# 12 week old male pulling on leash



## Guns12 (Oct 19, 2012)

Our 12 week old male Gunner listens well and always sits and stays when asked in the house. But as soon as he is on the leash outside he will not stop pulling ahead of me. I correct him with "sit" and he listens and won't move until I do but then goes a head and pulls. He is small now but in the next few months I'm assuming he will just get harder and harder to control on the leash and the tugging will get worse as he gets bigger. I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on how to correct this or if its just him being a curious puppy that is just excited to be outside is this just a "puppy thing" or a serious problem? Any thoughts? 


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

you don't have a problem. train and socialize.
find a trainer.


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## Guns12 (Oct 19, 2012)

Yeah that's what I was thinking I have a 8 yr old lab male too so he plays with him a lot and we let him be around friends dogs and other people all the time so I'm sure it's more of a training thing thanks for your input 


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

This is not a "puppy thing" OR a serious problem! You just need to train him how to walk nicely on leash - right now he has no idea what's expected of him. And rather than correcting him for doing it wrong, why don't you reward him for doing it right? He'll learn much faster, especially if you never reinforce pulling by letting him move forward when he does pull.

These techniques are great for teaching loose leash walking: Leash Walking Ahimsa Dog Blog

I used the "silky leash" technique on that link, as well as the "Canine cha-cha", and I also rewarded for eye contact and for being in the "sweet spot" - basically #1 through #4.


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## Guns12 (Oct 19, 2012)

I will try some of those on the link I'm new to the puppy walking. Our older dog we adopted at 4yrs old and he already had been trained on the leash. 


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## wildrivers (Sep 28, 2011)

I have a 14 month old female. She pulled like crazy. I tryed the sensi harness, I tryed the flat collar. The thing that worked was the gentle leader or a head holti and training her that good things come from being in a heel position. I reward her every other time she moves into a heel placement, not perfect but a close heel. I trained her to learn what heel was FIRST. I only reward her when she does it now on her own and if I ask her. I will fade out treats eventually but not right now. She is still young and I want to influence her to be at my left hand by my knee. I also find that not letting the full 6ft. of leash out allows me better control. A positive reinforcement trainer can help with teaching a heel off leash, once they learn this on leash, loose leash is fairly easy. It takes a ton of time and a ton of effort and right when you think they got it they lose it. Just be consistant and dont get emotional about them stepping out or pulling every now and again. Simply remind them to heel or walk close. No pup should ever have to hold a heel for the whole walk so learn to teach it to "walk easy" where the dog walks a short distance in front or at a distance along the side of you rather then always heeling.


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## cliffson1 (Sep 2, 2006)

I dont see the problem with a twelve week old puppy pulling while walking if he/she has never to been to obedience training. I let my pups pull at this age because I dont ever like to give a dog a command that they wont comply with or I know they havent learned to comply with. It teaches them to not take our commands seriously....I know a 12 week old puppy that hasnt gone through obedience school, doesnt know how to walk like I want them to, so I let them pull until I am ready to teach them formally how to walk without pulling.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

Cliffson1 - if I could please get some advice on this....If you are training a young dog to track on leash, therefore allowing him to forge head, but don't want him to forge ahead while not on a track would you utilize a different collar to help him understand the difference? Or would that cause too much confusion on a young dog (under a year old). 

Or should the dog understand when the command to work the track is given, then he is allowed to forge ahead? 

Dang, I'm confusing myself trying to ask the question.....


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## cliffson1 (Sep 2, 2006)

I track my pups on a flat collar that I only use when I track until they get old enough to track on fur saver. I walk my pups on a different collar. It doesnt take them long to know the one collar means we are tracking and then that transitions into them doing it on the command itself with any collar by the time they are say 1 year. When I walk pups I really just let them do pretty much what they want and control them by how much lease I give them as I approach say the corner and a street. I do not give them commands while walking except for sit at a corner and then I take off from the corner with my left foot first but I dont give any command....hope that makes sense.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

cliffson1 said:


> I track my pups on a flat collar that I only use when I track until they get old enough to track on fur saver. I walk my pups on a different collar. It doesnt take them long to know the one collar means we are tracking and then that transitions into them doing it on the command itself with any collar by the time they are say 1 year. When I walk pups I really just let them do pretty much what they want and control them by how much lease I give them as I approach say the corner and a street. I do not give them commands while walking except for sit at a corner and then I take off from the corner with my left foot first but I dont give any command....hope that makes sense.


Perfect sense! Thanks so much!


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## Jenna&Me (Sep 27, 2012)

Cliffson I am so glad to hear you say that about walking on the lead when young.

Jenna (12 weeks old tomorrow) comes to work with me and due to lots of cars coming and going she is on a lead while in our workshop or going to the toilet.

Of course she pulls (specially when busting to go lol). I was worried that I might be teaching her bad habits that will be difficult to break but I have not yet started any training with the lead.

She is funny when with our other little puppy. Very much wanting to play so bouncing around all over. On a short walk the other night she walked backwards on the lead for about 30 seconds cos she was watching the other puppy. It would have looked quite bizarre to anyone watching.


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## apenn0006 (Jun 22, 2012)

Ours was always so easy to walk when he was young and then I noticed at around this age as yours that he would start pulling. I could still easily control him and our walks were still nice and easy. The older he got the harder he pulled at the bginning of the walk but then he would stay in loose leash heel the rest of the way. Fast forward to 5.5 mos old and one day he lunged at a pretty cocker spaniel wanting to play with her. I then realized he had gotten too strong for me. I bought a prong collar last week and it took only a couple corrections for him to learn what I was wanting. I feel confidence again and he is perfect walking now. I took him running this morning and he was so well behaved and didn't pull once. Before I get slammed about needing more training, I always treat and praise when we are walking. The prong has been more for me so I feel comfortable in controlling him until we can get him into more training.


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