Hello all, I have an 11 month old girl who is just starting her show career. She is beautiful in every way, the proverbial "total package". She does well in the ring...stands for the judge, tail wagging, happy as all get out, shows her teeth fine, everything you could ask for. The issue we seem to be having is that she HATES being on a lead, and she slinks along with her tail down while gaiting. She doesnt buck or pull, she'll go fine right along beside you but she lets you know that it's not very pleasing to her through her general body language. I suppose I did it to myself, as she didn't start on a lead until she was close to 5 months old(I know, I know). After that much time of pretty much total freedom to do as she pleased(to a certain extent), I can see why she doesn't like it. She hates having a collar on, too. Any suggestions to turn this around and make lead time more of a happy time?
? if she has some kind of negative association with the lead/ walking on lead.
I would get out my clicker and clicker train this little girl to think the lead is the absolute best thing in the world, then progress to having the lead on her .. then eventually walking with the lead on. If you are not familiar with this method of training there are many easy basic training books out there. Email me privately and I would be happy to share some of my favorites.
You can do the same the collar. Shape a positive association with the collar and the lead even before it gets put on her.
Best of luck.
Kim's right. Also work her without the lead and collar. Instead, use bait, or bait and clicker, or bait and target stick, in a small area at first, fenced or in a room or garage or rented ring. She'll probably gait nicely for food. Play train her. Give her a signal or command for tail up, but for goodness sakes, don't use "tail" or "wag" as it should be your secret in the ring. Maybe a toy helps. That you can work backwards from getting the tail wag at play, then putting the word to the action--with good clicker training, it may be easier. Time for me to start training my dogs instead of just shivering! I can get a lot done in the kitchen, where they are usually wagging and using their ears to win a tidbit!
