# Led by nose means walking on a lead is a nightmare!



## Sarah H (Nov 19, 2013)

Good afternoon all,

I've not been on the forum since Dexter was a small pup. He's grown into a lovely 15 month old now and it's been nice watching him change, he gives us love and mischief in equal measure!

What I'd like to put to you is this...he should be walking nicely on a lead by now right?

We did the classes, and he was a dream. He's clever enough to do anything that's asked of him if there's a treat to be had, but take that away and expect him to walk to heel on his lead and he does as he likes. His head is ALWAYS down sniffing, which drives him forward. We say he's led by his nose (and his belly!)

Classes start again next week so his getting signed back up, but I feel we tried to instill what we were taught initially. Hold him to the left of us and don't let him any further forward than us etc. He just never seemed to get it and continues to pull.
We can see that he knows he's going to get a stern telling off sometimes as he half looks over his shoulder when he really pulls, and sometimes does ease back before he does!

Does anyone have any secrets to unlock a well behaved Vizsla on a lead?! 

For the record, he has plenty of time off lead to burn his energy off...but to walk him to these places safely he needs to be on it. Plus I think it comes down to manners and good behaviour that he should now understand that when on the lead he should behave in a certain way.

Any thought welcomes 

Sarah and Dexter


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## Emilygreasley (Dec 1, 2014)

Ted is a bit of a pain sniffing on the lead as well!! We try and make sure he does it on our terms i.e. if he stops to sniff at something I'll count to 5 then say 'come on', give him a second to start walking of his own accord then briskly walk off so that if he hasn't moved he gets a tug. I find that walking quite fast and saying come on whenever he shows signs of stopping to sniff keeps him going. I always try and give the command before he gets jolted by the lead so that he has the choice to keep walking. Just to note, we always walk him in a harness so he never gets jolted around the neck.

We also use the 'look' command to get his focus back on us when walking. If he's walking with his head down I'll say look and he'll look back to me and I treat him. This is also good when we come to a kerb and he's not paying attention.

He doesn't walk to heel as such but he doesn't pull - I just accept the fact that he walks faster than I do!! As he doesn't get as much off the lead time as we'd like, due to the lack of daylight at this time of year and his tendency to run through other dogs (think bowling ball) and jump up all over people, we just do our best to keep up so he's getting the best exercise possible in the circumstances.

The only times Ted really pulls are if he's carrying something (stick, old glove he's found, lump of mud) or if we're walking up a hill (like a ski lift!)


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## dextersmom (Oct 29, 2013)

Take this with a grain of salt... because it worked wonderfully for our V but our weim pup still doesn't loose leash walk all that well  It's hard walking two dogs at once!

I used the easy walk harness so I had a bit more control. Dexter can slip a collar no matter how tight it is anyways. I kept a pocket full of treats and would reward him every time he "walked nice." If he was pulling, I would stop and head the other direction. At first, he didn't get many treats and we didn't go all that far. But once he realized a spoken "walk nice" = treat, he started to look up at me during our walks instead of focusing on everything else in hope he'd get a treat. And if I said anything to him while walking, he looked up for a treat. We phased out the treats as he got the hang of walking nicely, but it allowed me to get his attention back on me frequently. Sometimes that is half the battle. 

I also told him "sniff break" if I was going to let him explore and do his own thing. I'm not sure if he ever really learned those words, but he seemed to get the idea that walking means business, but he'll get a break every once in a while to do what he wants, too.


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## Sarah H (Nov 19, 2013)

Thanks dextersmom, I've just checked back and seen your reply.
I think we will have to resort to treat led training on this, as food really is the only thing he's bothered by more than anything!
If we have a breakthrough I'll be sure to let you know!


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## einspänner (Sep 8, 2012)

With a food motivated dog I'd start leash training off-leash inside with no distractions. Get a handful of treats and lure him into a heel position. Walk around a room rewarding every 2-3 steps. Increase the difficulty slowly by treating less frequently, by adding turns, by varying your pace, and backing up/moving sideways. This sets up a positive, low-pressure foundation for on leash training. 

For on leash, I like to use a british slip lead and maybe a pinch collar later on a confident dog in a more distracting environment. In my experience these communicate with your dog better than a lead clipped to a flat collar. So add the lead and do basically what you were doing before, keeping in mind to go back to the lowest difficult--so straight lines with frequent treats-- but now when he does the wrong thing, you'll add in the negative reinforcers of stopping and a light sideways tug on the lead. Inside with treats it probably won't take too many tugs for him to comply. Outside though, you'll probably need to do it repeatedly, the goal being to annoy him into compliance, rather than by force, pull him into a heel. Eventually you'll phase out the treats and use only praise and continuing the walk as positive reinforcers and stopping and leash tugs as the negative. 

A few other things I tried were to kick my leg out right before Scout would try to go ahead, so she'd run into my leg; abruptly changing direction; walking backwards, particularly useful when heading towards something desirable; and using the slip lead like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iv7uanUCZY
Your methods should evolve to fit the dog, but keep your end goal consistent so Dexter understands what is expected of him. 

Scout is 21 months and still needs reminders, but she's also good enough at it that we regularly walk off-leash around our neighborhood mostly at heel. 

Hope this helps!


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## R E McCraith (Nov 24, 2011)

heel is not easy - but this works - a pinch collar (not a choke collar ) a long hallway or stairwell (like the stairwell best ) a short lead - command heel - pup starts 2 get in front of your knee - yank on the lead & pin the pup 2 the wall - they figure it out Very quickly - as 2 what side heel ? away from my gun hand !!!!!!!! why - if the pup jumps up - want it as far away as possible from the trigger !!!! I did fail 2 mention age - 1st yr or 1&1/2 yrs I teach WHOA & HERE !!!! WHOA teaches it all - they stop & look at you - then you just modify it 2 other commands - & yes - PIKE with a toy 4 his treat or dead bird 2 hand - it comes 2 my left hand !!!!!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

When my dogs are young, I don't worry about them heeling. We just work on them not pulling like a sled dog, and paying attention to if I stop, or change directions. Unless the situation calls for it, I still don't make them heel most of the time.


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