Dog goes INSANE at walkie time, help!

hayley11

the_cat wrote: »

This will certainly help but another trick to de-condition him from such excitement it to keep (ie several times a day at first, less once he gets used to it) putting the harness on and NOT taking him out. Once he realises it won't def mean a walk/excitement he will get bored! Try doing this to start with when he is tired and has just had a walk as he will most likely be less boisterous then!

Thanks, that's a good idea too!

Will try these things, will update in a couple of days and let you know how he's getting on

Waterfalls

the_cat wrote: »

This will certainly help but another trick to de-condition him from such excitement it to keep (ie several times a day at first, less once he gets used to it) putting the harness on and NOT taking him out. Once he realises it won't def mean a walk/excitement he will get bored! Try doing this to start with when he is tired and has just had a walk as he will most likely be less boisterous then!

this is what i would advise. except also go one step further.
so if the only time u pick up the lead/harness is a walkies time, then regually pick them up and move them, to another table then another room etc. then progress to putting it on him when he gets used to that and do as advise above.

i have found u may have to be careful with harnesses as it can encourage them to pull as the can get their shoulders behind it and can be a c tad more difficult to control. a halti would be a better option.

best of luck and let us know how u get on

foreign_correspondent

hayley11 wrote: »

Thanks, that's a good idea too!

Will try these things, will update in a couple of days and let you know how he's getting on

Dont worry if he seems to ger worse rather than better initially - when he realises you are ignoring him, he may up his game and get even noisier to try and get your intention... but this will pass once he works out that the harness doesnt go on till he is quieter!

hethmar

Get him a halti harness, it goes round his chest so no jerking of his head. If he pulls give the lead a tug and it will lift his front feet off the ground. He will soon learn that pulling effectively means not moving at all.

As you have another thread about his health, I think you need to get that sorted too as the peeing you are worried about may be related to you being reluctant to take him out?

Our dogs go berserk at the "w" word. OH is much better at this game than me. He puts down the leads and sits down and picks up a newsaper and pretends to read it. Once they see that they both sit and just stare at him and THEN he puts on the leads

faded_flowers

Once you get to the stage where you can calmly get the harness on, put a name to it too. We use 'lead time' for putting the lead on and off, which means she sits still and waits - or no walk.

mrcol1000

My dog also at first use to go mad when we even went near her lead let alone picked it up. But now as soon as we get the harness we call her over and she will sit and even raise her paws to help put it on.
It just comes from training and patience. If you start to get worked up and stressed because the dog is geting over exictied then she will just get even more worked up and exicited. You just need to stay very calm and relaxed and only put the harness on when she is still and relaxed. It takes a long time to get it right at first and the first few times it took us about 20mins to get her ready but it gets easier but only if you have the patience to never chase her around or get angry. It really is hard to stay calm but honestly it does get easier.

Its the same for the pulling. We stopped our dog from pulling by just stopping dead every time she did it and not moving again till a minuite or two after she stopped pulling. Eventually she realised that pulling wasn't going to get her anywhere any faster and in fact did the opposite.

You can get all kinds of aids like Hati and choke collars that will punish the dog everytime they try and pull and they may work. But really a bit of proper training and a bit of patience will work a lot better. Sadly not everyone has the patience to sort their dogs bad behaviour out this way.

cyberbob

Sagaris wrote: »

We ignore our dog when she starts going mental to have her Halti head collar put on - turn around and walk away from her and do something else - within a minute she's calmed down enough to put the Halti on and is out of the door!

Totally agree. I also with our boy after putting the lead on make him sit by the door and only go out the door when he has. I then make him sit outside as well efore we go for the walk so he knows if he's calm we then go for a walk.

As Mrcol I stopped whenhe pulled untill the lead went slack then continued to walk. Initially it makes your walks much longer (and you look a bit weird) but after a while he got the hint that if he pulled he wasn't going anywhere.

