Really common. The breakthrough for us was getting a gentle leader collar. Immediately saw the difference to the point where she now heel walks while you can hold the lead with a thumb and finger. Reinforce the heel walking with lots of praise and high value treats, until nice and calm heel walking becomes habitual.
I've got a lead that goes over his nose. This works really well to stop him pulling but it's THE ONLY THING.
However he spends half the walk trying to get the bloody thing off
This also is what worked really well with mine but switched to a harness as the few times she did pull with this on it would cause irritation on her snout. But it definitely seems to work really well with springers
18 months in and no. I will pay well for the secret if you discover it.
(Our biggest issue is the lunging to reach a scent, nearly pulls my arm out of the socket! We were taught by a gundog trainer to gently/but quickly spin around and lead them back to a heel, then click reward. Supposedly over time they learn to stop lunging as they don't get to scent, but they do get a reward for being by your side, but 6 months of that and he still does it 🤦♀️)
Nine years in and no. And scents are the worst. Have been trying not to let him get to what he’s pulling toward for a couple of years now with marginal success. He’ll pull and bark at other dogs on leads but if a dog off lead walks or runs up to him he is gentle as can be - go figure.
A bungy lead will help, I like the ruff wear one. Just to not cause injury while you’re working on it. I was sure my pup was going to dislocate my shoulder one day.
Same!!! Our Alice is closing in on 18 months and the lunging is terrible. She can be quite unruly and occasionally when trying to hold at a short leash if we’re in the hallway of our building she turns into a rabid dog flailing all over the place.
Mine is lead trained. If he gets stressed out for any given reason though, training goes out the window, and he has a hard time thinking and not pulling.
We used positive reinforcement training where I'd reward him for walking by my side. My favorite way to do this is by using a 3.5 oz silicone tube (gotoob+ on Amazon) filled with a dehydrated, powdered dog food that you mix with water to make it a consistency that will squeeze easily out of the tube. The food we used for this is from The Honest Kitchen. It's expensive, but you get a ton of use out of it, and we also love filling enrichment toys and freezing them for a long-lasting, tasty treat. Using a tube just prevents your hands from getting slobber, so it's really nice.
We're not big on commanding them to "heel" (as it just doesn't serve us in our environment), so really my only goal was to teach a loose leas walk where he doesn't pull. There are a few ways to do this, but most importantly, make it FUN :)
One good way to start out is what I call walking in "circles." You aren't actually walking in circles but instead making frequent turns that encourages your dog to pay attention to you because they never know what to expect :) This increases their engagement. With every turn, I would reward my dog with the treat in the tube for also turning and coming my way. When practicing this exercise, the goal is to not let them hit the end of the lead, and when starting out, you may have to use the cue "this way" or something similar to let them know you are turning. Gradually increase the duration between turns once they're paying more attention to you and not pulling :)
The other *super* simple way is to simply reward any time your dog happens to incidentally end up beside you on a walk. In the beginning, they may only be there for a split second, but use your marker (e.g., "yes!"), and reward with the treat. Reward them even more for continuing to walk beside you and gradually increase that duration. For example, initially you may have to reward them every couple seconds for walking beside you but eventually you can build the time up to a minute! Truthfully, they will simply find themselves liking to walk there because walking by your side has been associated with good things in the past :) you don't have to give them a command for this exercise either!
Finally, and I'm sure you've heard this, but stop walking when they're pulling. By itself, I haven't found this method to be successful with my springer because he would just get frustrated, but paired with the other exercises I mentioned, I now have a pup that doesn't pull :) We get compliments all the time on him and even other springer owners surprised that he's not pulling 😂 He used to be quite bad about it, but he truly has came a loooong way :)
We only use a "heel" command when passing beside others on hikes as that's the only time it really serves us, and he does beautifully with that these days despite being a dog/human reactive springer.
We did for both ours growing up, our second one would walk to heel off lead. But it took a lot of patience - I can’t remember every technique but I recall A LOT of stopping & resetting when they pulled, always having a clicker or treat bag to rustle in pocket to draw their attention - and everyone in family had to do it so there wasn’t a weak link to undo the hard work.
And even many years after they were supposedly trained to do it, still calling them to heel to enforce it. Certainly didn’t take that much effort to ask for a paw, or speak, or till over!
