Escape Artist

[Guest Anonymous]

My dog is a lab/rottie mix and I love her to death, but she's terrible on the leash. When she was a puppy, she was relatively good, with the occasional refusal to move (lol brings back memories of carrying a 15 pound puppy nearly a quarter of a mile!). But now it seems I can never take her out anywhere on a leash, because she pulls so hard and has learned how to turn around, facing me, and pull so her collar comes off over her head. I even bought her a harness, but somehow she managed to wiggle her way out of that one too. I haven't taken her out on a walk for about three weeks now, becuase I still haven't been able to figure out how to keep her confined while on the walk. Someone told me that I should buy a second leash and make her wear both a harness and a collar at the same time, so if she does try and wiggle her way out of them, I'd beable to stop her in time before she got both of them off. Is there some miracle collar out there that can contain even the most wild of dogs?

[Smooshie]

Oh my! Thats an awfully large mix to have to wrestle with everytime you go for a walk!! Have you tried taking her to obedience classes?If not ,I would DEFINATELY sign her up for some.....if she's HAD obedience already, well it never hurts to sign her up for MORE...especially since she's such a handful on lead. I would consult with your trainer on the best collar/training device to use...and always walk her armed with plenty of her favorite treats....no treats when she pulls....reward reward reward when she's NOT fighting you....food bribery goes a long way :wink:
Good luck and keep us all posted on her progress!!

[Smooshie]

Oh and I don't know if it will be helpful or not,but I have had success using a head halter (halti, gentle leader) on my dog. He came to me with the philosophy that the definition of "walk" was "drag mom around the yard like a ragdoll".The Gentle leader corrected this behavior almost immediately. Some dogs don't adapt to it as readily though, and I can't vouch for how escape proof it is....my Boxer never tried to escape his lead....I guess he felt that pulling me along with him was part of the "fun" :wink:

[Guest Anonymous]

[quote name='Charlotte']My dog is a lab/rottie mix and I love her to death, but she's terrible on the leash. When she was a puppy, she was relatively good, with the occasional refusal to move (lol brings back memories of carrying a 15 pound puppy nearly a quarter of a mile!). But now it seems I can never take her out anywhere on a leash, because she pulls so hard and has learned how to turn around, facing me, and pull so her collar comes off over her head. I even bought her a harness, but somehow she managed to wiggle her way out of that one too. I haven't taken her out on a walk for about three weeks now, becuase I still haven't been able to figure out how to keep her confined while on the walk. Someone told me that I should buy a second leash and make her wear both a harness and a collar at the same time, so if she does try and wiggle her way out of them, I'd beable to stop her in time before she got both of them off. Is there some miracle collar out there that can contain even the most wild of dogs?

I suggest taking a look at www.gentleleader.com to see the training tool most behaviorists suggest in your situation.
It sounds to me like you need some in person help with your dog to make her the nice pet she should be so I also suggest you find a local obedience trainer familiar with head halters and positive training methods to help you out with her.

[Guest Anonymous]

I have your escape artist partner here!
Ruby suddenly decided she didn't want to go forward for my husband after getting out of the car.
She put the brakes on, and my husband (just as stubborn) kept pulling on the harness. Well, neither was winning the tug-of-war, so the harness lost! She totally slipped out of it & her scarf came off with it.
Alan was stunned, but tried to "command" her to come over to her :lol:
Of course, she looked at him, looked around & did an "I'm Free" run!
Thankfully, she ran right to me "Look Mommy what I did!" :D
(Apartment complex parking lot could have been dangerous...whew! :o )
She still had her collar on, so I called her close (in a nice voice) & brought her back over to my bewildered husband & put the leash on the collar.

She tried that again later that same day!
When I saw it happening I told my husband to stop pulling, and commanded Ruby to Sit. That worked!!! :D
I then tightened the harness a little bit, so it didn't slide from side to side with a tug.

Sorry to be long winded, but my advice is to teach your dog the sit command (If not known, yet). Stopping the struggle stopped the harness from coming off. It worked for me!

Good Luck!

[Guest Anonymous]

I know all about what's happening. I had a female Akita before, and you know(or not) hthat they are big dogs and they are VERY strong.Well, we started out wrong with our akita, but then we called a trainer and we kind of worked it out.This isn't the solution to the escaping part though, just the walking nice part.First check if the collar size is right, which is being able to slip ONLY 2 fingers between the collar and your dog's neck. If it's not correct, tighten it(or loosen). Tell her to sit before you let her out the door, and then start walking out.The monent she starts pulling, stop and don't move until you feel the leash loosen up.Once it does that, walk forward, and stop again when she pulls.Keep doing that, and I know it'll take about 10 minutes to walk just a lttile bit, but she'll learn that if she pulls, she won't go anywhere. Unless she doesn't like going for walks(or if you let her walk when she's pulling), this should work after a few times. I can't help the escaping part because my dog never got out of the collar.Hope this helps

[Guest Anonymous]

Thank you for the "No pulling" tip!
Now if I could just train my Husband!!! :lol: :D :P :roll: