Dog Walking

[Hahabonk]

How do I stop my dog (Jack Russel 2yrs) pulling on his lead when I take him for a walk

[answerbok]

Takes a couple of tough walks; everytime dog pulls you stop walking and make it wait. Other method is to hold lead with two hands, second hand goes down toward collar, thus forcing dog to walk at heel. Anyway, take you about a week and a half. :-)

[wildwood]

Yep, making him wait is a good teaching aid. At the moment the dog is taking you for a walk instead of you taking him. At 2yo you may have to consider a choking chain for a while. They are not as cruel as they sound. Jack Russells are pretty smart and they soon catch on.

[KEJ2000]

My dog never learned *not* to do that, even after repeated attempts at training! She was simply too excited to be out-of-doors for a walk and wanted to charge way ahead of me. One thing you can do to prevent poor doggy from harming himself is to buy a *harness* with a leash, rather than a collar with a leash. Almost all pet stores should sell dog harnesses of various sizes (small, medium, large, etc.). At least, they are popular here in America, so if you can't find one there, you could order one online. The harness fits around the dog's torso, not his neck, and thus it can never "strangle" him. Also, I found that my dog tried to pull to a lesser degree when I kept the leash short (3 or 4 feet between my hand and the dog) than when it was longer. When it's longer, the dog feels and sees an opportunity to get away from you, and accordingly, they try to take advantage of that opportunity. If the dog is kept right next to you, however, they will naturally adopt your own pace of walking.

[Ember]

I found holding a lightly loaded polythene carrier bag just in front of my dog's nose whilst walking did the trick, he hated it and stopped pulling in no time at all.

[woofgang]

my breed is weimaraners,so this might not hold true for other breeds, but I have found that getting the dog to be obedient in other areas that are easier for the dog, can help them be more co-operative in harder areas, so it might help to do some basic obedience not connected with loose lead walking, like stays, fetches, recalls, anything the dog finds is fun, then when he has got the idea of compliance, introduce heelwork, not on walks, praise like crazy when he "gets it" then start to ask for little bits of heelwork when walking. Keep his attention focused on you and gradually extend his concentration. A Halti type headcollar can be helpful as this has the lead attachment point under the chin, so if the dog put tension on thne lead, it just turns his head around. This worked with one of mine but the one we have now cannot tolerate it and panics if I try to use it. She has learned to walk by my side very nicely in busy streets using the first method.

[Free Spirit]

To begin with...never use a lead on a Jack Russell!!My vet told me they have alot of inherited neck problems anyway and a leash or lead only aggravates the condition. I have 2 Jack Russells {bro.& sister} & we use harnesses on them. But they are such active, hyper dogs by nature anyway, so Good Luck!!

[phinn]

This is what I do with my dog: (hes a greyhound and german shepard cross so hes very strong lol) everytime he pulls you should tug hard and pull him by your feet and keep a short lead until he calms down. He only pulls hard when he gets a strong scent of a cat or rabbit at the park...maybe your dog does the same? Well, do that and I think he'll get the idea.

[Spanner81]

Try a choke chain and pull him to heel every time he pulls to much. Failing that try a thing called a "Halti". Worked on out german shepherd a treat!