Leash training a Dalmatian

Our leash training has been a little up and down. I started Lusi walking in a harness and at 5 months old she was quite good. At our agility classes she learned the beginning basics of heel work and was responding very nicely to this training with one caveat...coming into the building and leaving it she was always very excited and pulled a lot. In contrast, when she arrived for her tracking class, she was very much calmer..but this was an outdoor venue in a natural setting and even when there more dogs actually present on the parking lot, the whole atmosphere was much calmer.


Up until I hurt my foot just prior to the holidays I was almost exclusively the handler at all times. This changed somewhat when both my husband and daughter helped to exercise Lusi when I was unable to do this. Now we are the other side of the holidays and have returned to our exercising routines, with the occasional exception when the weather is so cold we must change to an indoor routine.


What I am finding now though is that Lusi is not responding to me in the same way when I ask her to heel with me. We did get one very nice walk around the subdivision one day, when she clearly was responding to the treats offered and we ended up doing heel work in and out of the trees planted on the verge and through other street objects.


I decided that perhaps the thing to do was to increase the amount of leash walking now and reduce the freedom that Lusi has enjoyed! Yesterday I took her for two walks. The second was better than the first but still quite an effort to hold her as she pulled. The worst part is the swerving from one side to the other which means that it is easy to trip up over her especially on the ice.


Today I put her harness back on and I have to admit she seemed a lot happier not having the leash pulling on her neck. It was still not an easy walk though, despite her giving a loose leash at times there were other moments when she pulled unexpectedly which really jarred on my neck or back. Then just as we getting close to home we saw Jasper and his owner. Lusi and Jasper have played together a few times now and enjoy one another but on their leashes they are both a handful. Jasper was wearing a gentle leader but still he tore around Lusi in circles and she managed to get herself tangled up in her lead and then to back out of her harness completely. It could have been a disaster so close to the road but fortunately I managed to grasp her collar and clip her leash back onto her collar. So now I am a bit at a loss to know where to go from here as far as walking her goes.


I did buy a gentle leader but after trying it on her a few times trying to get her used to the feel before we use it on a walk I always get the same response; she scratches at it and rolls on the floor. I know these signs of old from years ago when I used one on our male GSP. He never did like it or ever really got used to it.


In looking at a Dal web forum recently I saw a short article on how Dals have a natural trotting gait and that this appears to be why so many Dals do not like to walk on a leash as it forces a less natural movement on them. They suggested using a gentle leader with a leash that was a little longer so that the Dal could move ahead of its person. I am beginning to feel as though I have come full circle on this issue. I tried this idea of allowing Lusi a little longer leash and found it of no help at all. Sure she liked it better, but she was more difficult to manage as she swept left and right in larger arcs than usual. The gentle leader I am still holding fire on.
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After trying different ways of walking her this week I found that I have had the most success when doing the following:

• Using high value treats.
• Insisting right through the walk that she is mannerly.
• Keeping her attention on me.
• Using a collar at the highest point on her neck where it has more head control effect and requires less pulling.
• Not giving her a long leash, although not so short as to require a formal heel.
• Walking a bit more slowly and in a more relaxed manner than the normal fast paced walk I usually do.
• Walking her when she is hungry and will respond to the treats not when she has just been fed.

I found that Lusi learned remarkably quickly that as soon as she stopped pulling she got rewarded with a treat and she very quickly settled into a gentle walk by my side walking at a slowish pace. With the collar set high on her neck I did not have to engage in a tug of war with her; the action was much more of a correction followed immediately by a release of the pressure. I got the occasional pull from her as we passed by people shovelling snow off their driveways, and by a dog that persistently barks as it runs its own fence-line, but that was only about 15% of the total distractions, the other 85% she coped with. Doing this as the children came home from school added to these distractions so she did very well today. It seems like another break through!