The other thing that works is for you to lead him. You stand straight and walk very briskly and change direction suddenly. They then seem to realise that they need to follow you. It won't happen overnight but if you put the work in its well worth it. If you are having problems it may be worth enrolling in obediance classes

hayley11

hethmar wrote: »

Get him a halti harness, it goes round his chest so no jerking of his head. If he pulls give the lead a tug and it will lift his front feet off the ground. He will soon learn that pulling effectively means not moving at all.

We have a harness that goes round his chest.

As you have another thread about his health, I think you need to get that sorted too as the peeing you are worried about may be related to you being reluctant to take him out?

I'm not worried about the peeing now. I think he was just being a bit cheeky or marking his territory. He has only in the last few days started peeing a lot on walks so I think it's connected. He's completely fine, going to the toilet as normal outside, drinking, eating, playing etc.

We don't take him on walks to use the toilet, that's what the back yard is for.


Our dogs go berserk at the "w" word. OH is much better at this game than me. He puts down the leads and sits down and picks up a newsaper and pretends to read it. Once they see that they both sit and just stare at him and THEN he puts on the leads

We started the ignoring him thing yesterday, it did work to an extent and we will continue with it and hopefully he'll get the message.

hayley11

mrcol1000 wrote: »

My dog also at first use to go mad when we even went near her lead let alone picked it up. But now as soon as we get the harness we call her over and she will sit and even raise her paws to help put it on.
It just comes from training and patience. If you start to get worked up and stressed because the dog is geting over exictied then she will just get even more worked up and exicited. You just need to stay very calm and relaxed and only put the harness on when she is still and relaxed. It takes a long time to get it right at first and the first few times it took us about 20mins to get her ready but it gets easier but only if you have the patience to never chase her around or get angry. It really is hard to stay calm but honestly it does get easier.

Chase him? You're joking aren't you? It'd be him chasing us! :rotfl: It took a few minutes yesterday. He's a fast learner in most cases so I think he'll get it pretty quick.

Its the same for the pulling. We stopped our dog from pulling by just stopping dead every time she did it and not moving again till a minuite or two after she stopped pulling. Eventually she realised that pulling wasn't going to get her anywhere any faster and in fact did the opposite.

Ooh again why haven't I thought of this? Thanks, will try this today.

You can get all kinds of aids like Hati and choke collars that will punish the dog everytime they try and pull and they may work. But really a bit of proper training and a bit of patience will work a lot better. Sadly not everyone has the patience to sort their dogs bad behaviour out this way.

I'm happy with the harness we've got and i'm never using a choke collar on him. I think because we've been a bit brain dead at thinking of ways to stop him doing these things, it's just got to where he thinks he can do what he wants. It's strange because he is so obedient usually, but walkies seems to bring out the devil in him! :rotfl:

He hasn't had any proper training yet (although I do a lot with him in the house) which i'm not happy about, we signed him up as soon as he was old enough and just got messed about so much, we found a new one but had to wait weeks, then he was sick when he was due to start, then we went away the next week.... He starts the end of May and he will be going NO MATTER WHAT!

hayley11

cyberbob wrote: »

Totally agree. I also with our boy after putting the lead on make him sit by the door and only go out the door when he has. I then make him sit outside as well efore we go for the walk so he knows if he's calm we then go for a walk.

As Mrcol I stopped whenhe pulled untill the lead went slack then continued to walk. Initially it makes your walks much longer (and you look a bit weird) but after a while he got the hint that if he pulled he wasn't going anywhere.

The other thing that works is for you to lead him. You stand straight and walk very briskly and change direction suddenly. They then seem to realise that they need to follow you. It won't happen overnight but if you put the work in its well worth it. If you are having problems it may be worth enrolling in obediance classes

I don't think we'll have problems now. I think it's more that we haven't done enough to stop it. I've been waiting for his training to start and thinking they'll help us sort it then, not realising it would end up taking so long for him to start the training.

Thanks everybody for all the great suggestions, going to take him a walk later (even if it takes me an hour to get that damn harness on! :rotfl:) and try them out.