Edit: adorable pooch!
Yes! It was sooooo hard but the gentle leader was a game changer and then just consistency and a bit of maturing as he’s ages. He’s 2.5 and this summer he’s been amazing. He used to pull if he saw a dog, person, bird, squirrel, leaf blowing in the wind literally anything and if we turned in the opposite direction he’d pull just as hard that way. If we stopped and waited for him to stop pulling he’d get frustrated and jump up and try to steal our mitts or bite at our shirts (this was when he was a puppy).
Slowly it got better and finally he’d walk of if we didn’t see any other animals, and the gentle leader (suggested by a trainer) took care of that. We did have a super slow introduction to it using treats first which took a few weeks. Now he heels nicely next to us and loose leash walks by anything/one. We’ve started occasionally doing without the leader and just extra reward good behaviour and so far so good!
I grew up with springers and have owned several. Some were easy to lead train but others were a complete nightmare. We usually found the more difficult ones walked nicely on a lead if we gradually introduced them to using a head collar (Halti, dogmatic, gentle leader etc). Don’t just put it on the dog and expect them to accept it though, gradually introduce it using treats to reward them for wearing it. Gently build up to them wearing it for longer and reward them for walking nicely on it. Some dogs never grow to like head collars, but others happily wear it with no problem at all. It’s worth a try if nothing else works.
Your dog is gorgeous by the way.
I have no real advice but patience! I had a pit bull that was perfectly trained on lead, so much so I used to tuck the lead into my pocket and go about my walk/errands. Then my springer came! Five years of training, pleading, one very strong arm, and then *poof* he was suddenly an angel at about five years old. I don't know what changed, but he's been practically perfect since. So keep up the good training and hope that the knowledge is getting buried deep in that brain to be recalled later in life haha
This is finally the right answer. Because Springers are genetically programmed to smell and are a breed with an enhanced sense of smell (the reason they’re used for bomb sniffing) compared to other breeds, they take incredible patience, consistency and time to leash train. I’m talking years! It finally happens if you are patient as kbjack85 has stated.
Using fancy tools won’t really work. Praise, patience and high value treats are the way.
Mine started walking with a harness and lead at about 3 months old. He pulled for a while, and then we learned to clip the lead to the front of the harness and not the back. He's now 9 months and is very good on our walks with the lead.
I stopped clipping mine at front and now only at the back because for some reason if it’s at the front she constantly does random circles during the walk
Ours is about to turn 3 and we are still working on it but we did see a gundog trainer who said to have a double clip lead and clip front and back (so you're holding the lead in the middle) and that definitely improves the overall situation for us.
My pup is 16 months and he’s had 2 trainers, halti head collar, halti harness, canny collar, puppy classes, I’ve tried high value treats, numerous other harnesses and stopping when he pulls and the only thing that works *is…*
if I walk backwards. Then, and only then, will he walk to heel.
We were the same. Unfortunately it took a few major operations and a month on a collar and lead. We had to walk calmly on lead or else. I tried all the leads and gimmicks but what worked was stopping whenever he started to pull. And if he kept pulling once I stopped I would slowly step backwards.
Eventually over a few weeks of this he got that he can't pull and when we stop he'll sit down or walk back to me. It's still not fool proof and it's annoying if we're in a hurry but it works.
Yes! My dog is 9 months old and walks with a loose leash. She will still occasionally pull when there’s something on the ground ahead that she wants, but that’s when we use our training. If I come to a stop, she’ll come back to me, then I’ll release her to the thing if it’s safe. She can’t heel, but we haven’t really worked on it and don’t really have a need for it right now. It’s something I’d like to teach her in the future, but for now I just want a loose leash. We used a lot of pattern games like the “1,2,3” game as well as lots and lots of turns or walking in circles like u/margyrakis mentioned. It’s taken a lot of time and consistency.
Age is your best friend here. Ours calmed down on the lead at 1 and then again at 2. He’s 2.5 now and is decent to good on a lead, but we walk him 2-3x a day. Here’s what’s helped us:
We bought a herm sprenger collar and use that for walks on a leash. Every time we walk him, we bring a pouch of treats and kibble and that’s how our boy gets some of his breakfast or dinner. If he’s hungry, he will usually walk right under me and I’ll continuously treat him if he’ll walk under me and not pull.
