[PandorasMom]

I have a 1 year old St. Bernard, she weights about 120lbs right now so she is hard to control on her leash. I have tried to walk her with her regular collar, pinch, choke, an anti-pull harness, and even a shock collar (I tried it on myself first so I would know how she felt). None of these seem to work. I know the pinch and choke were fitted right (my sister handles a K9 and showed me), but she still pulls.

I can walk her around the backyard and she walks right by my side, but as soon as we leave the yard she starts pulling. I've had her sit until she is calm before we continue, had her wait until she's calm before we leave the house, taking treats with to keep her attention on me, even walking in the opposite directiong when she pulls, but nothing. She contantly pulls to sniff the ground or walks zig zag in front of me so I trip, and if she sees another dog, person, or even a flag blowing in the wind (really) she starts barking and pulling harder. Today when we got back from the walk (or drag) part of the skin on my hand was rubbed raw.

Does anyone know of a collar or leash to use that will help me train her to walk by my side? I'm getting nervous b/c I'm in South Dakota and when it snows it REALLY snows, and I can't have her pulling me then as I could end up falling and hurting myself, but I don't want to stop her walks either. We go every morning as soon as I get up and they last for about 30 min or so, but I haven't been able to really look forward to taking her as I know it isn't giong to be enjoyable (for me at least).

Any help would be appreciated, she really is a good dog, but I need to be to have control over her on our walks so nothing happens to me or her.

[BobSD]

Hi neighbor, I live In Rapid City, Area, Actually the Black Hills. I am not a dog trainer, alway took my dogs to obedience school. but you really covered alot of options trying to get your girl to walk like you want. Remember at one year she is still very youthful and a year from now you may be surprised to see a big change. But having a dog that large and strength, waiting another year is hard to digest. I used a regular choke chain collar on my large dog, but you really have to know how to use one before considering. Would seek some professional help, wish I could be more helpfull, but there a trainer that drops in on this site hope they see your post. Oh, we have yet to see any snow or ice yet, it is really over due!!!

[VET-DOG]

a good website - vet-dog

[wine_scamp]

Hi,

I have a new Lab mix rescue that dragged me around for awhile, but he has become much easier on the leash since 1) we now go to a dog park almost every morning, and he runs out a lot of his doggie energy off leash there, and 2) when I walk with him on leash in the evening, I make sure he comes around to my left side before we walk forward. If he gets too far ahead or if I think he is just about to pull me, I jerk his collar quickly and make a grunting "uh-uh!" It sounds weird, but the grunting is what seemed to help him pay attention to me. The first few times we went walking on leash using this trick, it took about thirty minutes to walk about four blocks, because whenever he got too far ahead of me or pulled, I would stop and stand still; and my dog had to figure out that he had to start over, by my side, before I'd be willing to move again, and then we'd try it again. For the most part now he walks willingly by my side; I still have to grunt at him sometimes though!

I don't know if any of this will help, but Good luck! My Lab weighs a lot less than your big puppy!

[PandorasMom]

Thanks for the help. I've started making an "Hup!" sound when she is starting to pull, and that seems to work pretty well. It takes us about 5 minutes before we can leave our front yard, and about another 10 before we don't have to stop every couple of miinutes, but it seems to be working. But now I'm having problems with other dogs that we see. She'll be walking perfectly next to me, but then we'll see another dog or another dog will start barking at her, and the pulling starts all over again. We leave out in the boondocks, so some dogs are left untied, which is fine, but they don't know the boundaries for their yard. Yesterday we had to backtrack from another dog b/c it left it's yard to bark at Pandora. Any ideas on how to get her to ignore the other dogs? I'm worried about what could happen if one of them got too close, she would want to play but b/c of her size she coudl hurt the dogs without even trying to (especially since most of the owners around here have dogs the size of her head). But thanks for the help. We're both enjoying the walks more!