Walking Mini Schnauzer

Question
Sam is 4.1/2 months old and loves walkies.  The problem is that he hates having the lead clipped on to his collar and this seems to bring out an agression that we don;t normally see.  He then wants to walk/run with him leading me and becomes distraught when I wont budge.  Please help! I have tried staying perfectly calm but nothing seems to work!

Answer
Hi Lyn,

First I would suggest you get a prong collar because you have a pulling dog that very much needs to walk on a heel. For the uninformed that consider a prong collar as inhumane, I will tell you that it is in fact the most humane collar you can have for teaching a dog to heel.

The problem with a pulling, aggressive dog is that he is unsure of your leadership and therefore will take control (lead). I feel fairly confident that if your dog is leading you on the walk that you have additional behavior problems when you get back home. The prong collar will allow you to communicate in canine language what is expected. Although a prong collar looks brutal, the prongs replicate a pinching sensation on the dogs neck that mimics a bite. Dogs understand a light bite on the neck. This is what mother did when he was a pup to communicate that his behavior was inappropriate.

So your task is to walk Sam at a heel and should he stray from the heel position, you pop the leash and mimic a bite on his neck. He will respond because he knows what you want. With a cloth collar or a choke collar (which is dangerous) he probably thinks you're playing tug-of-war.

For the actual mechanics of teaching the heel command, I suggest you go to my site at http://perfectdogtraining.com and go to the library section and read the article entitled "Teaching the most important command". Once you and Sam master the heel, you'll find a whole range of good behaviors begin to occur simply from teaching your dog how to walk correctly.

Good Luck,

Sandy Finley
Perfect Manners Dog Training
http://perfectdogtraining.com