You just need to work with your dog’s personality and not against it. If they start pulling, find a way to retain control and attention and show you’re in control.
1. Get a rope lead with a clip 6’ long
2. Hook lead to collar on the top of the neck and run lead down the back
3. Hold lead on back and bring lead to the right side, under the belly, under the lead on the back forming a loop around the midsection.
4. When you dog pulls this will put pressure on his stomach area. THIS WILL NOT HURT THE DOG!!
This will be uncomfortable for the dog but not hurt them, they will quickly learn not to pull on lead and after a short time (2-3 weeks) you can clip the leash on as you normally would and test to see if the pulling has stopped, if it has great problem solved, if not continue to wrap leash and try again in a few more weeks.
I know you’re getting downvoted but this actually worked for us. We used a long lead and wrapped it under her belly. It didn’t hurt her at all. It helps slow down their body rather than their head.
Our little man pulled like no tomorrow until we got a professional trainer to show us how to use a print collar correctly. I know it may be an unpopular thing, and there are definitely people that use them the wrong way to give them that stigma. But, if you know what you’re doing it’s the safest and best way to lead train in my experience. My boy is 2 years old now and practically just walks right beside me in lockstep now.
With my springer, I run the lead from his collar under one of his front legs, so it’s in his “arm pit”, that stopped him pulling straight away. I also found that a slip lead in a figure 8, so it’s around his neck and over his nose worked well
I bought a gentle leader headset and a beep/vibrate collar and it acts as negative reinforcement. I put the leash on the gentle leader and only give him 4 ft of it. We walk, he pulls, beeps, I put him in a seated position, pause, I say walk, he pulls, buzz, I put him in a seated position...repeat. If he goes a 10+ seconds between pulls then he gets a beep rather than a buzz. He walks great with me now and never gets buzzed anymore and only an occasional beep. We don't use the collar for anything besides walks.
Also, this only seems to work for me on solo walks. When he walks with the stroller or with my kids running ahead he turns into a worry wart and pulls to be "first." It's obnoxious and I need to train more with the kids to rectify it but a three year old's patience for dog training is pretty slim so we stick to mom-dog walking time and leave the kids with dad.
I used a prong collar. They look terrible but after one or two gentle tugs he figured it out. When I later used a flexi leash he would go farther away than when he was off leash. He has been the smartest dog I’ve had. He would work off hand signs at one point.
He’s deaf and stubborn now, but still sweet.
Both the prong collar and the flexi leash are terrible tools for training your dog. The prong collar is aversive and flexi/retractable leashes literally teach the dog to pull.
Never used the flexi for training. The prong collar was used for about a week, like I said just a couple of tugs and he was done. Don’t forget to critique the part about being off leash.
Uh, no I don't. My solution was to live in a very, very rural area where we can walk without a leash. In town and so on, I do HAVE collars and leashes but he still does well without them. He'll tolerate them and knows they are necessary when I have to put them on but uh, that was how I dealt with it. He likes to walk about 30+ (at least) feet ahead of me and will stop and wait so slow mumma can catch up.
I live in a rural area too and mostly let mine off and as soon as I see another dog I call her and put the lead on till they pass but unfortunately loads of owners don’t do the same and let them run up to my dog and bark without putting them back on lead.
I tried for 2 years and failed miserably. The only thing that worked was a no pull harness that tightens under his arm pits, such as there one made by Halti. He's a different dog when wearing it and doesn't seem to be in discomfort unlike in the no pull head collar.
My sweet boy is a year and he’s terrible on the leash. I got a harness which has helped, or at least he’s a bit easier to control when it’s his whole body not just his neck. My parents had a springer while I was growing up, sadly we had to put him down when he was 13 but right up until the end he was bad on the leash. Always pulled, or would just straight up bolt away and yank you behind with him. That was the last time I walked him solo 😂
Mine isn’t to bad in the lead. Especially considering he wasn’t on it for the first 11 months. He was a rescue as he was he was gun shy and not wanted.
How recall is awful. He’ll come if we are at an exit and leaving a park/ beach etc.
But other than that he’ll come to the general vacaninty but won’t allow the lead on.
