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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Jean is a graduate of Animal Behavior College and teaches basic obedience using positive motivation training techniques. She is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and has been teaching family dog basic obedience for three years. Jean is also a graduate of Northeastern University and is the co-founder of pupforum.com.
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10/1/2004
I have a 5 year old Pit Bull. My main issue is that she pulls very hard when walking
on the leash. I am pregnant and it is getting harder to walk her now and will be impossible
when I have a baby with me. She is very smart and has completed basic dog training.
She listens to many comands and does tricks. HELP! (Valdivine, Maryland)
Dogs pull on the leash to get where they want to go. If you let your dog lead you to where
she wants to go by pulling, then she's basically being rewarded for dragging you along.
Your job is to make it so that pulling on the leash is not rewarding for her.
So how do you take the reward out of pulling?
First, you need a Gentle Leader or a Freedom Harness. The basic premise behind both is that
they keep the leash attached to the front of your dog so that she can not throw her body
weight into the leash. The GL or FH will not hurt her at all, they will only make it uncomfortable
for her to pull. They will make things much more comfortable for you.
Second, she needs to learn that she will not get to that tree, or rock, or other dog by
dragging you there. The moment she starts to pull, stop walking until she is on a loose
leash again. Better yet, turn around, change direction and lead her in the opposite direction.
You may not get very far on your walks or find yourself walking back and forth in front of your
house for a few weeks, but she will begin to get the picture that she is not the one leading
the walks.
Third, start to reward her for staying close to you. As you are walking, call her over to you
and hand her a treat right at hip level, or toss a treat on the ground near your feet. If
she's particularly fond of tug toys, try shaking that in front of her every now and again
while you are walking to have her come closer to you. The idea is to have her get used to
sniff the ground, check in with mom, look at the tree, check in with mom, pick up the stick,
check in with mom.
Follow those steps and by the time you have your baby you should have a dog who knows
that pulling you on a walk is not nearly as fun as walking politely. Good luck and
congratulations!
I have a 2 1/2 yr. old American Eskimo Dogs who I just got neutered a little over a
month ago. Since he has been neutered, he seems to play this "I don't have to pee"
game with me! So instead of going right outside and going potty, he will now stand there like
he has no clue!!! My first thought was a unrinary tract infection...........so my vet and
I ruled that out. I have him on a pretty good schedule, so I know when he has to go.
So I always manage to get him to go, it's just taking him longer to actually do it.
But my problem now is that for the first time since he was a puppy, he has this week peed
twice in the house!!!!!! He never peed in the house before he got neutered. Anyone else ever
experience this after neutering an older dog? I know the vet said that he could possibly
have an accident in the house, but it's been over a month since he was neutered. He always
tells me when he has to go out, so I can't figure out why things
are a little different since
he was neutered. Any advice would be very much appreciated!! Thank you!!! (Eskie, Connecticut)
Every now and again for whatever reason, some dogs do forget that they are housebroken
(or obedience trained, or polite...) When that happens, you need to do what I call "going
back to kindergarden."
Treat your dog as though he has never been housebroken. Put him on a strict and regular
feeding, watering and going out schedule. If you take him out and he doesn't pee within 5
minutes, take him inside, crate him for 15 minutes or so, and then try going out again.
Repeat as necessary until he has peed outside.
Alot of times the "I don't have to pee" game comes from the dog having more fun tooling
around outside than taking care of business and going back in the house. So try attaching
taking him out with something fun. Every time you take him out, as soon as he pees,
take him for a quick walk or give him a good reward like a piece of cheese or deli meat.
If he still has trouble after going back to kindergarden and make it rewarding for him to go
outside, talk to your veterinarian again.
I have two pit bulls. The male is 3yrs old, the female is only 1 year old. They have a
MAJOR problem with jumping on people when they walk in my house. We had a trainer come
to the house and show us how to train them not to do that- but it STILL does not work.
The only people that they don't jump on- thankfully, is children- I guess they sense that the
kids are smaller than them. They just get so excited to have guests, and they go nuts.
I've tried putting them outside when people come over- then let them in, but it doesn't help.
Any suggestions? (Luvmypits, New York)
Dogs jump to greet people because that's how they greet each other. They don't instinctively
know that it's not polite to jump on people. We have to teach them what is appropriate for
greeting people. You get to decide what is appropriate for greeting people.
Since you have already had a trainer come to the house and it did not work, I would suggest
working on getting a good solid down-stay with your dogs.
(By down-stay I mean they should be laying with their bellies on the ground without getting up.)
Have them down-stay before they get fed, go outside, get to play or get a treat.
Teach them that really good things follow the down-stays.
When someone comes to your house put both dogs in down-stays before you open the door.
If they break their stay before the person comes in, have the person go back out and put
the dog back in the stay. If you have to, put a leash on the dog and stand on it so he can't
get up. Once the person is in the house, release the dogs and have the person greet them.
If they start to jump, it's back into the down stay, and then they can be greeted by the
person again.
If you don't have enough hands and feet available to do this with two dogs,
you may need to put one dog in another room while you go through this process with the
other, and then repeat the process having your guest greet the other dog.
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