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!