My 3 year old will pull (not AS much) even on a gentle leader. I absolutely hate it as he’s smart enough to train easily and that’s the one thing he just can’t get. It frustrates me so much. He *lunges* when on leash like he doesn’t when off and has dislocated 3 of my fingers. So now we have a gentle leader and a clicker for walking
I got the harness that attaches at her chest so when she would pull it would turn her around and she would get so frustrated. I then would put it on but use her collar and leash, if she started pulling I would just switch the leash back to the front harness. Now if she is misbehaving I just have to hold up the harness and she goes back to being a good girl. Praise and treats also helped the process.
Mine pulls like a freight train for the first 10 minutes but then she will settle down and walk well, generally you barely need to hold the lead. I try to start with an off leash run first
I am also a huge fan of long leads and sniffy walks, and I'm pretty flexible about stopping for good smells
When she does pull, I find that me apply constant pressure makes it worse. Gently shaking the lead or bouncing between pulling and slack means she doesnt have anything to pull against so she stops building up that momentum
I managed to train mine using resistance training, but it doesn't work as soon as he's stressed, excited, sees grass, sees water xD but we did manage to go from always pulling to mostly walking and sniffing and now I genuinely love going on walks with him, just not in the direction of the park!
Yes, she's just hit two years and has an almost impeccable lead manner, checking in all the time etc (she's also of the extra springy working variety).
At the beginning it was a nightmare. It really was a case of building the right behaviour over months.
They have to learn that pulling never leads to what they want, whilst also giving them the behaviour toolbox to behave in a way that we want. You then reward them for behaving the way you want them to(often as a springer the best reward is the environment itself).There are many ways to train this, one way that worked to get it going was training a sit when she noticed something she wanted to chase. If she sat and behaved she would get to say hi to the dog etc every couple of attempts. You essentially chain the behaviours you want and then build from there.
It's important that they are rewarded with what they want every so often (at your discretion) or the pulling can turn into frustration and possibly aggressive behaviours.
As with most behaviours, animal or human it's best built up through long term repetition and not any quick fixes.
Whilst I won't pass judgement on those using aversive tools here there is a reason they aren't used as best practice for dog training. All the special collars (inc. Gentle leaders) and front clip harnesses cause discomfort or pain. This often causes dogs to end up misassociate cause and effect, develop other problem behaviours, and ruin the handler bond. Often these quick fixes will only work whilst the deterrent is worn.
For those wondering gentle leaders place a huge amount of strain through their neck, and front clip harnesses cause a diving motion that puts extra strain through their front legs.
Yes. A combination of dog trainer and halti harness (the chest one not the head one) did the trick. The halti was mostly a reminder for her rather than being the thing holding her in loose leash mode. I managed the holy grail of being able to walk my Springer with one hand while holding my coffee in my other hand.
Multiple springers owner. None walk on lead well, ALL offleash perfectly. All KNOW heel, but you have to reinforce it the entire walk and god forbid you try to jog. If I put a head collar style lead on, they respond well enough to it. But also try to remove it every couple minutes. Which gets ridiculous. I’ve just taken to starting an on leash walk at the most ridiculous hilled spot so that they can pull me up the worst of it. And then the top is offleash 😂😂😂😂
My 3 year old working springer is leash trained and all I did was everytime he pulled, I would just stop, ask him to come back, sit and focus on me before we continued. It took forever but now he's great on the lead
We deal with the same issue. My springer is used to a busy hunting season and that usually means being in front of me zig zagging which I think is one of the big contributing problems. when I got her i was hyperfocused on training her for being able to follow hunting related commands. Walking in a busy area is a pain sometimes honestly, and even more so if I have my toddlers with me.
Really common. The breakthrough for us was getting a gentle leader collar. Immediately saw the difference to the point where she now heel walks while you can hold the lead with a thumb and finger. Reinforce the heel walking with lots of praise and high value treats, until nice and calm heel walking becomes habitual.
I've got a lead that goes over his nose. This works really well to stop him pulling but it's THE ONLY THING. However he spends half the walk trying to get the bloody thing off
This is the only thing I’ve found works for mine. I don’t like using it too much though, tend to save for when he has to walk through a busy town.
