Christine

I certainly will, and appreciate the life line!! Regards, Christine

Hi Adrienne, Thank you so much for taking the time to address my leash pulling issues, and at such great length! All of your suggested scenarios make perfect sense to me with great explanations. Thank you also for providing this opportunity to share so many problem stories on your forum for dog owners like me. I am looking forward to reading more of your articles and utilizing some of the brain games that you offer. Miles is very smart and does seem to occasionally get bored. We have elected not to continue with this particular class situation for Miles and rather to concentrate on back to the basics of leash walking, keeping his attention on me or my husband, while also reinforcing the exercises that he has already learned. Along with some of your ideas concerning leash pulling I feel that we will get there with practice. (Although it was insinuated that we do not practice by the trainer) We DO walk and work with Miles every day. Thanks again for your expertise! Best Regards and Merry Christmas, Christine

Good Morning! I have a 6 month old English Golden Retriever names Miles and we have been involved with clicker training since for the past two months. I like the positive reinforcement, and I believe it does work. The first session was the basic puppy kindergarten "Pup Scout Level 1" and now Miles is in "Pup Scout Level 2". It has been effective for the basic socialization, manners, commands & training, and now we are doing new commands with more distractions. Let's face it, going to the class is one big distraction in itself. My husband and I are having a very difficult time with Miles' serious leash pulling, and I know that having a treat to encourage him to look at me, and keep his attention on the task at hand is the thing to do. I feel like we are regressing on something very basic as walking on a leash. It is the same issue when trying to do daily walks several times a day, a battle! When I ask the instructor, she says to not let him pull, because by doing so he gets his reward, yet she does not encourage us pulling him back, but again trying to get him to focus on "look at me" seems to fall on deaf ears. I know that I am feeling frustration, and that Miles can sense it and I do not know what to do to get him to stop pulling. My thought is to go downstairs inside our home where there is more room and start over again leash walking with a short leash until we reach a point that Miles remembers what he should be doing. I am also thinking of not continuing with the rest of the class until we can master not pulling on the leash! The instructor can see the difficulty that we are having, and I don't feel like she is helping as much as she should. The whole thing with the clicker training is that I almost need a second set of hands to handle leash, treats, and clicker while Miles is pulling. Any suggestions would be so much appreciated...thank you!