hi my dog duke is 8-y-old.He is 30kgr (heavy for me) and i walk him twice a day. he is always on leash because people are afraid and is obligated by the greek law. every time he is pulling me like crazy. i am not strong enough to stop him.walking him has become a nightmare for me.i wish there could be a way that we could both enjoy our walks. is it possible to change attitude at his age?
thanks for listeng............
ANY ADVISE???????????? PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

I don´t know if they have them in your country, but in the USA we have a product called gentle leader - they make both a headcollar and a special harness with the leash attachment in the front of the chest. I use the harness on my dogs and it works great! Here is a link to the manufacturer´s website - maybe they can give you more info on where you can but them in you area .
http://www.premier.com/

We have similar thing as e3m6m6e9t, called a halti, I use this for Laddy as he sometimes pulls here is a link so you can see what I´m talking about http://www.companyofanimals.co.uk/halti.php also there is a harness http://www.companyofanimals.co.uk/halti-harness.php , hope these help

Hi, sound like your Duke thinks he is leader of the pack

You can change this, but you will probably need to change how you behave towards him, and be patient.
The process of you becoming leader in Duke´s eyes may take a week, 2 weeks, or 3 months! You have to be strong, firm, but fair, and not give in, are you ready

Ok, certain things need to change around the home...

1. Food time.

ALWAYS make sure that you eat before Duke does, when you are going to feed him, prepare a little snack for yourself. This can be an apple, some nuts, a cracker etc. Prepare Duke´s food as you would normally but leave it on the counter top, and also put your snack in a separate bowl along side his bowl.

At first if Duke is not used to this he will no doubt show disapproval by either barking, running around, generally misbehaving, but what ever you do, don´t give in to him, completely ignore him, finish eating your snack, put his bowl of food down, still ignore him, and just walk away and let him eat.

Gradually over a 3 week period you want to progress to him completely accepting this by sitting quietly and patiently while you have your snack first. And when you do put his food down you need to be able to keep him sitting ´sit, stay´ until you give him the release word, which is ´OK´. Keep doing this for 2 months.

2. Returning home

This is really difficult to do emotionally for us dog owners, but it is a very important step in establishing leadership status.

When you and Duke have been separated for a while i.e. when you have been out, when you have been in another room with the door closed (not open), when you get up (providing Duke doesn´t sleep in your bedroom). I´m sure what Duke does is come bounding over looking for attention, and he gets it. This tells him that his status in the pack is high up.

So this needs to change. When Duke has been separated from you for a while on your return you need to ignore him. Yep this is a difficult one. No eye contact, no verbal contact, no physical contact. If Duke try to get physical contact just moved away. Duke will try every trick in the book to get your attention, but again you must not give in. You should only give Duke attention once he has been settled for 5 minutes. By settled I mean he should be lying down and not seeking your attention. When Duke has been settled for 5 minutes call him to you and give him a treat and give lots of attention ON YOUR TERMS.

This is really difficult I know, but it gives a clear signal to Duke that you are leader. In fact all attention that Duke gets should be earned and on your terms. All dogs actually WANT to work for food, attention, love, but we humans get this wrong

3. Territory

This will also be difficult as Duke is a senior dog and is probably used to the run of the house.

Movement around the house, and where Duke gets to sleep is very important while you are establishing leadership. Once you have firmly established leadership Duke can have certain privileges again, but not until he knows for sure you are leader.

Ideally Duke should sleep in his own bed, in his own place, and most definitely not in your bedroom, and absolutely not on your bed.

Movement around the territory, When you go out the front door, enter the front door, or go through any door, you should go first and Duke should calmly follow behind you. This also applies when you are out walking, for example when you come to a narrow passing, you should go first.

Furniture. While you are establishing leadership, Duke should not be allowed on the human furniture. Another difficult task as he is probably used to this, but again, for you to firmly establish leadership this is vital.

Once he knows you are boss, you can gradually give him SOME human furniture privileges

4. Play time

Even though Duke is 8 I´m sure he still likes to play.

