We've been starting to do some leash work with Kivi Tarro. He's 13 weeks tomorrow, so we're trying to get him out and about a lot. He's actually quite good on the leash naturally and doesn't tend to pull. At puppy class yesterday the trainer started putting no pull harnesses on all the puppies. I said I didn't want to put one on Kivi. I watched it on the little Weim puppy and it seemed like it was pretty much designed to be uncomfortable. KT has a whole lot more fur than a Weim, but he doesn't pull much anyway and it seemed like it was pretty much flying in the face of my philosophy, which is to do things as gently as possible. I've already got KT a body harness for leash work because it doesn't upset him when he feels the pressure on it like the collar does. When he feels pressure on his collar, he starts bucking. When he feels pressure on the harness, he leans into it, I stop and call him, he races to my side and sits and I give him a jackpot for coming so well and we set out again.
Anyway, the trainer was fine with me not wanting to put one of these harnesses on him and we discussed what I was doing. She wanted me to use a martingale instead because she thought a dog needed the feedback that they were at the end of the leash and pulling. So I've been walking Kivi a lot on a 5m long line where I can. He ranges out or drops behind and when he gets near the end I say his name once. If he keeps going, he hits the end and starts pulling. Then I call him back using my recall vocal cue "KiviKiviKivi!!". If he hears that he races over at top speed, sits at my feet and gets his jackpot. He hasn't failed that one yet. Or I call him back this way "Kivi, c'mere" which is I guess a less urgent come he can ignore if he likes. If he ignores, we wait until he calms down a bit and try again. Eventually he comes back to me because it's boring out there at the end of the leash not going anywhere. When he starts to come back he gets "Kivi, c'mere" and one treat if he comes back to my side whether he sits or not and we walk on. He's getting good with this and generally comes back the first time I said "Kivi, c'mere", but not at a run, which is what I was after. On the short leash, we walk at my side and when he starts getting ahead, I stop and say sit. He comes back and sits, gets his treat, and won't move until I tell him to walk on. My partner nearly left him at training last night because he didn't tell him to walk on! He was waiting in his sit at the end of his leash. I honestly don't know what that's about. I only introduced walk on to get him to leave his sit in the first place. I'm using sit as a pretty major crutch. I ask him to sit as soon as he looks like he's going to hit the end of the leash, and it's only a short puppy leash. He's doing quite beautiful walks down the road at my side, using my speed to tell him when he needs to plant his rear more than my voice or hand signals. When he's good and focused, he'll sit on his own as soon as his shoulder passes my body. This all disolves the moment he sees a person or dog, but he's only a puppy and he's been in my yard for the last month. He wants to sit at the feet of everyone he sets eyes on and do his puppy "can I lick your face?" wriggles. People walking home from work at night in work clothes and stockings don't often want to cuddle puppies. Even devilishly cute Lappie puppies. But anyway, we just wait it out.
So I guess this all comes back to whether you see the leash as control or backup? I can see why people want to take the easy route out with puppies and leash training and go for the no pull harness. Instant control. I guess at that age you can probably abandon the harness once they've got the hang of it. But is it the easy route? Is there any reason not to do it that way? From my perspective, what's important to me is that I don't rely on the leash. I expect he'll be on a longline for, like, the next year, but at the moment he's allowed to trail it sometimes and we'll adjust that depending on where he's at that day with recall. I don't like tight leashes. I don't like teaching on a tight leash. I don't like feeling like I need the leash. Ultimately, I want the leash to be backup and my voice the control. So am I going about this the right way? Do you think a no pull harness or something similar on a puppy that isn't a big puller to start with compromises my efforts to teach voice control, or is it just another step on the ladder to voice control? How did you teach loose leash walking and are leashes control or backup for you?