Kentuckienne
Supporting Vendor
- Oct 9, 2016
- 2,742
- 1,632
- Parrots
- Roommates include Gus, Blue and gold macaw rescue and Coco, secondhand amazon
I'm house sitting foe a friend who had knee surgery, which means walking her German Shepard dog. The dog was a rescue who had serious health issues, including heartworms. As he has recovered, he's become more rambunctious. Walking him on a leash has been a battle: he pulls and pulls. I worried that when my friend came back, he would pull her flat on her new knee, so I've been trying to get him to stop pulling. At first I would say "NO" or stop it, or easy, or don't pull, and give a slight tug to the leash to slow him down. Nothing was changing.
Then I thought, it's never the fault of the animal. He's a healthy dog with a lot of energy, and I make him walk slowly. He must want to go much faster than I can walk. OK, I figured I'd meet him halfway: I'll walk as fast as I reasonably can, and if he pulls on the leash I'll just stop walking. Since he wants to go faster, he won't want to stop. To my eternal surprise - it is working! I walked faster, and I let him put just a little pressure on the leash, but when he started to pull hard I stopped. The first five minutes, we didn't get far, must have stopped twenty times. And then it clicked for him. He quit pulling, kept the pressure fairly constant. By the end of the walk it was a total change.
I realized that asking him to walk so slowly that he didn't pull the leash was not reasonable. He wants to go faster, so he walks until he hits the end of the leash and starts pulling. The resistance was either zero (slack leash) or hard pull on his neck. When I allowed him to keep a moderate amount of pressure on the leash all the time, he was able to guage when he was pulling hard enough to generate a full stop, and he adjusted immediately. It blew my mind and made perfect sense at the same time. He even quit racing downhill, which always was bad, and now walks the same pace. He's halfway trained not to run down stairs! It was the slackness of the leash - he had no information about how far he could go until he hit the end.
I can't say that I am training him not to pull. It's more like I figured out a different way for us to interact during walks that results in him being much easier to handle. Maybe I can get him used to a slightly reduced pressure before my friend gets home, so he won't yank her around.
I would never have thought of trying something like this without the inspiration I found here, to think like the animal, see things from their point of view, think of what they want instead of what I want them to do. Thank you guys!
Then I thought, it's never the fault of the animal. He's a healthy dog with a lot of energy, and I make him walk slowly. He must want to go much faster than I can walk. OK, I figured I'd meet him halfway: I'll walk as fast as I reasonably can, and if he pulls on the leash I'll just stop walking. Since he wants to go faster, he won't want to stop. To my eternal surprise - it is working! I walked faster, and I let him put just a little pressure on the leash, but when he started to pull hard I stopped. The first five minutes, we didn't get far, must have stopped twenty times. And then it clicked for him. He quit pulling, kept the pressure fairly constant. By the end of the walk it was a total change.
I realized that asking him to walk so slowly that he didn't pull the leash was not reasonable. He wants to go faster, so he walks until he hits the end of the leash and starts pulling. The resistance was either zero (slack leash) or hard pull on his neck. When I allowed him to keep a moderate amount of pressure on the leash all the time, he was able to guage when he was pulling hard enough to generate a full stop, and he adjusted immediately. It blew my mind and made perfect sense at the same time. He even quit racing downhill, which always was bad, and now walks the same pace. He's halfway trained not to run down stairs! It was the slackness of the leash - he had no information about how far he could go until he hit the end.
I can't say that I am training him not to pull. It's more like I figured out a different way for us to interact during walks that results in him being much easier to handle. Maybe I can get him used to a slightly reduced pressure before my friend gets home, so he won't yank her around.
I would never have thought of trying something like this without the inspiration I found here, to think like the animal, see things from their point of view, think of what they want instead of what I want them to do. Thank you guys!