This one is fun and easy. First of you should have two sets of toys; a couple that are Duke´s toys and he can play with by himself, and a couple that are your toys and you INVITE Duke to play with them with you. When playing with your toys you just need to make sure that 7 times out of 10 you win the game, easy. So you decide when it´s playtime, not Duke, you win possession of your toys more than he does, you decide when playtime stops, and very important, you don´t leave your toys out for Duke to play with, you put them away out of his reach. He has his own toys which can be left out.

These 4 ways of behaviour toward your dog are all clear signals that you are leader, through practice you will find that it becomes a way of being with your dog, a way of life, and this is how it should be. All dogs need signals everyday to let them know who´s leader, a dog without a leader will lead, this is only natural, but it is also stressful for a dog to lead humans in the human world.

So become the leader your Duke wants you to be and you will see a new dog

5. The leash

While you are going through the steps above to establish leadership, you should use treats to train Duke to walk to heel.

Buy yourself an attractive bum bag and put treats in it. For a couple of weeks just take Duke out for shorts walks. As you begin your walk put yourself in to a confident frame of mind, don´t forget you are the leader, walk tall. If you behave, think, and feel like a leader, you will give off this energy and Duke will pick up on this.

As you start your walk keep Duke on your left, hold the leash in your right hand, and have a treat in your left hand. Use the command ´heel´ and every few steps put a treat in to Duke´s mouth while saying ´heel, good boy´. Initially you will need lots of treats for this, but eventually just a handful will do, as you will increase the number of steps between treats.

After a few weeks you will only give a few treats, one at the beginning of the walk, one in the middle, and a couple at the end.

If and when Duke pulls, stop hold the leash and don´t move, make like a tree and say ´no pull, heel´ and use a treat to get him back by your side. If he still pulls then simply abandon the walk, he will learn pulling equals no walk, trust me

The entire process above takes a lot of time and patience, but is worth it all in the end.

A word on Halti head collars/Gentle leaders:

While these work, they only act as a restraint, they are the easy option but don´t actually teach your dog to walk to heel. In my opinion it is far better to take the difficult option and have a dog that accepts you as leader. Use the steps above, along with lots treats and lots of praise for desired behaviour, and an abundance of patients and love.

Wishing you all the best.

Just to add to the Halti, too:
If you chose to use one, please make sure you let a professional dog trainer show you how to use it properly.
If used incorrectly, i.e you pull to harsh and strong, it can permanently damage your dog´s neck!!!

It doesn´t tell you that on the package...

My Aggie can walk to heel, but she tends to very occassionally lunge at something and practically break my neck, never mind hers. So I use a halti and I can tell you, that a really potty dog can get out of it. The dog kind of pulls backwards and shakes it´s head. So I always use a slip chain at the same time. I never pull on it or yank it, and Aggie does not generally speaking pull on it either. She just has these mad moments when she sees unexpected movement.

The halti as been a godsend for me, but it can cut into the lips or eys of the dog. I have also been told, that it can cause arthiritis in the neck, if the dog pulls habitually.

thank you all very much

Hi there.. Just to let you know we just finished training with Zoe and we were taught something that has worked miracles with me and her walking.. She is also a big girl with alot of strength behind her and when walking her she would always try to pull me. Now my walks take a little longer but I am in charge not her. I was taught that when I walk if she starts to pull that I am to stop, not move until she comes back to the heeling position.. Once that happens we can walk again. We take another few steps and if she starts to pull again we stop. This teaches her that she will not get to go anywhere if she is pulling.. if she follows my lead then we can continue to walk.. She actually has caught on and it is now a joy to walk her. The first few walks were quite challenging because it would take me about 45 mins to go around the block but after she got the hang of it she walked without pulling.. As with everything patience is what goes a long way!!! Try this you will see that it works.. You may only go one step before having to stop again but it will work..
Good luck, let us know how things go!!

Terri1969, that s pretty much the method I used with Aggie. She has learned to walk to heel. But now 2 problems remained. First was barking at passers by, which I tackled more or less successfully by the use of a rattle. The second preblem still remainig is lunginging at cats etc. These are unexpected events, which catch me off guard, and Aggie practically rips my arms off and brakes my neck. That is why I use the halti. It is pure self preservation on my part.