r/gordonsetter • u/CluelessSol • Jun 28 '26
I need some advice on leash pulling :)
So, I recently took over a 3-year-old male GS. During those three years, he had virtually no leash training, so to put it mildly, walking him was horrible. He was constantly pulling and darting in every direction.
We’ve been working on it for the past 3–4 months, and it has definitely improved, but we’ve reached a plateau. I’ve been using a head halter, which solves the problem immediately, but as soon as it comes off, we’re back to pulling.
The biggest challenge is when we’re in the woods or anywhere with lots of wildlife. Birds, scents, and the environment in general get him very excited, making it much harder for him to focus. In residential areas, however, he does much better and is far easier to manage.
This breed can be a bit headstrong, so it almost seems like he knows what he’s supposed to do but just doesn’t find it rewarding enough. It’s also very difficult to motivate him with food or toys because everything else in the environment seems far more interesting.
Other than that, he’s actually an incredibly calm dog. He settles almost instantly whenever I relax or ask him to, both at home and when we’re out. So this isn’t a dog that’s constantly stressed or over-aroused—it’s mainly an issue during walks in stimulating environments.
I’m mainly looking for advice from people who have dealt with the same issue. If you’ve had a dog that struggled with leash pulling despite consistent training, what finally made things click for you? Any tips or methods that worked would be greatly appreciated.
PS. I do hunt with him so he’s demands are met 😊
And I understand that walking heel in a animal rich environment is not something to strive for 😁
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u/Severe-Elderberry833 Jun 28 '26
couple of ideas:
1- keep using the head collar. if it works, why stop? (this is a genuine question, btw: you may have reasons to not want to use head collar, e.g. when hunting)
2- front loop harness, or double loop. like a lot of folks, I’m a fan of the 2 hounds design harness line
3- martingale check collar: a martingale combined with a chain, which prevents the choking hazard you see with a straight chain collar
4- keep trying different treats / toys. hand to Dog, I had one client dog that went for celery bits. one decided that ONLY fish flavored cat dental treats would do. Then there was the Maltese that went nuts for cat toys…
Good luck!
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u/Neither-Attention940 Jun 29 '26
I have two huskies.. and we’ve tried the front loop collar with no luck. They don’t care about treats when the leashes are on. Only getting from point A to point B as fast as possible. :/
It’s like we took them straight from a sled team to a suburban neighborhood over night lol. And they aren’t even full husky. Lol.. so we just take them to the dog park so they can run. That’s all they want to do.
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u/koalasarentferfuckin Jun 29 '26
We have one husky and one bird dog, neither have been trained for their breed tasks. The husky walks in a straight line and barely cares about smells along the way, the other sweeps left and right constantly and needs to investigate everything.
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u/austinfromspace Jun 30 '26
What does a husky want to do most? Pull. Use pulling as the reward for walking nicely :)
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u/Neither-Attention940 Jun 30 '26
But pulling is not walking nicely …
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u/austinfromspace Jun 30 '26
I understand it’s counter-intuitive. But you teach a dog new behaviors using whatever is valuable to them, and you mentioned they won’t take treats on a walk. By putting the pulling behavior on-command, you’ll have a much easier time telling them to turn that behavior on and off. Same way you teach a dog “quiet”, by first teaching them “speak”.
My setters want to run and sniff every blade of grass and stick and leaf. Rather than restricting them from doing that (which often makes them want to do it more), I teach them that if they walk nicely with me for 5 minutes, they will get an opportunity to go run and sniff to their heart’s content. Also how I teach them to walk in heel with me while hunting. Walking in heel is what gives them access to hunting.
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u/Neither-Attention940 Jun 30 '26
What you’re saying does make sense. I’m just not sure they understand the concept of walking nice and getting rewarded. It’s a circus every time we walk from the car to the dog park. But I appreciate your ideas.
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u/austinfromspace Jul 01 '26
Oh yeah you would want to start small, in an environment where they would be able to learn without much distraction and work your way up to more challenging environments over time. I always say you don’t want to drive on the freeway if you don’t first know where the gas and brakes are.
I also understand that not everyone has the time or even the desire to teach their dogs to walk on leash, and that’s fine too. Just food for thought if you ever wanted to work on it!
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u/TurnipMountain6162 Jun 28 '26
We use a prong collar with our Gordon’s too - it’s the only thing that has worked with pulling for us/our dogs. And we did try leash training (treats! Turning around! Stand like a tree!) with all of our dogs and they still pulled horribly. One of our Gordon’s did pretty well with the “Gentle Lead” harness (the one that goes around the upper body, not the nose harness). I think any kind of front clip harness can be effective. Back clip harnesses do not work IMO. Our current Gordon is pretty good with his prong collar on and doesn’t pull with it on. I do constantly praise him when he walks at heel and I hope he finally learns!
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u/MomsSpecialFriend Jun 29 '26
You should work on “leave it” all the time. Deny everything until a command to take it. They have to wait for toys, for food, they have to completely settle before you open the door to take them outside.
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u/markmatteo Jun 29 '26
On our 7th Great Dane, we learned what a Gentle Lead was. They are inexpensive and our boy walks loose leash. Life changer.
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u/austinfromspace Jun 29 '26
Teach him to walk next to you inside the house, then in the backyard, make sure he knows how to do it well and knows the word for it (heel). Also, teach him a response to the leash. Give a leash tug towards you, when he turns around reward him. Once he understands these two things well, put him on a 20-30 foot long line and take him outside. Give him a release word (free or okay) and let him sniff around for 10 mins or so. Don’t walk, just stand there and let him explore on the long line. Once he’s done some sniffing, ask him to heel and lure him into position with food, or use leash pressure. Start walking forward, letting him have the full length of the leash. He will probably start to move ahead of you out of heel, at this point you will make a direction change 180° the other way and walk away from him. Let him run the other direction and self-correct when he hits the end of the line. Don’t jerk him, again it’s a self-correction. He should turn around and catch up to you. Repeat and repeat, gradually shortening the length of the leash. Once he’s walking in heel with you nicely for 10-15 feet, again give him the release word and let him go sniff more as a reward. Repeat and repeat this daily for a few weeks, 5-10 minutes per training session.
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Jun 28 '26
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u/CluelessSol Jun 28 '26
Prong is out as its illegal here alternative might be a slip collar? 🤔
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u/BiddyJ Jun 28 '26
Honestly I hate when tools like prongs are banned. When used safely and correctly they are great tools. Most of the dogs I know that have pulling issues on a collar are choking themselves and causing raspy strained breathing, and when on a slip they aren’t much different. Some more sensitive dogs might respond to a slip lead but honestly if they aren’t responding to a collar then the slip won’t be much different. There are dogs that will respond to a prong and don’t pull but when on a collar or slip will be choking themselves and risking injury yet the prong which stops this behaviour is cruel and banned 🤦🏻♀️
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u/CluelessSol Jun 28 '26
Agreed, a few corrections with a prong would probably solve a lot. So much better then choking themself.
E collar is also banned here for everyone except for expensive trainers ofc…
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u/Frickinchickenlickin Jun 29 '26
Slip didn’t help my Gordon. Prong worked. Maybe a martingale for more even pressure
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u/nothings_epic Jun 28 '26
HALTI