Mercy: 4-year-old pound hound with behavior and anxiety problems.
You know that big long agonizing topic on how to get Mercy to walk on a leash nicely? Well, it must've done something because Mercy "got it" quite suddenly, and is now heeling. No kidding--I would've been happy with just 'not pulling at the leash', but she's walking at heel like she's done it all her life!
The things that seem to have done it for Mercy, initially only worked for Mercy's owner but now work for me too, since Mercy seems to have "generalized" them (finally!).
First we don't allow her to come out of the door until one of us comes out first, and then calls her. Clip the leash on, go outside, tell Mercy to stay (which--amazingly, considering her runaway record--she does, at least for a few seconds), then tell her "let's go" and put her on "heel". It works--Mercy's attention is much more focused on the person with her now.
I am still using a choke collar, but now that she's not pulling anymore, correcting her is a matter of a slight tug which is really just enough for Mercy to feel; and only happens about once a block. It's like pulling on a well-trained horse's reins now...I'm much happier about walks now that there's no discomfort in it for Mercy.
Her owner has already moved on to a normal collar; but Mercy isn't secure enough with me to pay attention only to me when she feels threatened by something--a big truck or a strange dog or a neighbor--and the choke collar seems to be a good way to get her to focus back on me. If I had to pull on a normal collar, I would probably have to pull harder... As it is, we've gotten a lighter, broader choke collar than we used to have, and that's also helpful both in getting Mercy to notice it and in preventing injury. I'll be glad when I can unfailingly get her to focus on me with voice only, even when she's afraid or excited; because that's when I can stop using collars.
The important thing, I think, is that Mercy has finally figured out that when you're on a walk, you have to pay attention to the person on the other end of the leash. We have been using the "make unexpected turns" tactic to keep her attention on us; also, she's told to sit whenever we stop, so she has to be on the ball because we could just stop in the middle of the sidewalk, and if she isn't paying attention she'll miss us making a turn or stopping or whatever.
Possibly her problem was with making an association with being outside the fence to trying to run away from people; with her history of Houdini-ing her way out of the yard and then making a game of getting away from the humans, it took her a while to get that when you're on a walk, you might be outside, but it doesn't make sense to try to run away or chase smells.
The whole thing with Mercy learning how to walk on a leash properly happened just this past week and a half, when she and Bear (our GSD youngster) escalated their snapping and snarling at each other and Mercy's owner began a fitness program, resulting in a commitment to daily walks (for a tired dog and a fit owner!). Having the commands repeated every day for a half hour, for ten days or so, apparently finally got it through to Mercy. I can tell she enjoys walks more now, too; her tail is waving casually side to side as she walks, and she looks more confident.
I wasn't there to see it, but Mercy's owner reported a true miracle to me: At the end of a really long, one and a half hour walk in freezing weather, Mercy and her owner were both cold and tired, and had one block before they were home. (We have a doggy sweater for Mercy to wear when it's cold. It's very cute.) Mercy hadn't pulled on the leash for a long time; so Mercy's owner tried dropping the leash to drag behind the dog--and
Mercy stayed right beside her for an entire block! If you will remember just how prone Mercy is to getting out and running around the neighborhood, you will understand just how much of a miracle that is... Mercy being tired, it being cold, and the week's walking practice, made it possible.
We are very happy over here... Mercy is becoming the best behaved dog in the house!