new regime has started,being strict with dog

[evo]

ok all,

 

I have an English Springer Spaniel, he is now eight months old and has been enjoying his puppy time mixed in with a bit of light training ie fetching a dummy, coming back to the whistle, sit, stop,etc.

 

now when I take him out to the fishery it gives me a bit of time to let him expel some of his energy, he loves it, running round in the long grass ,bouncing like a spring lamb, you can see he is enjoying himself,

 

now I have been walking him from home to the park twice a day, on the walk too the park he seems to want to pull a lot and no matter how much I tell him to heel he always wants to walk in front of me not pulling badly but pulling all the same,

 

I spoke with the gundog trainer at one of the shoots I beat at (not with the dog)and he has told me to hold the handle of the lead in my right hand and hold the length of the lead in my left hand with my arm down by my side, if the dog pulls then just tug back on the lead,do not let him walk infront of me, is this correct ?

 

I have tried this and all I can say is my bloody hand is killing me,, others have told me you cannot do this with a springer, a Labrador yes but not a springer, I must say once we have been the park he walks to heel fine all the way home,

 

is it his excitement that is making him pull ? , I now feel like I,m being too strict with him,

 

I only want to use him as my gundog and will not be taking him beating but if and when I do (when he is ready as I don't want to ruin him) I will use him to stand behind the gun and pick up,,

 

should I keep him on the lead at all times until I have got his heel work sorted because when I first take him off the lead hes off like a shot running and sniffing about,and for 10 mins will ignore me when I call him, but once he lets that energy burst off,will come back to the whistle nearly all the time 9/10 times.

 

he is a very calm pup in the home and not mad, but I,m thinking, start being more strict with him or he will end up a mad hatter, am I thinking right by keeping him on the lead or should I let him off ?

 

should I leave the whistle alone (even though he comes back to me when called) until I have sorted the heal work out, what is worrying me is hes a pup and am I asking too much of him for his age ?

 

should I be a bit more strict with him ,

 

any help is truelly appreciated

 

cheers Evo

 

 

[fenboy]

I am no expert and cannot help you with much , but do not set yourself up to fail with the recall , my lab pup is just the same as yours recall is fine until he gets sniffing the ground then it is a waste of time .

The answer is do not recall when they are doing this , just wait until he has his head up then recall , this way the dog is not learning to ignore you , praise him when he is back .

 

As for him pulling on the lead , try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VVYoypyRe0&feature=player_detailpage

It will take a little while for him to get used to it but will stop him pulling as he cannot get his head down , and it will save you the arm ache

[cheesypeas]

evo, you have just described my ESS down to a T, mine is 7 months old and displays exactly the same behaviors, I shall watch this thread with interest as im also at a loss as to what action to take with him.

I don't want him not to enjoy being a puppy, but equally I don't want him to get in to habbits I can't undo.

[bi9johnny]

Obedience training / walk ring me. Cannot do tonight but def tomorrow fir and Saturday daytime if you want

[kent]

Heck, seems your a bit down on things. You cant fix all this in one go- time to start training from scratch (many don't start till the dog is about this age so you haven't failed till you give in). Good hunting spanners rarely walk well to heel and most except it of lower importance than good in-range hunting

[pigeonblasterian]

This is the way i got my springer to walk to heel.

Make sure your lead is slack and if the dog is heeling on the left hold the lead in the right hand.

Start with the dog at your side and walk off encouraging the dog to walk with you.

If the dog walks on just take a quick step back and at the same time give the lead a guick shake as though cracking a whip.

Get the dog to come back to your side give it some praise and stroke it while holding it against your leg.

It is a bit tedious but mine does not pull on the lead at all now.

Only trouble is she knows when she is not on the lead.

[lee-kinsman]

Why train him to heel at 8 months? Only in the last months have I trained my ESS bitch to heel and she's 17months old now. All her other training is spot on, she'll do 200+yds onto a blind, quarter, drop to flush/shot, re-call etc). Teach tthe dog to walk well on the lead, I did this early on at about 6months old, I do a sharp pull to the side and say leave that.

[figgy]

If your wantng a peg dog a spaniel is not the best choice.

 

There are a fair few different ways of teaching to walk at heel.

 

I swing my stick or end of lead in front of mine if he tries to ignore my command and push ahead of me, he soon stops as he sees the stick or lead coming and does as told, their not daft just try it on at times. All dogs have their own personalities mine is not soft and and needs a firm hand as he will ignore you if he thinks he can get away with it. A friends dog is very soft and a word is enough where as mine needs a deep growl or you can sod off.

 

Some good videos online to watch.

 

Figgy

[Cookie69]

Im glad its not just me.

my 6mth old cocker pulls like mad on the lead going on the walk, but isn't to bad on our return

I have tried changing direction as soon as the lead goes tight and it seemed to work and I thought I had cracked it at one stage.

but he is back to pulling again

I cant believe the power he has for such a young dog.

 

I was also told by a gun dog trainer not to get to hung up on heal work to early, but he did show me how to use a slip lead correctly.

and it dose work to a fashion.

 

place the slip lead over the dogs head with the metal ring to the right hand side.

the lead is put quite high up the dogs neck, sort of above were an Adams apple would be and under the jaw

the top of the lead were the metal ring and rubber stop is, needs to be high up on the back of the neck so its almost in-between his ears.

hope that makes sense?

and its quite amazing how the dog is reluctant to pull, the only trouble I have is keeping the lead in this position for long

and if it finds its way below the (adams apple) so to speak, around the base of the neck he pulls like mad again.

I just stop and readjust the lead.

 

Ill get back to the heal training at a latter date.

 

i'm no expert by any means, i have a lot to learn.

but might be worth trying this if you haven't already even if it's for temporary hand relief .

jus realised how that sounded

 

ATB

Paul

 

 

.

[Dave1087]

It is far better for the dogs neck if you just do a figure of 8 with your slip lead and then it takes the strain of the neck when the dog try's to pull so meny dogs get damaged windpipe from people pulling the dog by there leads

The best way I have found is to put some primula cheese (puppy crack) on your hand/fingers on the hand you have your dog walking on hold the lead with the other hand let the dog lick it of your fingers and say heal

All the training I do with my 6 dogs is positive reinforcement training you have my number evo if you want any help from me just give me a call you helps me with the night vision build

Edited January 16, 2014 by Dave1087

[evo]

thanks for all the replies chaps,, just glad its not just me that has the problem,

 

he is a very head strong dog and tries it on often but once I ignore him he knows he,s doing wrong and starts to behave,

 

also hes not a pet he will be a full working dog for my shooting,

 

I have also tried the lead high up as I was told to do this butonly problem is he starts to cough as if he,s chocking himself which puts me off doing it,

 

think I,ll just spend more time with him on the lead and not letting him run mad when at the park, it will kill me in the end not seeing him run round enjoying himself but he has to learn who is boss and its not him lol

 

john I,ll give ya a bell Friday mate, up the wall at the moment trying to crack a zeiss scope with my kits,,think its done now though ha ha,

 

thanks again all for your help

 

cheers Bob

[labstaff]

Personally I'm not bother about a good heel position with my spaniel, as long as its some where near I'm happy. As a point, do you always walk the same route to the park? If so, the dog knows its a fun place and wants to get there quick, its not looking to you for guidance of where it is going. Try mixing your routes up,, cross the road randomly, walk different places, in short keep the dog guessing where you are going.

[Guest]

My dog heels just so her head in front of my leg off the lead,on a normal training session or just walking down the road.

 

When we are rough shooting or beating she does pull a bit,but i don't enforce it because i want her keen.

 

My view is and it's only my view......If you want a dog to follow your back leg Labs are the best for that,i got told that you can break a spaniels enthusiasm if you teach them to heel when there to young.