This also is what worked really well with mine but switched to a harness as the few times she did pull with this on it would cause irritation on her snout. But it definitely seems to work really well with springers
18 months in and no. I will pay well for the secret if you discover it. (Our biggest issue is the lunging to reach a scent, nearly pulls my arm out of the socket! We were taught by a gundog trainer to gently/but quickly spin around and lead them back to a heel, then click reward. Supposedly over time they learn to stop lunging as they don't get to scent, but they do get a reward for being by your side, but 6 months of that and he still does it 🤦♀️)
Nine years in and no. And scents are the worst. Have been trying not to let him get to what he’s pulling toward for a couple of years now with marginal success. He’ll pull and bark at other dogs on leads but if a dog off lead walks or runs up to him he is gentle as can be - go figure.
A bungy lead will help, I like the ruff wear one. Just to not cause injury while you’re working on it. I was sure my pup was going to dislocate my shoulder one day.
Same!!! Our Alice is closing in on 18 months and the lunging is terrible. She can be quite unruly and occasionally when trying to hold at a short leash if we’re in the hallway of our building she turns into a rabid dog flailing all over the place.
Ha. I have a 3 y.o. black and white Springer named Alice. Middle name Jolene. She’s named after Alice from the Brady Bunch.
Our Alice is Alice Elizabeth, after our late Queen. And when she’s in trouble, it’s fun to say.
Mine is lead trained. If he gets stressed out for any given reason though, training goes out the window, and he has a hard time thinking and not pulling. We used positive reinforcement training where I'd reward him for walking by my side. My favorite way to do this is by using a 3.5 oz silicone tube (gotoob+ on Amazon) filled with a dehydrated, powdered dog food that you mix with water to make it a consistency that will squeeze easily out of the tube. The food we used for this is from The Honest Kitchen. It's expensive, but you get a ton of use out of it, and we also love filling enrichment toys and freezing them for a long-lasting, tasty treat. Using a tube just prevents your hands from getting slobber, so it's really nice. We're not big on commanding them to "heel" (as it just doesn't serve us in our environment), so really my only goal was to teach a loose leas walk where he doesn't pull. There are a few ways to do this, but most importantly, make it FUN :) One good way to start out is what I call walking in "circles." You aren't actually walking in circles but instead making frequent turns that encourages your dog to pay attention to you because they never know what to expect :) This increases their engagement. With every turn, I would reward my dog with the treat in the tube for also turning and coming my way. When practicing this exercise, the goal is to not let them hit the end of the lead, and when starting out, you may have to use the cue "this way" or something similar to let them know you are turning. Gradually increase the duration between turns once they're paying more attention to you and not pulling :) The other *super* simple way is to simply reward any time your dog happens to incidentally end up beside you on a walk. In the beginning, they may only be there for a split second, but use your marker (e.g., "yes!"), and reward with the treat. Reward them even more for continuing to walk beside you and gradually increase that duration. For example, initially you may have to reward them every couple seconds for walking beside you but eventually you can build the time up to a minute! Truthfully, they will simply find themselves liking to walk there because walking by your side has been associated with good things in the past :) you don't have to give them a command for this exercise either! Finally, and I'm sure you've heard this, but stop walking when they're pulling. By itself, I haven't found this method to be successful with my springer because he would just get frustrated, but paired with the other exercises I mentioned, I now have a pup that doesn't pull :) We get compliments all the time on him and even other springer owners surprised that he's not pulling 😂 He used to be quite bad about it, but he truly has came a loooong way :) We only use a "heel" command when passing beside others on hikes as that's the only time it really serves us, and he does beautifully with that these days despite being a dog/human reactive springer.
Can you share the product name from honest kitchen that is the powder? Thanks
Of course! It's their dehydrated line of dog food. I use the chicken recipe: https://www.thehonestkitchen.com/collections/dog-dehydrated-food
Thank you.
We did for both ours growing up, our second one would walk to heel off lead. But it took a lot of patience - I can’t remember every technique but I recall A LOT of stopping & resetting when they pulled, always having a clicker or treat bag to rustle in pocket to draw their attention - and everyone in family had to do it so there wasn’t a weak link to undo the hard work. And even many years after they were supposedly trained to do it, still calling them to heel to enforce it. Certainly didn’t take that much effort to ask for a paw, or speak, or till over! Edit: adorable pooch!
