Ha! Success!

[Zoom]

Virgo used to pull like a carthorse. All. The. Time. It was an arm workout to just walk her down the hall and kept me from taking her too many places because of it. I finally got serious about getting her to loose lead walk and started doing the circle circle circle circle routine. I was really hoping it would work and not too sure, because she has as very long stride and likes to walk a length in front. Between the dizzy spells and one clicker session to really get it through her head where I wanted her to walk--SUCCESS!!!! At least through the halls here! I took her down to the mail room with me today and she heeled perfectly all the way down there, then I clipped the leash to my belt and had an arm full of packages on the way up. We went up and down a flight of stairs, ran into a number of people and through it all she never once jumped or pulled ahead of me!!!! All it took was a quiet "eh-eh" if she started to get a little out of position and she corrected herself.

And this was all done on a 3/4" flat Lupine buckle, lots of praise and a few treats.

Now on to getting the same results outside and at Petsmart. We've got some "loudmouth around other dogs on leash" issues to deal with.

 

[adojrts]

Your on your way, huge congrats !!

 

[mjb]

I want to start this with Spanky. It's exciting to hear your success. And Smkie had emailed me with instructions a while ago. I just haven't done it yet.

Now, when you have success with the 'loudmouth' thing, let me know how that goes. Spanky barks if he sees them at a distance, pulling and trying to get there, and he whimpers and whines if they're very close, and he's still leashed and can't physically get to them.

 

[jjwoodee]

Congrats!

I'm curious to know the process of the circle routine just for reference....maybe this information is posted in another thread as I will look for that.

 

[Baxter'smybaby]

hooray!! She really does want to be a good girl....just doesn't know how!!

 

[Zoom]

It's a very complicated set of instructions. When the dog starts to walk out to the point they are taking up the slack in the leash, do a 180 degree turn and walk the other way until the dog catches up. Praise when they are in the right spot. Repeat ad nauseum.

Virgo likes to bellow when she sees a dog, then hauls me over to greet them, sniffs noses and nonchalantly walks away. She scares people in Petsmart, which isn't cool and I know other dogs don't appreciate the "in your face" greeting. It's nothing more than excitement on her part, but it sounds horrible.

 

[jjwoodee]

Ah yes - the 180 turns will make you dizzy. I know how that feels. My dog loves to "creep" sneakily and I was 180 turns all the time (to the point of naseua) but my dog is quick an agile enough turn to my side that it wasn't getting the point across. I read about a 90 degree with knee up turn which is done at the start of creeping. This has been very helpful.

 

[lizzybeth727]

And this was all done on a 3/4" flat Lupine buckle, lots of praise and a few treats.

Yay! This is so nice to hear. Do you know how many people (most of which are on another forum that I post on) would've suggested slapping on a pinch collar and "popping" him, probably while pinching his ear for good measure? Very refreshing to hear that some people try more humane methods first!

 

[RD]

Stephanie, come to Arizona and train Zaphod for me. Plzkthx?