Author Topic: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??  (Read 22494 times)

Offline NYCMelody

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HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« on: October 10, 2006, 11:01:26 am »
I've tried everything! Persephone is usually very responsive to treats and petting, but when we are outside the house she is only focused on the wonderful smells and sights of the streets. You can forget about regaining her attention if she sees another dog, and once we are in the vecinity of the dog run... Well, let's just say that it takes a lot to hold an 80 lbs. dog back, and she's not even full grown yet!

I've tried positive reinforcement, carrying food in my hand next to me (but she loses interest pretty fast.. there's so many distractions in a city!), and even stopping completely until she gets closer and the leash is slack (but she just goes back to pulling as soon as we start walking again). The only thing that she actually obeys me on outside is when I tell her to sit at the street corners before crossing. She's relatively good with her "come" inside the dog run (and I'm amazed at even just that because there's other dogs to pay attention to). I don't know what else to try. Any suggestions?
« Last Edit: October 11, 2006, 01:29:45 am by NYCMelody »
Melody, Joel and Persephone


My dog's not spoiled ... I'm just well trained!

"If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain

Offline NYCMelody

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2006, 12:30:31 pm »
That's the harness that we use. We had the sensi-ble one when she was younger, and it didn't make much of a difference. Now we have the gentle leader, but since we have to hook it up to her collar (cuz the front is a bit too big still, even when making it as tight as it goes), I don't think it works the same. I know that it will help once she gets big enough, but I don't think waiting is a good idea since she the point of her learning now is being able to control her before she becomes HUGE. Now I wish I had gotten a smaller harness, but it didn't make sense at the time, knowing that she would outgrow it.  :-\

Thanks for the reply, and of course, thanks for the compliments. :D I'll try to post some more pictures of her later.
Melody, Joel and Persephone


My dog's not spoiled ... I'm just well trained!

"If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain

Offline NYCMelody

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Re: HELP! How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2006, 01:08:30 am »
Thanks for all the info! I think I saw that Urban Dog book somewhere around here.. There's so many books on training dogs that it's hard to decide what to get! But if you say that worked for your Gweck, thenI'll give it a try.  :D

By the way, Gweck is such a looker too! I love his shiny shiny coat, and his goofy pictures. Aren't Great Danes grand?
Melody, Joel and Persephone


My dog's not spoiled ... I'm just well trained!

"If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain

GR8DAME

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2006, 02:49:33 am »
Welcome to BPO, and may I say Persephone is beautiful!
I have to jump on the prong collar bandwagon here. When used correctly they are a wonderful training tool, think power steering for your dane.
I have three dogs, and all of them use one. Raven is a bolter, she would be gone in a heartbeat. The prong  reminds her that she is not the one in control. Strider is an idiot. He is a puller, and would break his own neck with a slip collar, or kill me with a harness. He also has the attention span of a gnat and likes to chase anything that moves. The prong keeps his attention on me, rather than the dog down the street or the squirrel in the tree. Merlin is the best (and largest) of the three. My 90 lb daughter can walk him with a prong collar and a peice of dental floss no matter what the distractions around him. In his case the prong  simply exists on his neck as an insurance policy, it is rarely if ever needed. Keep in mind, once you have her under control and responding to you alone, you can switch her to a less severe-looking collar.
I would also say try group obedience classes as well. Desensitize her to the distractions by putting her in the middle of them for training.
Stella

Offline NYCMelody

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2006, 03:25:07 am »
I've been trying to put off getting a corrective collar, but I've tried everything else to no avail so I guess I should give it a chance. She knows her stuff, but can be defiant at times.. especially now that she's a teenager!

Thanks for all the suggestions! All of you said the same thing about the prong collar, so I'll go with that.
Melody, Joel and Persephone


My dog's not spoiled ... I'm just well trained!

"If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain

Offline macybean

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2006, 03:42:46 am »
I use gentle leaders with my two. I'd guess that the modifications you made to yours probably do decrease it's usefulness. They are great tools, though.

I have prong collars for both of my dogs, but they seem to pull on those still. To those who use them, do you use the little rubber caps on the prongs? I do, because I didn't want to hurt them with just the collar.

Oh, the other thing about gentle leaders and my goofball dogs is that my dogs like to start mouthing each other on our walks which turns into wrestling on the sidewalk. I walk them on a busy street a little over half the time and can't have that (the other half is usually on a trail around the lake downtown which we go to almost everyday or hiking). When I got Sadie's Gentle Leader, she stopped. Great-two birds with one stone: pulling and wrestling! I needed one for Riley's pulling anyway, and guess what? He stopped wrestling. Since then, they've tried to wrestle maybe twice while walking (this is in almost a year), and it's easy to stop them with the gentle leaders on b/c they are just easier to control.

