walking a four-month-old golden puppy

Question
Hello!

We have a four-month-old golden retriever with tons of energy and a love for the outdoors.  We walk him three times a day, but he seems to be hating walks.  He sits and digs in his heels half the time, and runs ahead the other half.  We are currently using a normal buckle collar and leash, but I worry both about hurting him by pulling on the leash and about controlling him as he gets bigger.  He's already almost 40 pounds.  What methods and/or tools do you recommend for making walks a more pleasant experience for both him and us?

Thanks
Sarah

Answer
At 4 months of age he should begin obedience classes. The dog has not learned to view you as leader, it is leading you. Active breed dogs also need a lot of open play time to exercise and develop mind and body. He is exploring the world and learning.

I would guess you have not been using no means no or nothing in life is free training methods. These are tandem with obedience training and teach the dog that you are the source of all things good and it has to work to get them. Work means obey a command - sit, wait, whatever. I've explained these many times in prior posts.

A buckle collar is not a training tool. It is to hold dog license, rabies and ID tags. Depending on where and how you want to train the dog, you can use a halter, martingale, prong collar and clicker. A choke chain is only a last resort in case another breaks open. None of these are to be used outside of training class and not left on when the dog is alone.

The best training tool is reward. The opposite is no reward. Reward can be anything the dog wants, treat, toy, food, affection. Pavlov and Skinner developed operant training and nearly all modern training is based on these methods.

You can get an hour long DVD and 44 page (8.5 x 11) for $30 post paid that demonstrate and explain dog behavior and training at home from WWW.dogkennel.org. Everyting from training collars and how to put them on right, to step by step description and video of all basic commands (sit, stay, heel, come, off, down, heeling) and the learning process for owner and dog and dealing with stubborn dogs, run-aways, nippers, etc.

Regards,
Henry Ruhwiedel
Westwnd Kennels LLC