advise on dog walking

dianeg, I can't speak for anyone else, but as for my dog on the loose-leash issue -- Ace was a 8 m/o shelter dog when I adopted him.  He is a 50 lb. lab/husky mix.  He came with a horrible, horrible pulling problem that was deeply ingrained.  Huskies are bred to pull and he was a master.  I am relatively small woman and I found the dog unwalkable on a flat collar. 
 
Two weeks to train this out of him?  No way, no how.  Not my dog.  I have spent literally hundreds of hours walking in circles in front of my driveway and around the neighborhood working on this.  I am a  tree.  I assess penalty yards.  I walk backwards.  I did clicker training.  I use cubes of meat and cheese as treats.  We went to obedience class and they worked with us there on it.  Even with all of that, and even while wearing an easy-walk, this dog pulls, pulls, pulls.  He came with some leash aggression issues, too, so leash control was essential for me to keep him safe and under control while we worked on that. 
 
Nearly two years later and he's improved sooooo much.  I am not just using the harness, I am doing training every time he wears it, and it is helping.  We went camping a month or so ago, and I forgot his easy-walk, and I was amazed and so pleased that we could go on a short walk without my arm being pulled out of its socket.  But still, on any collar, every single walk involves a fair amount of being a tree, walking backwards, no-reward markers, treats, etc.  I mean every single walk we take.  He is smart and an excellent learner, but two weeks?  Uh uh.  I would love to get there eventually, I hope we will, but this is and has been a *huge* training challenge for this dog.  
 
I just don't think you can generalize that this is a super easy thing to teach all dogs, or that everyone using a special collar is lax or too lazy to train.  I know I'm not. 
 

Pulling and walking in front does not have to be an issue. It's easy to fix. It is one of the first things clients often want to control. The type of leash and it's placement is important. I use a kennel lead placed high on their neck, right behind their skull and simply do a quick little upward tug and release when they pull. They understand, they're happy and the issue is resolved in less than 10 minutes the first time we walk. It really is that simple. Usually after the first few walks, I can drop the leash and they choose to walk with me, off leash.

It puzzles me that most of you just don't teach your dogs to walk on a loose lead.....most of you seem to be very interested in dogs, behavior, nutrition, etc. But you choose to use a halti or harness rather than spend a couple of weeks teaching the dog not to pull. Loose lead walking is relatively easy to teach, doesn't involve a lot of correction and isn't harmful to the dog.

 
You're making a false assumption. Just because someone uses a halti or harness doesn't mean they're not training. I got my dog as a puppy and as you know puppies aren't born knowing how to walk on a loose lead. I got a Sense-ible harness to help me train loose leash walking. We continued to use the harness for a while because I just liked it, until his fur got so long the harness was causing matts. We switched to a flat collar and he still walks just as nicely on a loose leash - because I trained him.

Diane, would you mind posting some of your tips for accomplishing this in a two week period?  Max is using the prong now, but every now and then he still takes the occasional lunge.

Joyce

The prong worked wonders on Sammy!  All it took was one pull on his part and a little correction on my part and he walks perfectly. No pulling what so ever. I tried the GL, the martingale(he likes to slip the colllar), a harness, a flat buckle collar, etc...,nothing worked, except the prong.