taking my dog for walks

Question
i would like to know if you can help everytime i put the lead on my dog he doesn't stop yapping and pulling he doesn't stop till i get back home with him , how can i stop this ? he is embarrassing and everyone looks at me as if i am hurting him please help

Answer
Is it the excitement of the leash and knowing he's going to go for a walk? Is it the visual stimulation he gets ON the walk? There's so many reasons a dog would bark that figuring out when the excitement starts and if it is happy excitement or anxious excitement is important. If he's excited to be going for a walk, our new rule would be that you don't get the leash put on until you exercise some self control. If I got the leash out and he started dancing and barking, I'd put the leash back up and wait for him to stop. Then try it again. As many times as it takes. If he doesn't have a yard and you must walk him for elimination purposes, that's more difficult, of course, but I'd still be working on teaching self control and asking for at least some. I'd do a lot of self control and thinking type training inside, and in low distraction environments. When he's good at it there, take it outside. But still try to keep him under threshold. This may mean that your first several sessions, you don't get that far from the door. Again, if you HAVE to walk him, this could be difficult. If that's the case, you may have to walk him at quiet times of day, or drive him to a less stimulating place to walk for a while.
I'm betting he doesn't know how to walk on leash nicely, either. I would not go forward with him if he is pulling (turn around and make a small loop until he is back with you, or go backward) and be sure you are not keeping the leash tight. Many owners are so anxious about being able to control their dog that they keep a lot of tension on the leash. So the dog doesn't learn what a loose leash feels like, and is also picking up on the owner's anxiety. If you pull, the dog HAS to pull. If the dog pulls, instead of pulling back, push the leash slightly (a few inches) towards him and do something else to engage him. If he's on a collar, I'd try one of the no-pull type harnesses to get the pressure off his neck, as that helps reactive dogs feel less reactive. If you have two points of leash contact (one on collar, one on harness, for instance), it's a lot harder to pull against two points of contact, and allows you to be "lighter" For a dog to learn Loose Leash Walking solves a lot of other problems. You could possibly use a good class to help with this. With this dog, I'd be looking for someone who has small class sizes, sufficient space and a way to visually block your dog's access to the other dogs in class. I'd also be looking for someone who doesn't just try to punish the behavior away, but gets to the roots of it. Talk to trainers before you sign up.
Here's some good information for teaching your dog not to bark http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1125 Be SURE to go to the link in that article about teaching bark/be quiet. And a book with a lot of great strategies for the over excited dog is Leslie McDevitt's "Control Unleashed" Sandy Case MEd CPDT www.positivelycanine.com