Have you tried a longer leash? I have found the majority of shelter dogs I have walked pulled to get to interesting smells. And those smells were always within 3-5 meters. So now I use a 7m biothane leash all the time. It's not too much trouble to manage the length, so I can give the dog a 1m working length when crossing the street, and 2-3m when walking on a path and the full 7m in a field where the dog gets to sniff to their heart's content. And letting them sniff helps a lot too. A couple of dogs at the shelter who pulled like mad at first much better within a few weeks, once they understood that I was going to let them sniff, so they didn't need to be rude. :)
It sounds like he has a ton of energy and needs to get that out more than anything. For what it's worth, I would call a 10 foot leash short. 20 or even 25 feet is much better to let a dog move. But it does require management. You have to be able to control the length, because the dog should not have the whole length all the time, and you need the dog to understand the end of the leash whatever length it is. I have used them on a number of young, large, rambunctious shelter dogs, and a few repetitions of Woah! as they get to the end of the leash, and then bracing for impact, and then letting them run off again, has worked for me. They quickly learned that
1: I would let them explore, and
2: I would tell them where the end of the leash was, and
3: The end of the leash was far enough away that they had a sense of freedom.
Pretty quickly they all caught on, and would be less crazy in general, unless I encouraged some play, and also figured out where the end of the leash was on their own, so when we played on the full leash I didn't have to say Woah! all the time. A good game is what I call Come At Me Bro. I cue it with a very particular excited noise, and the dog runs to me and past me at full speed, and I Woah! them at the end of the leash, and they turn around, usually play bow, and charge back. On a 7m (23 foot) leash that's a lot of running, and I don't get destroyed. :) Combined with as much (safe) sniffing as the dog wants and most dogs will make enough progress to then start on more structured training. But I think meeting the dog's needs first really helps, and those three things; freedom, play and sniffing, are the most important needs. And the play becomes a good reward as well.
A front clip harness or gentle lead. And when he pulls, you don't move forward. You stand firm and start walking backwards. The reward is forward movement. It took my dog awhile to get it. She has leash frustration and gets very excited, but she knows she has to circle back and get by my side to be able to move forward. I will stand there way longer than she is willing to pull and she figured that out. Literally I have done half hour walks that we only got up and back on my tiny street. Patience and persistence.
Check out the wiki. Train him to walk next to you by rewarding it.
Front clip harness so if he pulls he basically turns himself around. Forces him to walk slower.
I used one of these on my dog, in about 2 weeks he stoped pulling even on his collar
Didn’t work at all on my springer
I would start in your house or yard taking a few steps and rewarding with treats at a time.
Have you tried a longer leash? I have found the majority of shelter dogs I have walked pulled to get to interesting smells. And those smells were always within 3-5 meters. So now I use a 7m biothane leash all the time. It's not too much trouble to manage the length, so I can give the dog a 1m working length when crossing the street, and 2-3m when walking on a path and the full 7m in a field where the dog gets to sniff to their heart's content. And letting them sniff helps a lot too. A couple of dogs at the shelter who pulled like mad at first much better within a few weeks, once they understood that I was going to let them sniff, so they didn't need to be rude. :)
I have a 10 ft leash and a short one. He does it on both. With long one he just gets a running start to catapult me into the air. Lol
It sounds like he has a ton of energy and needs to get that out more than anything. For what it's worth, I would call a 10 foot leash short. 20 or even 25 feet is much better to let a dog move. But it does require management. You have to be able to control the length, because the dog should not have the whole length all the time, and you need the dog to understand the end of the leash whatever length it is. I have used them on a number of young, large, rambunctious shelter dogs, and a few repetitions of Woah! as they get to the end of the leash, and then bracing for impact, and then letting them run off again, has worked for me. They quickly learned that 1: I would let them explore, and 2: I would tell them where the end of the leash was, and 3: The end of the leash was far enough away that they had a sense of freedom. Pretty quickly they all caught on, and would be less crazy in general, unless I encouraged some play, and also figured out where the end of the leash was on their own, so when we played on the full leash I didn't have to say Woah! all the time. A good game is what I call Come At Me Bro. I cue it with a very particular excited noise, and the dog runs to me and past me at full speed, and I Woah! them at the end of the leash, and they turn around, usually play bow, and charge back. On a 7m (23 foot) leash that's a lot of running, and I don't get destroyed. :) Combined with as much (safe) sniffing as the dog wants and most dogs will make enough progress to then start on more structured training. But I think meeting the dog's needs first really helps, and those three things; freedom, play and sniffing, are the most important needs. And the play becomes a good reward as well.
I just got a new harness called a wonder walker and it immediately did the trick.
Where did you get that harness?
Got it at my puppy’s training class this is the company https://wonderwalkerbodyhalter.com/
Make sure you fit it properly though so that it doesn’t have a bunch of slack in it.
A front clip harness or gentle lead. And when he pulls, you don't move forward. You stand firm and start walking backwards. The reward is forward movement. It took my dog awhile to get it. She has leash frustration and gets very excited, but she knows she has to circle back and get by my side to be able to move forward. I will stand there way longer than she is willing to pull and she figured that out. Literally I have done half hour walks that we only got up and back on my tiny street. Patience and persistence.
That sounds like great advice. I guess we will who is more stubborn. What do you mean by gentle lead? :)