 

I tried many ways and it was probably the hardest and longest time i have spent on heel work, out of all the training i have done with her.

 

What worked for me was having a very thick cotton rope lead with a large slip on it(made it my self with deer sinew to hold it together) I held the lead with two hands in the middle of my chest and The the dog got in front i would just change direction quickly,i would keep on doing that until she got the message.

 

Best Regards

 

Neil

[evo]

took m dog for his normal 5 mile walk tonight and thought I would try 2 new things to improve his heel work,

 

1st,,,,, I put a dozen of his treats in my pocket and made sure he was watching me do it and also gave him a treat as I put them in my pocket,

 

2nd,,,,, I decided to use his stick which I made from 15mm plastic plumbing pipe with coloured tape around,

 

ok now for the walk, I decided to take him to the park first, as I was walking him to the park I held the lead short in my left hand with a treat in my hand and the handle loop and his stick I held in my right hand,

I kept the lead slack and with the stick in my right hand placed it across me so as it was going across my left leg and in front of the dogs face, this was causing the dog to stop going forward and every time he tried to go in front of me I very lightly tapped his nose telling him to heel, he would immediately step back at which time I would say good boy and give him the treat with my left hand,

after the first three times he was getting the hint, the stick going across my legs in front of him was working and as soon as he tried to pull forward I would just raise and lower it and call heel and he would step back to my side, once doing this he would get another treat,

as I was walking he would constantly keep looking up at my left hand which was holding the lead close. as my arm was down by my side , he was constantly looking for a treat and this certainly took his mind off the park as normally my hand would be hurting by the time I got there through constantly tugging back to stop him pulling, tonight I did 5 miles also a full walk around the park and only on about 8 occasions did he try to pull away in front of me,

 

having the stick across me and also carrying a treat in my hand has seemed to have stopped him being over keen to get to the park, it was an absolute pleasure to walk him tonight and my hand is not sore at last lol,

 

I,ll keep this going 2moro evening just to see if it works again, oh and I even returned home with 4 treats in my pocket which I let him have for being good when we got in, I hope this continues to work as well as it did tonight

 

cheers Evo

[The Essex Hunter]

My cocker is quite forward at 6 months according to a coupe of friends who have seen him, they both working springer's and cockers.

I use a 6 mtr slip lead so he can use his nose while I maintain contact.

Every day I learn something so take note of it, they do react to how you are which can affect the task you set yourself and the pup.

I use a different field nearly every time we go out, He starts on the lead then off the lead for a number 2's etc, then back on the long lead to get us both in touch before working on stuff.

From what I have seen springer's and cockers are on the move all the time so I wont take that away from mine by making him walk to heel, he is good on the lead which is important for control, however they are born to hunt so walking at my side part is of less importance to me...

 

TEH

 

 

 

[fenboy]

I know a dog needs exercise but a 5 mile walk at his age is perhaps too much too soon , you may be storing problems up for the future, far better to take him out and let him have a short period of free running , you can work on the heel work round the garden , just my opinion of course .

[al4x]

Agreed it's definitely above the ideal amount of exercise for a couple more months

[Mickthemiller]

A friend of mine who trains dogs explained that a dog pulls because he knows where you are going and can't wait to get there.

What he does with all his dogs right from when they are pups is take them onto the lawn, or into a field and then wander around in irregular patterns giving the dog no idea where he was going to walk to next, and then when the dog is put on the lead if it got in front he would turn left in its way and then turn right to keep him guessing.

It certainly worked for him and it is worth a try

 

Anybody else tried this

 

Mick

[PERCE]

I do this, I think it helps to get the dog to focus on you. I rarely put a lead on a young dog before it's 6 months & I've found that by training this way I can get away with doing minimal heel work on the lead. The last Lab I had from a pup did virtually all it's heel work training without a lead, she is very soft though & this may have helped. I also wouldn't be that fussed about lead training of any kind on a young spaniel, it's very low priority.