Rajah who is obedient in most respects,

until he becomes focused only on the moment e.g fetching ball, etc. & he too is very strong,

but doesn’t mean to hurt me  speaking of dislocated shoulders!    I’m open to training as well

 because he is so smart & obsessive  about certain things.  I am so glad we have this website to get great advice!  Thank you, thank you.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

You're welcome, hopefully it works for you!  

She is pretty good but she is still young and very excitable and in need of training.

[Adina P]

I second Karen!  The collar is a tool that can help your training go more easily.  But it won't stop a bad behavior on its own through physical force alone.  There is some specific learning and unlearning and practice.  Think of playing the piano.  It takes more than a person and a piano to make a piano concert!  First you have to learn how to sit at the piano, how to hold your hands, how to play really boring repetitive "songs."  And so on... until you are ready for a performance.  Same with your dog learning how to react differently.  No collar is going to teach them how to be more comfortable around surprise dogs on leash.  It has to be taken in baby steps.  The collar and leash when no other dog is around is 100% different to having the collar and leash on when a dog pops out of nowhere.  Having a dog 100 feet away is going to be different than having a dog 5 feet away.  All that to say is a good trainer/training plan is more valuable than the tool for a reactive dog.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

This is called leash aggression and is actually pretty common.  One of our dogs is also leash aggressive and we have resorted to using an e-collar with training from a trainer.  It has made a huge difference for him and us.  We use a martingale collar with the leash and he also has the e-collar on and a thin identification collar - lots on his neck, but we only put the martingale on for walks and the e-collar is used for training times and walks.  I really understand that your large guy can pull you down, so I suggest you get a good trainer whatever method you want to use.