I have 12 month old GSD and he pulls me so strong all the time

I thought that I would add my 2 cents on prong collars. I have an Alaskan Malamute which were bred for sledding. I got him from the Humane Society at about 2 years old. I have no history on him, so I don't know if he was trained for sledding by his previous owner. I tried the choke chain on him at first but he would pull so hard that he left himself gasping for air. I searched the internet and found that most sites said the same thing about stopping him from pulling " Unless you have a lot of time, if you can keep your Malamute from dragging you down the street, you've won". I had misgivings on the prong collar, but tried it anyway. The results were great. He still pulls but not hard. It doesn't hurt him or he would not continue to pull.
They are a form of torture only when the human on the other end yanks on the leash as a form of discipline. As long as you use it as it is intended, it can solve the problem of pulling.

here is a trick i learned from my friend..no prong needed..no choke collar either..it worked like a charm for Victor. Everytime your dog starts to pull switch directions and go the opposite way..EVERY TIME!! you"ll get a bit dizzy but the dog will figure out that he isn't going anywhere trying to lead and will begin looking to you to lead and voila..now you have his attention where it needs to be..ON YOU..not on where he wants to go..he will be saying WHERE ARE WE GOING..not where am i taking you..it works..it really really does!

My experience with GSDs and Filas using a standard chest/shoulder harness has been that the harness worked like a charm. BUT, if you put the same harness on a dog that's been bred to pull, like a Husky or Malamute or Chin, you're likely to get the exact opposite result! No one thing works for every dog. You have to pay attention to what kind of stimuli works with your particular dog.

We started using a Halti on Ruby because she pulled like mad. Stopped the problem in less than 20 minutes. Seriously.

Dogs like having their mouths open. If they do something that causes their mouths to be shut, they don't like it, and learn very quickly. The halti does nothing except shut their mouths when they pull - and as soon as they stop, they can open their mouths again. Fantastic, inexpensive, life-saving!!

I would suggest lots of walk time and training with a Halti - best $16 I ever spent on my dogs!!

I'm dog sitting one heck of a puller right now! He's an overweight, (110+ lbs!), choc lab. Sweet as pie. But he's a powerful "tank" of a dog!

What I'm doing with him is baby steps. I just creep along and stop, creep along and stop, turn around, creep along and stop. I don't let him get any forward momentum going. No steady pressure on his neck and no leash corrections. I use my hand with a gentle bumping, to do this.

I got this technique from working with horses, actually! I had a horse that would "lean" on his bit, instead of balance back on his hindquarters. So I worked my reins this way to keep contact with him, without giving anything to lean on.

As far as collars and harnesses, I have never found one perfect tool for every dog.

You constantly bumped the reins back and forth to maintain contact? Hard on the mouth! Poor horse!

Glad things have changed and there is so much more to training and working with these animals. A great big bag of tricks to call on.

Halti, gentle leader, prong collar, slip collar, no pull harness.........I mean something should work.

That is so funny because I tried that method too (I saw it on tv once), but it didnt work for me. My rottie would change directions and keep pulling no matter how fast I changed directions. the prong was the only thing that worked, and it was my last resort, just because I was biased on it, and I thought it was cruel to use one (I was very wrong). I tried the choke chain, head halter, regular harness, and a no-pull harness, and none of them worked. I finaly got the prong and it worked like a miracle! my dog didnt cry, yip, or choke with it on. it completely changed my opinion on prong colars!

Nah, I've been told I have great hands and a very gentle method. There is a big difference between light contact and banging a horse in the mouth.

I just read your words and to me a bump is harsh, more like banging........depends on how you define the word.

Light contact is always good on any horses mouth it is very reassurring to them. Thanks for clearifying I appreciate it as a horse lover and training nothing ticks me off more then seeing people yanking and hauling on their horses mouths.

Amen!

I know that Angelique is not a yanker or a hauler with horses or dogs. She's not even a shaker. She's strictly a bumper type...you know...a light bump, bump. LOL. I trained horses too and I used left, right, left, right on the bit to assist in dropping their heads when teaching collection, with my hands way down low along side the horse's shoulders on both sides. But I didn't yank or haul either....light hands and lots of seat. LOL.

Yup understood, I just consider bumping a harsh thing a bump is something hard to me. It is all in how you define the words, but I understand the light contact and I do the same thing.

Thats EXACTLY how I do it. that's kind of cool. I use a really light hand too. And it's one of the reason I hate to let others ride my horses (unless they know what they are doing) I like them having a nice soft mouth

Cool alot of us train the same way. I hear ya Saje, I use to hate giving riding lessons on my show horse, because I always had problems after with him.

Dear Guy28,

How can you say you are lucky to have found this thread, when you have been "troll-ing" all of the forums and hiding your dog product "commercial" in the dog behavior and training forums under the guise of helpful advice?

Although Garyluer, Loislane, and Dog Day Pets, may be legit members, (and please, no offence if you are!), I am fairly certain Roni26, Mishel, and Guy28 represent the same person.

If it's two things I can't stand, it's people constantly trying to sell me "stuff", and being deceived and lied to.

Time to get another "gimmick", we're on to you.

I belong actively to 4 other dog forums and same thing.......posts by same person trying to sell things. I too hate that, there is a time and a place for that and it is not in behaviour and training threads. Do your advertising in the thread set up for it. I for one never ever click on any links anyway because there are way to many virus, spyware and scams out there!


Sorry but we are not as dense as some may think, we know what is going on!

Thanks Angelique for the head's up. It's very helpful when every member keeps an eye out for trolls and spammers. They're soooooo obnoxious. If someone truly made a mistake, then I appologize. But it's in the rules which is required reading before joining.

I wish I could help but I have tried almost everything and my dogs STILL pull. I used a choke collar with my pit mix and he broke it and I used a prong and he didn't even seem to notice it existed. I have now tried just keeping treats in my hand so that the dogs know they are there. They are constantly walking and sniffing my hands now for treats so they don't really even bother pulling (unless they see someone, or something, or they aren't hungry anymore).

Soooo, Roni26/mishel/guy28 thinks he can slip his Troll SPAM in under the wire by using the quote key...

EEEEH! Wrong again! "NO SOUP FOR YOU!"

Go back to your cave.