How can I train my dog not to pull on his leash?

B+

We have two dogs.  One's great with walks.  The other seems to have this insane desire to run like crazy the minute he's out the door.  While walking him, it's literally painful (I get blisters on my hands) and also pretty embarassing.  I spend the whole time trying in vain to get him to stop, even waiting on the proch for him to clam down before we begin our walk.  Nothing works.

Any tricks/tips?  I can use all the help I can get.

 

straymo

What kind and length of leash?  What kind of collar?  How old and breed of dog?

mrs.island

ok, without knowing the answers to the questions, i'll give you my quick ideas:

when walking every time he starts to pull stop dead.  stand there until he is no longer pulling then start again, rinse, repeat.  it may take you a loooong time to go a short distance, but eventually it will start to click.

if it doesn't ever seem to click, there are great no pull options like the gentle leader and easy walker.  when used properly they are amazing.

but I would really really try to teach him not to pull first.  

 and oh!  all my dogs wore regular harnesses as opposed to collars (well, they had both, but leashed up to the harness) to keep from choking themselves or accidentally slipping out.

mainerocks

I had some success with a crazy puller at the shelter by stopping every time he pulled. It took a ridiculous amount of time and patience, but he finally figured out pull=stop and that is not what he wanted. I gave him a verbal "eh eh" when he pulled, we halted, and then when the leash relaxed I praised as we moved forward. I had to praise very softly or he would get hyped up and pull worse. Also, we had to do it in a quiet area with no dogs around. So.much.patience. Sigh. It was probably a good lesson for me too :-)

ETA: I also sometimes used this leash at the start:

http://www.amazon.com/Weiss-Walkie-Dog-Training-Leash/dp/B002JP9I48

It squeezed his chest when he pulled, so it helped to do the above. Once that got him in line a bit, the stopping with a regular leash was do-able.

B+

He's a year-old rescue corgi mix...possibly a jack russel or similar.  Standard collar (his neck had abrasions from a too-tight collar when we adopted him, so we opted to not use a choke collar).  It appears healed now.  We've tried 4 and 6ft. leashes.  We have a Y splitter to walk both dogs but can't use it until we get him under control.  

PunkyBooster

I cried in training one day because my dog was simply not getting it.

So she put the EZ walk harness on her and that helped immensely. I could not believe the difference. I have a small pit bull mix, low to the ground and strong as a bull, so it was so great for us. 

Now she walks on her regular collar, but her neck is as thick as her head, so we use the cloth no-slip collars. She is good, but it did take a while after discovering the harness to teach her not to just pull whenever she doesn't feel like paying attention to us. Sometimes she still slips up, but she trots alongside us quite nicely 95% of the time. 

 

MMRoberts11

Have you tried getting a harness?  My dog walks best with one on.  Beyond getting a harness, I would just do the stop method others have said.

Caz1221

There's a post further down about loose-leash walking that has some helpful tips (I posted there about techniques like stopping or turning around when they pull, rewarding when they are in the right spot, and teaching good, solid "leave it" and "look/watch me" commands as well as potentiall a "release" word for sniff/potty breaks).  I also wanted to add that as with anything else you are teaching your pups to do, it's important to teach each of them separately before trying it together.  Can you go out on a training walk with just the problematic dog?  When we adopted our second, I signed up for a training class that included basic commands and loose-leash walking so I had one-on-one time with our new guy, and I tried to never have to walk both dogs at the same time until the new one was trained.  Now I can easily walk them both (though I do separate leashes because I like them to have their own space for potty breaks and such) with no pulling.

B+

Thank you guys so much.  I really appreciate all the great advice!