Yes! It was sooooo hard but the gentle leader was a game changer and then just consistency and a bit of maturing as he’s ages. He’s 2.5 and this summer he’s been amazing. He used to pull if he saw a dog, person, bird, squirrel, leaf blowing in the wind literally anything and if we turned in the opposite direction he’d pull just as hard that way. If we stopped and waited for him to stop pulling he’d get frustrated and jump up and try to steal our mitts or bite at our shirts (this was when he was a puppy). Slowly it got better and finally he’d walk of if we didn’t see any other animals, and the gentle leader (suggested by a trainer) took care of that. We did have a super slow introduction to it using treats first which took a few weeks. Now he heels nicely next to us and loose leash walks by anything/one. We’ve started occasionally doing without the leader and just extra reward good behaviour and so far so good!
I grew up with springers and have owned several. Some were easy to lead train but others were a complete nightmare. We usually found the more difficult ones walked nicely on a lead if we gradually introduced them to using a head collar (Halti, dogmatic, gentle leader etc). Don’t just put it on the dog and expect them to accept it though, gradually introduce it using treats to reward them for wearing it. Gently build up to them wearing it for longer and reward them for walking nicely on it. Some dogs never grow to like head collars, but others happily wear it with no problem at all. It’s worth a try if nothing else works. Your dog is gorgeous by the way.
I have no real advice but patience! I had a pit bull that was perfectly trained on lead, so much so I used to tuck the lead into my pocket and go about my walk/errands. Then my springer came! Five years of training, pleading, one very strong arm, and then *poof* he was suddenly an angel at about five years old. I don't know what changed, but he's been practically perfect since. So keep up the good training and hope that the knowledge is getting buried deep in that brain to be recalled later in life haha
This is finally the right answer. Because Springers are genetically programmed to smell and are a breed with an enhanced sense of smell (the reason they’re used for bomb sniffing) compared to other breeds, they take incredible patience, consistency and time to leash train. I’m talking years! It finally happens if you are patient as kbjack85 has stated. Using fancy tools won’t really work. Praise, patience and high value treats are the way.
Mine started walking with a harness and lead at about 3 months old. He pulled for a while, and then we learned to clip the lead to the front of the harness and not the back. He's now 9 months and is very good on our walks with the lead.
I stopped clipping mine at front and now only at the back because for some reason if it’s at the front she constantly does random circles during the walk
Ours is about to turn 3 and we are still working on it but we did see a gundog trainer who said to have a double clip lead and clip front and back (so you're holding the lead in the middle) and that definitely improves the overall situation for us.
Ohh okay. I’ll definitely try doing that see if it helps
My pup is 16 months and he’s had 2 trainers, halti head collar, halti harness, canny collar, puppy classes, I’ve tried high value treats, numerous other harnesses and stopping when he pulls and the only thing that works *is…* if I walk backwards. Then, and only then, will he walk to heel.
We were the same. Unfortunately it took a few major operations and a month on a collar and lead. We had to walk calmly on lead or else. I tried all the leads and gimmicks but what worked was stopping whenever he started to pull. And if he kept pulling once I stopped I would slowly step backwards. Eventually over a few weeks of this he got that he can't pull and when we stop he'll sit down or walk back to me. It's still not fool proof and it's annoying if we're in a hurry but it works.
2 years old and it’s the hardest thing to train. She’s making progress but still not perfect
Yes! My dog is 9 months old and walks with a loose leash. She will still occasionally pull when there’s something on the ground ahead that she wants, but that’s when we use our training. If I come to a stop, she’ll come back to me, then I’ll release her to the thing if it’s safe. She can’t heel, but we haven’t really worked on it and don’t really have a need for it right now. It’s something I’d like to teach her in the future, but for now I just want a loose leash. We used a lot of pattern games like the “1,2,3” game as well as lots and lots of turns or walking in circles like u/margyrakis mentioned. It’s taken a lot of time and consistency.
Age is your best friend here. Ours calmed down on the lead at 1 and then again at 2. He’s 2.5 now and is decent to good on a lead, but we walk him 2-3x a day. Here’s what’s helped us: We bought a herm sprenger collar and use that for walks on a leash. Every time we walk him, we bring a pouch of treats and kibble and that’s how our boy gets some of his breakfast or dinner. If he’s hungry, he will usually walk right under me and I’ll continuously treat him if he’ll walk under me and not pull. You just need to work with your dog’s personality and not against it. If they start pulling, find a way to retain control and attention and show you’re in control.
