heeling

Question
Hi, i have a 3 year old spayed labrador retiever she has been with me sine she was 11 weeks old and shes great except for one thing she must be walked via a head collar and she does still pull with the gentle leader collar and when she does it hurts her muzzle and she rubs her face in the grass on peoples lawns when we pass...I say shes an idiot because if she wouldnt pull to start with she wouldnt make her muzzle hurt..I have to smaller dogs they walk together with us and it will never change as i dont have time to take two or three different walks in the morning beofre work only time enough for one walk. I would like to get my labrador a strong collar tehn the one she has now and get her to walk sensiblly on it but how I was hoping you could tell me.

Answer
Hi Tara,

Aren't Labs wonderful dogs? There are several different ways to approach this problem but none of them is fast. I assume she is food motivated? At time apart from your daily walk with your other two dogs, you should teach your Lab to stay by your side. You do that by putting a leash and collar on her (she obviously finds the gentle leader aversive so you might want to choose a different collar for this exercise)and every time she gets to the end of the leash, you stop moving forward and the minute she slackens her leash, you say the word 'yes' and feed her a morsel of yummy food but you ONLY give her the food at your knee. She must return to your knee to get the food. I advise you to do this repeatedly in the quiet of your yard until she understands that pulling isn't going to work. Then you have to teach her the same behavior outside of your yard, using the same technique. There are many reasons why your dog is pulling: she wants to be the front dog of your group and lead the way or walking slowly is just too boring to her (humans tend to walk at a snail's pace compared to dogs) or she is simply and plainly just excited by everything in the environment. Your job is to teach her that YOU are more exciting and that pulling you simply doesn't work. Considering that she has been pulling for years, it will take a lot of time and work to train her to walk nicely on a leash.
Additionally, you might consider getting a no pull harness on the Internet which is less aversive to dogs than the gentle leader. On no-pull harnesses, your leash clips to a d ring at your dog's chest. Good luck!