Wow…. Choke collars are WAY worse than pinch collars in my opinion. I used to walk a neighbor’s dog (maybe 20-30lbs), and she had a choker. She pulled HARD! I doubt she could have pulled harder even if she had a sledding harness on! Chokers can be a great tool if properly executed (I prefer nylon slip collars/leads though), but they are NOT meant for constant pressure. The general training rule for a big-time puller is that the INSTANT there’s tension on the leash, turn and walk in the opposite direction. When the dog turns around, runs ahead, and there’s tension, turn back, and so on. When I started my rescue dog on that method, I literally took one step, turned around, took a step, turned around. That went on for about 5-10min, in several sessions throughout the week. Now he is very decent on the leash, and when I give him “free time” he seldom pulls. If he does, I give a quick tug and “easy” and he relaxes…
I am perplexed that he trains her so well off leash, and yet ignores on-leash work. I always always ALWAYS do leash work first, since my dogs will be in unrestrained areas mostly, and even with my best-trained guy, I’d never let him off leash by a highway or otherwise dangerous area. Too many risks, and I’ve lost my favorite dog from that mistake.
If she walks nicely with him and not with you, then it’s probably just a dominance/”pack leader” issue. My boys are virtually flawless with me, but as soon as I give the leash to someone else, they go into super-crazy-woohoo-PullLikeHeck mode. The reason why is because they know that person won’t correct them. I’m sure if I got lazy and lost the assertion, they’d get jerky with me too.
2 months, 3 weeks ago