Offline macybean

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2006, 03:44:07 am »
I should mention that there is no reason that they aren't mouthing each other-they have full use of their mouths and I probably have the gentle leaders a little looser than you are supposed to-except that I think they know I'm more in charge.

But if I had a dollar for each time someone asked me if they were muzzled when they had the gentle leaders on...

Offline Kermit

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2006, 03:57:23 am »
Beautiful dog!! WOW!! :D

If you have tried all kinds of training tools and nothing is working, I would suggest finding a professional trainer to work with! Especially someone positive. They might be able to see things that you are doing by accident that is encouraging your dog to pull you.

I bought a training video from www.tenderfoot training.com that I really like, and it is so gentle, and very effective for the most simple things we want to teach our dogs to do. Like walk on a leash.

Best of luck!!!!
« Last Edit: October 11, 2006, 03:58:03 am by doghealer »

Luvmydanes

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2006, 04:45:15 am »
The gentle leaders work wonders seriously. It is like having different dogs. And like other people have been saying, people will ask if its a muzzle, and no it is not. The dog can still open its mouth, bark, eat...whatever . It just helps in getting your dog to walk WITH you and not walk you...lol

Offline navarre1316

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2006, 04:47:13 am »
I am now a fan of the prong collar, especially when my hand would be purple and swollen after trying to walk my GSD with a choke collar and being pulled the whole way!!  I didn't use the rubber caps, he wouldn't have felt it.  When I switched, upon the suggestion of a trainer because I also didn't like them at first, I really only had to pop it one good time and from that point on with that collar he knew he better pay attention to me.  I also used the "to me" command when other dogs would be passing by so he would know he needed to pay attention to me.  Good luck.  Oh, and the prong collar won't work either if you have it too loose, so make sure you have it on correctly.


And I agree...what a beautiful girl you have!!  Welcome and enjoy!
God placed me on this earth to accomplish certain tasks...I'm so far behind I'll never die!!

Navarre: GSD 9/13/99-5/14/06 patiently waiting
Issabeaux: GSD 1/27/07
Daphne: Boxer
Stone: Siamese mix

Offline NYCMelody

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2006, 11:23:30 am »
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!  :D

I just got a prong collar. I did some research online before going to the Petco, and it seemed like it was worth a try. The only thing is... it's pouring outside and I can't check if it works!  >:(
Melody, Joel and Persephone


My dog's not spoiled ... I'm just well trained!

"If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain

Offline Lucah's Folks

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2006, 09:57:59 pm »
Just my two cents...

We started Lucah on a choke, but he pulled way too much it would cause him to irritate the skin on his neck.  We switched that to a "no-slip" collar which was more gentle.  I have been curious about the prong collar, but have not found any good resources on how to use it. 

The way I treat pulling while outside is to change direction on him.  I know that not everyone has a lot of time, but you really don't have to go too far when you change direction, you just have to be consistent.  As soon as Lucah pulls I turn around and go the other way.  After about 6 steps or so and he is back to my knee I go back the original way.  Amazingly he seems to slow down and stay at my knee for quite a while.  He will pull again, but then I just correct it by changing direction. 

They say that this method works because the dog doesn't know where they are going, and though it doesn't seem like it, your dog actually looks to you for where to go.  They only run into problems when they think they know the way.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Offline Bella's mom

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2006, 05:20:10 pm »
Welcome!  I'm Tessie, mom to a Great Dane, Belladonna, and my crazy cat, Mojo!
I read your pawprint, and agree that once you've gone Dane....
Bella's my first and she's fifteen months now.  My two cents - there is no way that I could control Bella without the prong collar.  When I first saw it, I thought that it looked like a horrible torture device, but a trainer explained it to me and showed me how to use it and make sure that it fit.  I'm with others here, and say that it has been a miracle.
Oh, and Persephone is beautiful!
Tessie - Belladonna's and Mojo's Mom

Offline NYCMelody

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #13 on: February 27, 2007, 10:16:31 pm »
Thanks for the advice y'all! I'm sorry I've been MIA for so long. My computer got robbed  :( and I just got a new one. Hope this one sticks!
Melody, Joel and Persephone


My dog's not spoiled ... I'm just well trained!

"If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous, that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain

bigdogs@5501

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Re: HELP!How can I train my Dane to walk beside me??
« Reply #14 on: February 28, 2007, 05:36:04 am »
We use a Halti with Jake and presto- no more pulling. He did perfect some of the most amazing somersaults that I had ever witnessed while trying to get use to wearing it-but now we dont even have to use the Halti that often. Good Luck, hopefully one of these situations will work for you guys.