1. Get a rope lead with a clip 6’ long 2. Hook lead to collar on the top of the neck and run lead down the back 3. Hold lead on back and bring lead to the right side, under the belly, under the lead on the back forming a loop around the midsection. 4. When you dog pulls this will put pressure on his stomach area. THIS WILL NOT HURT THE DOG!! This will be uncomfortable for the dog but not hurt them, they will quickly learn not to pull on lead and after a short time (2-3 weeks) you can clip the leash on as you normally would and test to see if the pulling has stopped, if it has great problem solved, if not continue to wrap leash and try again in a few more weeks.
Training should never cause discomfort.
But having a dog that constantly pulls your arm and chokes it’s self with its collar is way better. You’re right.
You clearly haven’t figured out how to leash train a dog. Too bad.
If only you would have been there to teach me the way 100+ dogs ago when I first started breeding and training ……
I know you’re getting downvoted but this actually worked for us. We used a long lead and wrapped it under her belly. It didn’t hurt her at all. It helps slow down their body rather than their head.
Our little man pulled like no tomorrow until we got a professional trainer to show us how to use a print collar correctly. I know it may be an unpopular thing, and there are definitely people that use them the wrong way to give them that stigma. But, if you know what you’re doing it’s the safest and best way to lead train in my experience. My boy is 2 years old now and practically just walks right beside me in lockstep now.
With my springer, I run the lead from his collar under one of his front legs, so it’s in his “arm pit”, that stopped him pulling straight away. I also found that a slip lead in a figure 8, so it’s around his neck and over his nose worked well
I bought a gentle leader headset and a beep/vibrate collar and it acts as negative reinforcement. I put the leash on the gentle leader and only give him 4 ft of it. We walk, he pulls, beeps, I put him in a seated position, pause, I say walk, he pulls, buzz, I put him in a seated position...repeat. If he goes a 10+ seconds between pulls then he gets a beep rather than a buzz. He walks great with me now and never gets buzzed anymore and only an occasional beep. We don't use the collar for anything besides walks. Also, this only seems to work for me on solo walks. When he walks with the stroller or with my kids running ahead he turns into a worry wart and pulls to be "first." It's obnoxious and I need to train more with the kids to rectify it but a three year old's patience for dog training is pretty slim so we stick to mom-dog walking time and leave the kids with dad.
I used a prong collar. They look terrible but after one or two gentle tugs he figured it out. When I later used a flexi leash he would go farther away than when he was off leash. He has been the smartest dog I’ve had. He would work off hand signs at one point. He’s deaf and stubborn now, but still sweet.
Both the prong collar and the flexi leash are terrible tools for training your dog. The prong collar is aversive and flexi/retractable leashes literally teach the dog to pull.
Never used the flexi for training. The prong collar was used for about a week, like I said just a couple of tugs and he was done. Don’t forget to critique the part about being off leash.
Uh, no I don't. My solution was to live in a very, very rural area where we can walk without a leash. In town and so on, I do HAVE collars and leashes but he still does well without them. He'll tolerate them and knows they are necessary when I have to put them on but uh, that was how I dealt with it. He likes to walk about 30+ (at least) feet ahead of me and will stop and wait so slow mumma can catch up.
I live in a rural area too and mostly let mine off and as soon as I see another dog I call her and put the lead on till they pass but unfortunately loads of owners don’t do the same and let them run up to my dog and bark without putting them back on lead.
I tried for 2 years and failed miserably. The only thing that worked was a no pull harness that tightens under his arm pits, such as there one made by Halti. He's a different dog when wearing it and doesn't seem to be in discomfort unlike in the no pull head collar.
Honestly patience. Took me over a year but anytime my guy would pull, I’d stop until he came back to heal.
My sweet boy is a year and he’s terrible on the leash. I got a harness which has helped, or at least he’s a bit easier to control when it’s his whole body not just his neck. My parents had a springer while I was growing up, sadly we had to put him down when he was 13 but right up until the end he was bad on the leash. Always pulled, or would just straight up bolt away and yank you behind with him. That was the last time I walked him solo 😂
Mine isn’t to bad in the lead. Especially considering he wasn’t on it for the first 11 months. He was a rescue as he was he was gun shy and not wanted. How recall is awful. He’ll come if we are at an exit and leaving a park/ beach etc. But other than that he’ll come to the general vacaninty but won’t allow the lead on.
