Friday, May 8, 2009

2 Maltese walking one deaf?

I have a 2 year old male and a 3 month old Female Maltese. My male is deaf.(don't feel sorry he doesn't need hearing lol He's great) Well we walk you dogs early morn together. I walk the male because my wife can't keep him from trying to run away. The Female will walk on the side of us or behind and i love it. But our male will always try to get out in front and pull from side to side. I can't verbaly tell him to stop so I try doing the quick jerk that Ceasur milon does. Well that doesn't work he won't even budge when i do it. What can I do to make him listen to me ( no Pun intended)
Answers:
You have the same problem that everybody else with a dog has. How to teach your dog to walk nicely on the leash.
Do you already play attention games in the house to get him to watch you for commands? Anything like stomping your feet, flashing lights, or things like that you use to get his attention? If so, try playing those games outside, somewhere boring with him on leash, like maybe your back yard. If not, you might try working on that inside to get him to pay more attention to you in general.
Next, still working in your backyard and armed with lots of tiny, tasty treats, like a hot dog cut into 50 pea-sized pieces, start walking in a random direction. If he comes with you, stop and give him a treat. Then walk again, in any direction. If he comes with you, stop and treat. If he lunges out in front of you, turn around and walk in the opposite direction. He will hit the end of the leash and then be forced to turn and come with you (I would recommend using his normal collar for this, not a choker or pinch collar, unless you are literally dragging him for several steps before he will come with you.) As soon as he starts coming with you, stop and give him a treat. You want to stop and treat him before he lunges in front of you again in the new direction (because he probably will!) If he lags behind, even if he is looking to the side or at the ground, you will be in his field of vision, so try patting your leg or making a wide sweeping motion with your arm to get his attention and encourage him to follow you. When he catches up, give him a treat.
Repeat the process of walking in a random direction, treating him for staying with you, and walking in the opposite direction if he starts to forge ahead. Slowly start requiring that he walk with you for longer and longer distances before he gets a treat. When he will walk all the way across the yard and back, then you take it to the street. Again, stop and treat for walking nicely, turn around and head the opposite direction for forging and pulling. Once he's with you again, you can always turn around on your own to continue walking in the original direction, but don't expect to actually get anywhere for several days. You might just be walking back and forth in front of your house. Then again, if he's really smart (and being deaf he may be less easily distracted than a lot of dogs!) you could soon be going for a full walk with only a couple instances of turning around. Anyhow, be consistent and do this every time, until he's learned that pulling doesn't get him where he wants to go. This will teach him that pulling gets him the OPPOSITE of where he wants to go, and only walking nicely with you will get him there. Eventually, you can start phasing out treats and instead reward him with letting him go and sniff something he really wanted to go to but held himself back (you'll be able to tell if you're paying attention to him!) Then you can phase those "sniff breaks" out until he only gets them a couple of times throughout the walk.
Good luck, I hope this helps.
try getting a harness for him. it will stop the pulling. there is a good one called a gentle leader.

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