Janet flopped into the driver’s seat. She couldn’t possibly drive home yet. Both arms and shoulders felt as though she’d been lifting cars off old ladies. Surely her arms would be dragging on the ground like a gorilla before long.
Every day after Rusty’s walk is the same.
Janet loves her lab to bits but boy, walking him was a Herculean labour. He pulled like a train from gate, to lamppost, to bush for the whole hour. No matter what she tried – treats, cajoling, pleading, yelling – nothing had any effect.
Rusty was now three years old. Would she have to put up with this level of discomfort for another ten years? She was sure she’d need shoulder surgery before then.
She’d tried four different no-pull harnesses. Each time the pet shop assistant assured her that this one would work. But they didn’t. Mostly they seemed to make matters worse.
She’d tried a headcollar, but Rusty hated it. He simply rubbed his head along the ground until it came off.
Today she’d used the grip of death, both hands holding the lead, white-knuckled and numb, but still Rusty had pulled her round the park. Twice she had twisted the lead round a post for a few minutes just to give her aching hands and arms a rest.
She felt desperate. There must be something that would help, somewhere.
Are your walks like a drag race, a nightmare of pulling where nothing helps?
Too many owners have hall cupboards littered with discarded harnesses and leads, gathering dust because they just didn’t work.
Teaching your dog to walk politely by your side on a loose lead is not easy. Dogs have twice as many legs as we do. They ALL walk faster than us – and the bigger the dog the bigger the problem.
Your dog pulls because it works. Pulling gets him to where he wants to go faster. He’ll know all your routines, so he’ll recognise exactly where you’re going on today’s walk – and he’ll pull to get there.
“Help – how do I stop him pulling?”
The answer is to teach him what you want him to do instead. It’s almost impossible to teach a dog to stop doing something – but it’s pretty easy to teach him to do something else instead.
Instead of pulling, teach him to want to walk by your side.
“But how?” you wail.
The easiest and simplest way is to use something he loves. Teach him that walking by your side is the way he’ll get his favourite treats from now on.
Keep training,
Carol