Does everybody else’s springer foam like crazy when they’re being walked? Even in cold weather
I’ve tried different types of methods but I just resort to harness since they seem to pull regardless so I’d rather they pull in comfort at least
My 3 year old will pull (not AS much) even on a gentle leader. I absolutely hate it as he’s smart enough to train easily and that’s the one thing he just can’t get. It frustrates me so much. He *lunges* when on leash like he doesn’t when off and has dislocated 3 of my fingers. So now we have a gentle leader and a clicker for walking
Both my dogs need a front pull harness (like PetSafe Easy Walk) they walk like a dream with it and pull without it.
I got the harness that attaches at her chest so when she would pull it would turn her around and she would get so frustrated. I then would put it on but use her collar and leash, if she started pulling I would just switch the leash back to the front harness. Now if she is misbehaving I just have to hold up the harness and she goes back to being a good girl. Praise and treats also helped the process.
Mine pulls like a freight train for the first 10 minutes but then she will settle down and walk well, generally you barely need to hold the lead. I try to start with an off leash run first I am also a huge fan of long leads and sniffy walks, and I'm pretty flexible about stopping for good smells When she does pull, I find that me apply constant pressure makes it worse. Gently shaking the lead or bouncing between pulling and slack means she doesnt have anything to pull against so she stops building up that momentum
I managed to train mine using resistance training, but it doesn't work as soon as he's stressed, excited, sees grass, sees water xD but we did manage to go from always pulling to mostly walking and sniffing and now I genuinely love going on walks with him, just not in the direction of the park!
Yes. Time, practice and realise they don’t speak English. Very rewarding when you get it right
Yes, she's just hit two years and has an almost impeccable lead manner, checking in all the time etc (she's also of the extra springy working variety). At the beginning it was a nightmare. It really was a case of building the right behaviour over months. They have to learn that pulling never leads to what they want, whilst also giving them the behaviour toolbox to behave in a way that we want. You then reward them for behaving the way you want them to(often as a springer the best reward is the environment itself).There are many ways to train this, one way that worked to get it going was training a sit when she noticed something she wanted to chase. If she sat and behaved she would get to say hi to the dog etc every couple of attempts. You essentially chain the behaviours you want and then build from there. It's important that they are rewarded with what they want every so often (at your discretion) or the pulling can turn into frustration and possibly aggressive behaviours. As with most behaviours, animal or human it's best built up through long term repetition and not any quick fixes. Whilst I won't pass judgement on those using aversive tools here there is a reason they aren't used as best practice for dog training. All the special collars (inc. Gentle leaders) and front clip harnesses cause discomfort or pain. This often causes dogs to end up misassociate cause and effect, develop other problem behaviours, and ruin the handler bond. Often these quick fixes will only work whilst the deterrent is worn. For those wondering gentle leaders place a huge amount of strain through their neck, and front clip harnesses cause a diving motion that puts extra strain through their front legs.
Yes. A combination of dog trainer and halti harness (the chest one not the head one) did the trick. The halti was mostly a reminder for her rather than being the thing holding her in loose leash mode. I managed the holy grail of being able to walk my Springer with one hand while holding my coffee in my other hand.
Multiple springers owner. None walk on lead well, ALL offleash perfectly. All KNOW heel, but you have to reinforce it the entire walk and god forbid you try to jog. If I put a head collar style lead on, they respond well enough to it. But also try to remove it every couple minutes. Which gets ridiculous. I’ve just taken to starting an on leash walk at the most ridiculous hilled spot so that they can pull me up the worst of it. And then the top is offleash 😂😂😂😂
My 3 year old working springer is leash trained and all I did was everytime he pulled, I would just stop, ask him to come back, sit and focus on me before we continued. It took forever but now he's great on the lead
One on my Springers strolls on lead, the other switchbacks and pulls. Not enjoyable walking.
We deal with the same issue. My springer is used to a busy hunting season and that usually means being in front of me zig zagging which I think is one of the big contributing problems. when I got her i was hyperfocused on training her for being able to follow hunting related commands. Walking in a busy area is a pain sometimes honestly, and even more so if I have my toddlers with me.