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The bulldog brakes - suggestions?
Conan is 8, and is the stereotypically stubborn bulldog. When we walk we have some issues with pulling - so I'm going to get one of the harnesses recomended below, but the pulling really isn't the biggest problem.
He just stops where ever he wants to and wont move. He has lots of tricks that he does to keep you from moving him - from wrangling out of his collar or harness to flipping on his back and thrashing his legs around to you can't get a hold of him.
He's typically very food oriented, but not when it comes to the bulldog brakes. He wont move until he wants to. It's pretty embarassing. I've had people come out of their homes where we are stuck and ask if he's okay, offer me treats and cheese to get him moving, and I even had someone offer to carry him home for me.
I've tried going in the opposite direction, pretending like we're going to break into a run, begging, treats, pulling, toys, and sometimes I just give up and take a seat on the grass and wait it out.
Sometimes if we get lucky someone else will walk by and he'll want to follow them and get moving, but H and I have had to call eachother for a ride home on numerous occassions.
Obviously he's not very well trained (totally my fault), but I'm at a loss as to how to train him to get moving. He's smart and knows voice and hand commands for the basics like sit, wait, leave it, etc. He has non existant recall skills, and realistically wont do any commands unless he's good and ready.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome, thanks.
Re: The bulldog brakes - suggestions?
I'm sorry, but the mental image of him applying the bull dog brakes makes me giggle. Especially the part about him wiggling his legs in the air so you can't grab him. Hehe
But anyway, does he do this when you take him out to potty or on longer, exercise-based walks? Maybe he just gets tired much sooner now that he's older? That's all I got, I'm sorry!
Must be an english bulldog thing because my 5 month old does the same thing. He is normally really good on walks. Loose leash, rarely pulls, even with other dogs around. Most of them time he is walking behind me. But man, there are sometimes he just does not want to go the direction I want him to go in. He firmly plants his feet on the ground and will not move.
He especially hates when I make him leave the bar or take him away from the valet guys at the hotel. Both are on our block and he gets a lot of attention from employees and patrons of both places. Sometimes the valet guys will take the leash and walk him towards the apartment in order to get him to come.
I try using treats, but finding out the treat is not as much fun as hanging out with the valet guys.
He is still young enough to fix the behavior, I'm just not sure how.
He might get a few yards from home and decide that's where he's going to stop, we might make it a mile. The most annoying is when he gets to the driveway, and we have 12 feet to go and I can't get him any further.
I don't take him on really long walks unless I have someone available to call for a ride if we need it.
No, I haven't really bothered. I've considered it but was afraid that he's just a lost cause and I'd be wasting my money. I guess I should look into it more, or make H take him for all of the walks.
Don't know if this will help you or not, but I have similar issues with my Swissy. He's stubborn as a mule when he wants to be. Rarely on walks, more often at home when I need him to go to his crate, go outside, whatever, and he doesn't want to move. What works for me is to pull firmly and steadily on the leash. Not enough to hurt or choke him, obviously, but enough to make it uncomfortable. While I'm doing this, I keep saying "Let's go! Let's go!" in a cheerful voice (even though I want to strangle him). Then the minute he moves forward or starts to stand, I release the pressure on the leash, tell him "good boy!" and give him a treat.
At first I had to stand there doing it forever. I think our longest stand-off was probably 10 minutes. But at some point, he finally figured out that I wasn't going to back down, and he may as well move if he wanted me to quit pulling on his neck. It's been ages since I had to do it for more than about 10 seconds, and he mostly doesn't even try it in the first place these days.
One thing that may help you a little - not with the brakes, but with the pulling out of his collar - is to get a martingale collar.
http://www.petedge.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=46862&cm_mmc=Shopping-_-GoogleShop-_-CollarLeadsHarnessesTraining-_-TP3301317&gclid=CL26ooq5nK8CFUfc4AodbWZCyg
It will tighten when he pulls, but only to a certain point, so that he can't slip out of his collar
Our bully loves walks so I have no advice for you but I can relate with the stubbornness and the laying on his back kicking his legs in the air! We have had ours in training though since he was 10 weeks old. He is very well behaved for his age (8 months) but our last bulldog totally put the brakes on whenever he didnt want to do something. Gotta love this breed...
This is what we do as well. Although, admittedly, not walking isn't a big problem for us.
This might actually be really nice to have. We live in a residential neighorhood but two streets over is a street that can be very busy during certain times of day. He's gotten out of his collar a couple of times and I've had to chase him across that street praying that there were no cars coming. He stays in his harness fairly well, but it still makes me really nervous because he gets so close to getting out of it. He's so good at escaping.