Pull Foreward

[Psyfalcon]

SharkyX and others...

How do I get Buster to pull straight ahead in harness? With some encouragement he is a fine puller, but on walks or rollerblading, he is very prone to checking out every sidewalk we pass.

On By would be the traditional technique, but I'd like some more basic training on it, and only use On By or leave it for roads or very interesting smells. At this point I would be repeating it every 5 seconds...

[milos_mommy]

I'm no expert, but do have a few tips:

1. i don't know if you walk him in a harness, but if you do, don't. The harness lets him know the difference between pull time and walk nice time.

i think you can start off by having him pull something light behind him, a light tire or cart or something, and you can call him or walk with him, so he gets used to the feel of the pulling, and knows that he's supposed to be pulling. I'd also place a word with pulling. Like tell him to come, and once the line tightens, tell him " PULL!" or something.

**you probably shouldn't actually DO those things. i'm mostly just writing it to see if i'm right when someone who knows gets around to it**

[oc_spirit]

I use "on-by" for when I want my dogs to pass a distracting object and "ahead" means keep moving straight AKA "No dont turn there!" LOL

I taught it to OC by taking him out solo on the scooter. When he would start turning somewhere he shouldnt I would pedal the scooter to quickly pass him while saying "Ah! Ah! Ahead!!!" His competitive streak would kick in and he would race to get ahead of me again and resume his pulling position where I would praise him. Soon enough as soon as I said "Ahead!" he would already race back to the position up front without me having to even try peadaling any faster. And now "Ahead makes him just keep pulling straight and remain out in front without veering somewhere that looks interesting.

To teach it to Ronan I just hooked him up with OC ;)

[SharkyX]

On by is typically for ignoring things on the side of the trail or passing other dogs/people etc. Basically to ignore distractions. So yeah in the case of the smells that would be the appropriate command.

For ignoring turns and intersections I use "straight", sometimes followed by Lets Go which is what I use for starting and getting them to speed up.

A handy thing I've learned, watch you dogs behaviour as he's running/pulling. He'll perck up well before he gets to that sidewalk, he knows it's there and thats the first instance you tell your dog to go ahead or straight.

For training that first dog (which is always the hardest) there's three different techniques that people seem to use and really like.

The first, get somebody else on a bike or something to go out ahead of you. Your dog will naturally follow/chase the person they know, especially if that person can manage to stay out front the whole time. Just reward your dog at the end of the run for a job well done.

The second is to not use a person and reward more often. Every 1/4 mile or something like that when first learning, if they did well, ran straight kept the line reasonably tight the whole way then stop then, give them a reward, be it a treat or praise and then keep going.

The third way is just combining the two. Have a person ride out front, stop and reward for a job well done. As the dog gets better you increase the distance between stops until you're just going your whole distance before you stop for a reward.

A good thing to do, try to find other people in your area who participate in dog powered sports and go on runs with them.

When you say walks, are you just putting the harness on and taking him for a walk though or do you job or something to keep his attention on moving forward?
I've always found that just going for a walk in harness is detrimental unless I'm jogging because the dogs will look around sniff things and generally get confused about what they are supposed to do when wearing the harness.

[Psyfalcon]

See, I've been walking him on the harness because we are taking a pair of 2 mi+ walks a day (2.5mi is a favorite walk). I don't jog well, but its a fast pace walk. I am also a rather slow skier so I need him paying attention at a slow pace.

He might flop out of pulling school, honestly, he is very reactive to pretty much anything. He's always on the lookout for something interesting, I think that has to do with his herding dog ancestry vs the sled dog lines. If someone is behind us, he will actually, on occasion, drag the whole thing to a halt and pull the other way. OC, he has no competitive streak, just a stubborn one :P

We'll see, he has been getting a bit better though.

[Psyfalcon]

Rollerblades are helping (as long as we don't pass any little dogs that bark, he is still trying to eat those).

Took him one try at stopping from 10mph to learn that it does not work. He has also marked just about every bush in a 2mi radius, so that could be helping too, no need to repeat every day I guess.

Only real problem now are the ground hugging vegetation, like 6 inch tall cedars. They appear to trap a ton of scent, and other things.

We did hit 14mph today though! I think he near toping out, being rather small, I'm not sure if he has the stride for much more. Sharky, I'll have to borrow yours some day to to experience 20+.