introducing lead on Cola with a harness (He has been trailing it up until now) - just in the garden - but the moment he feels it tighten he kindof panics a bit and starts to fight it - I tried clicking as soon as it tightened a bit so he would kindof turn back to me - which worked once but then he wasn't interested in the food. Any ideas to make it gentler for him? I remember Tamber doing this but that was 8 years ago and I can't remember what I did !
lead on harness
- Thread starter Foxy Lady
- Start date
- Location
- Cornwall , UK
I would make the sessions really short , just a few minutes at a time with much high pitched voice encouragement . Make sure you finish on a high , measure how long it takes him to start getting anxious and then aim to end the session before this happens , even if its only two minutes ! Loads of praise and a treat , maybe even scatter some kibble on the ground whilst he has the lead on , this often helps , good luck 
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
Aw poor Cola! I would start off just playing with him in your lap in the harness, whatever fun games you play and start building a little bit of harness pressure into that. If you're playing any basic retrieve games, you could start with tossing the toy and holding him back with a hand across his chest, but then transition to holding him back with the harness so he feels the pressure before the release to the toy.
This doesn't really help you, but just a comment on puppy harnesses. I introduced Bear gradually, but fairly quickly to his first harness at eight to nine weeks, and there seemed to be no problems at all. Being on lead was absolutely fine for him. However, as he started to outgrow the first harness, and it got a bit more of a close fit over his head, he started to dislike it. It's the same now he's moved up into the next size, he's ok with holding out a treat and popping it over his head, but nowhere near so eager as he was at the beginning.
So, just commiserating that our pups can be sensitive over these things, and always good to proceed slowly as suggested above. on lead for us is ok, but we are having to approach the whole getting the harness on more cautiously, whearas I though this was done and dusted.
So, just commiserating that our pups can be sensitive over these things, and always good to proceed slowly as suggested above. on lead for us is ok, but we are having to approach the whole getting the harness on more cautiously, whearas I though this was done and dusted.
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
With Squidge, I rarely walked her in her harness because she was good as gold walking on lead for the most part (I mean, I did pay a lot into that, it's not as if it just happened! 
). I only really used it when we were going somewhere new, or where there would be lots of people. I needed it most when she was an adolescent and we moved from Spain back to Andorra, because her mind was BLOWN by the snow, and with it being slippy underfoot, she had me over a few times. I was super careful introducing it, but all three of mine hate harnesses with a passion, so I'm always keen to get them onto flat collars as soon as I can. Of course, that depends totally on the dog; I wouldn't compromise their health if they were incapable of walking without pulling, obviously!
). I only really used it when we were going somewhere new, or where there would be lots of people. I needed it most when she was an adolescent and we moved from Spain back to Andorra, because her mind was BLOWN by the snow, and with it being slippy underfoot, she had me over a few times. I was super careful introducing it, but all three of mine hate harnesses with a passion, so I'm always keen to get them onto flat collars as soon as I can. Of course, that depends totally on the dog; I wouldn't compromise their health if they were incapable of walking without pulling, obviously!
Toffee walks really well on his collar and lead, but pulls a lot on his harness. I’ve been trying to stop this by standing still whenever he pulls but I seem to have inadvertently trained him to come back, walk in a circle round behind me and then wait for a treat 
. I have absolutely no idea how this has happened, at first I thought it was a coincidence but no, every time he does this little circle round me 
.
. I have absolutely no idea how this has happened, at first I thought it was a coincidence but no, every time he does this little circle round me .
- Location
- East Sussex
I think it might be a good idea to have a lightweight longline attached to the harness, with it looped up in your hands so it is normal lead length. This means you can just do a few steps of walking by your side before giving a release cue and letting the lead pay out. I would lure the few steps initially using the Absolute Dogs 'magic hand' technique whereby the treat is in the open palm of your hand and then you drop it for the dog to catch. I have found (with a couple of dogs I have worked with recently) that after a few tries you can then have an empty hand, show the dog the hand is empty and reward from a treat pot nearby - again just a few steps at first but gradually building up. I don't know if this would work with a young puppy as the dogs I have used it with have been young adults with a history of pulling.
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
I did this with W&S and I have to say, with hindsight, I think it's a really sucky approach to teaching LLW. At best, you're punishing the pulling. But, my god, HOW frustrating is it for the dog, AND the handler?! Squidge made it very clear very quickly that this was not going to work for her - she was as bright as any Labrador puppy, and really keen to please, but she just didn't join up the dots and became frustrated. Luckily, I caught the signs of that really quickly and threw the approach away totally, and went back to feeding, feeding, feeding as much as I possibly could. Yes, more than you'd think. Tossing food on the floor and marking when she lifted her head again worked really well with her, and I still use it to this day if she gets a bit of a butterfly head. It goes back to the old chestnut of: teach what you do want, not what you don't. On those occasions where she did pull towards something, I'd give her a second or two to reconnect, but if she didn't (because she was too focussed on the thing she was looking at, meaning we were too close), I'd try an attention noise, or else use my "scatter" to bring her back to me, then drip-feed her in place until she was ready to do the reorientation game again. If we were really too close to whatever it was and that thing wasn't moving away, then I'd just shorten the lead as I walked up to her, and then steer her away.
Cola does lovely heelwork in the garden - started using the puppy natural follow and just click feed for position (repeat repeat etc) etc - so we have progressed this to having the harness on and me just holding the lead and that is fine until .....a butterfly passes or ... he's a puppy !- and that was when the lead suddenly went tight on his harness and him and he panicked a bit. So this morning, I was inside with Cola + harness (so not a heelwork situation) and did a bit of food in one hand while I held him on his harness and encouraged him to pull into his harness over to get the food from my other hand, which I think is kindof what snowbunny was suggesting in her first post (I don't want to risk anything possibly negative with his retrieve or his recall) but I thought he might get used to the sensation of being restrained by the harness. Well I don't know, but it didn't seem to bother him and he was quite happy to "pull" against me holding him to get to the food in my other hand. There weren't any distractions on our heelwork this morning - it was raining and all the butterflies had gone, so, no tight leads which was good. Its just hard when you take them out and about when young to completely avoid tight leads - which is why I use the harness. I think I'll try and do a bit more letting him feel what it feels like with a reward, but out of context of "heeling" and see how it goes
I agree with this - when Cola is older I'll get him a "perfect fit" harness which fastens round the head as well as round the middle - I find with Cola if the fit is right when on, its OK to put the harness over his head, but taking it off back over his head is a bit of a tight fit. Its hard because we need to have it on and use it in order to get puppies out and about to see the world etc but safely.
yes - with Jaffa I did cannicross so eventually the harness was def for pulling (please!) but not as a puppy
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
Yep, that’s the sort of thing I was suggesting- get him used to pressure on the harness in a fun situation where it can easily be associated with nice things, so it’s not so much of a shock and a strange sensation when you’re out and about.
Thanks for this @snowbunny , I’m definitely going to change my approach, I’m pretty certain I taught LLW on the collar and lead this way so I don’t know why I’ve gone the other way with the harness.