How do I show my Boxer/Pittbull puppy that im in control when we go on walks? When we go outside she's usually pulling me in the direction she wants to go. What commands should I use?

[Piti Longstalking]

Worry less about controlling the dog and more about controlling her environment. Say your dog wants to sniff a tree... If you're controlling her, you're likely to jerk her leash and force her to sit. If you're controlling her environment, you hold the leash taut to your waist such that when she hits the end of the leash she can't reach the tree. This will likely frustrate her, which is a good thing. Because a frustrated dog will try an alternate behavior to get the reward. I would wait for her to give you eye contact. When she does, reward her with food/praise. Then, cue another behavior...maybe sit. If she follows your cue, release her to sniff the tree. If she doesn't follow your cue, she simply does not understand it. Go back home and train sit in increasingly distracting environments.

It would also be recommended to teach her leave-it, once you care to resume the walk. You could also cue leave-it when passing a tree, but again, you need to teach the behaviors you want first, before expecting them on the road. That's what it means to be a leader.

Thank you!

I would also reccomend using a head collar.
They work wonderfully when it comes to pulling.
Good Luck.

head collar dog training gentle leader and haltie

Along with following Piti's advice (which is great) if you are really struggling with constant, strong pulling you can purchase a Gentle Leader. It is a great tool to use along with a training program.

What if my dog doesnt give me eye contact outside? When we are inside and I ask her to sit or give her any command she obeys(most of the time)

but, when we are outside she just will not listen! She doesnt even like for me to pet her. Its VERY fraustrating.

[Piti Longstalking]

Originally Posted by Nya*s_Mommi21

What if my dog doesnt give me eye contact outside? When we are inside and I ask her to sit or give her any command she obeys(most of the time)

but, when we are outside she just will not listen! She doesnt even like for me to pet her. Its VERY fraustrating.

It's frustrating I know. Attention is no different a behavior than sit...if we know anything about dogs and attention, there is no gimme when there are more interesting things in her environment. You'll have to train attention with as much dedication (possibly more) as you did sit.

So how do you get your dog to see you as the center of her universe? This is what you need to do...

a. Start at home (a least distracting environment) and get out her favorite food reward. Something very smelly and attractive to her, and put it in your pockets, or leave out numerous bowls high enough so that she can't reach them where they are readily available. Now go about your daily business and be observant of your dog. Every time she looks at you without being asked, say "yes" (or use a clicker) to mark the behavior, and offer her one of those food rewards quickly. Do this a few times a day.

b. Once your dog has gotten good with (a) have a friend (someone your dog doesn't get overly excited over) add one distraction. Maybe have him squeak a squeaky toy, and do the same thing as you did in (a). Except this time you're only going to reward her for maintaining eye contact. If she breaks eye contact to investigate the noise, no reward. Just continue to go about your business. Your friend may need to control how the distracting the noise is, so start from the lowest possible distraction and work your way up.

c. Do (a) in your back yard. Just walk around pretending to do something (or actual work), and reward eye contact.

d. Now you're ready to take the dog out the front door. Again, you're going to do (a), but just in your front yard. If you have a long line, use it. The point here is that we want to build up to different areas that are more and more distracting, but we don''t want to move on until we've achieved pretty good eye contact. Obviously none of this is going to happen over night, so be patient.

e. Every new location should mean your dog gets a jackpot of food rewards. Really gush over your dog. What you're doing here is conditioning attention. Then begin hesitating in delivering the food rewards, progressively increasing the time in between until you're back doing (a) again in this new location.

f. Continue to work on increasing the distractions in new environments.

g. There is no secret to attention. If attention is what you want, every second you're with your dog reward her for attention. If you slack off on this, you need to allow your dog to slack off on attention with you. If you're becoming frustrated and impatient, take your dog back home and crate her until you're ready to work on this.
c.

Imagine having to exercise holding the hand of a three year old and then you might have an idea of what it is like for a pup to be out in the interesting world and being on the end of leash. The fact that your dog pulls has nothing at all to do with pack leadership or challenging you. People really need to give up this pack leader stuff it usually leads to the mis-diagnosis of a dog's behavior and then inappropriate training, often including some kind of punishment which makes no sense to the dog, it wasn't challenging their owner in the first place.

Make sure your dog gets lots of good off leash exercise before you try to teach him how to walk on a loose leash. I work on loose leash training with dogs off leash. If a dog will walk near me while off leash they easily do it on leash. Understand that distractions make it difficult for a dog to learn new behaviors so what you see as a challenge to your commands is probably just a dog that isn't able to focus on you.

If I need to have a dog on leash, cause it's not safe for them to be off, I use a long line, a clothesline with a clip attached. I let the dog explore as they like, I mean it's their walk isn't it? If they stop to sniff I keep walking til I get to the end of the line, usually at least 25 feet and then call the dog in an upbeat tone of voice. I have already trained the dog to know that when I say their name something good is in store (a treat, a ball toss, some tug) so they usually come to me. They get a reward and then I let them go ahead (let's go!). I use the let's go command a lot, since it doesn't require the dog to do a perfect recall, if its behind me at the end of the line it now can move 50 feet before reaching the end of the line again.

If I have a dog that gets to the end of the line and pulls I turn around and head the other way as soon as they start putting pressure on the leash. We may not get far, but the dog has to learn to start paying attention to me. I'd rather that my dogs learn to keep an eye on me and know where I am not the other way around.

Originally Posted by Nya*s_Mommi21

How do I show my Boxer/Pittbull puppy that im in control when we go on walks? When we go outside she's usually pulling me in the direction she wants to go. What commands should I use?

puppies attention spans vary, usually you'll see this change around 4-5 months.

i use the Sporn harness... it's amazing in helping with the pulling.

The Sporn Company

as for what commands you should use. really you can use any key word you want. the key is to practice those key words at least 15-20 minutes a day with just you and your puppy to help build that bond.

i would also say walking your puppy at least twice a day if you can help it is ideal too. helps them learn their environment so they are more likely to pay attention to you when need be.

a few commands to help you get started:

Watch Me - tells your dog to look at you when asked. a good tip is to hold your finger up by your nose kinda like you are going to shush your dog like you would a little kid for quite time. if your dog follows your finger be sure to mark it with a treat and or clicker. work on this for about a week. after that you can start to take the finger away and the dog will look you in the eye.

Come - only use this one for emergency's. when teaching this one use a special treat and over praise your dog. i use chicken i cant tell you how many times this one has saved my puppy from running in the road when a car is coming. a helpful tip with this one, be sure to never use it when you want your dog to come back inside, use a whistle or something of that nature.

leave it - this one is also very important. especially if you have anyone in your home taking meds and one happends to drop on the floor. i put a treat on the floor and made sure my dog saw it. when he tried to get it i asked for him to leave it and rewarded him with a treat in the other hand.

hope these help get you started by the way, we put our dog through PetSmart - Smart pet products, services, & supplies for healthier, happier pets. puppy class. it really helped open our minds up on several things like what foods to give your pets, grooming, behaviors and getting started on training.