# Puppy Tugging



## Pamella Renaldi (Mar 6, 2010)

I have a 3 months old mal and this is my first working dog. When I tie her on a leather leash, she likes to pull it with her mouth like a tug. I try to redirect her to a ball on a string but she seems to be more interested with her leash. I have trouble walking her because of this problem. How can I stop this? She is going to be train schutzhund/ IPO.


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## mike suttle (Feb 19, 2008)

take her some place safe and just drop the leash. right now it is a fun game for the puppy because you are tugging back on the other end on the leash. if you drop the leash your puppy will lose interest in it soon. then you can redirect him to another toy. they will usually outgrow that crap anyway, but dont let it continue to build, i have imported a few dogs that were really obsessive leash fighters and it is a huge pain in the butt.
there are other ways to stop it. a little spray in the face of vineger and water mixed in a spray bottle. use a chain leash for a while, soak the end of your leash in hot sauce. use the e collar......there are many ways, it is not hard to fix. But stop it now.
I stake my puppies out on a chain for a couple hours each day, they learn they get no satisfaction from tugging on the chain, that usually helps too.


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## Al Curbow (Mar 27, 2006)

Mike, you use these methods on a 12 week old pup?


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Al - I'm with Mike on this one. It is one of the very few things I'll correct a puppy for. 

Unless she's a huge puppy, I'd yank the leash as hard as I can. I usually don't have to do it twice. (can you imagine leash burn on the inside of your mouth? Yikes :-$ )


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

All of my puppies liked to pull on their leash at first, Ajay came to me at 9 months would do it too. I would just stop and ignore them while they were doing it, once they let go I would come back to life and make the tug I had in my pocket really interesting. Did not take long for them to learn that the leash meant no interaction from me. 

And, like Mike was saying, take them to a safe place and let them drag it. When they are out in the house, let them drag it. I did this pretty much anywhere it was safe to do so. 

Also, the leash on in the house made it easier to stop them from doing something I did not want them doing. No corrections, I would just pick the lead up and redirect to a toy or tug.


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## Geoff Empey (Jan 8, 2008)

I find the puppy lead biting annoying as well. I have tried bitter apple and Redhot sauce on my leads but somehow somewhere the pup is going to chew on it and damage it. I think a chain lead is the only workable answer for myself. 

On a side note does anyone know where to get a 'small' chain leash. The ones I've seen at Petstupid are huge and not suitable for a young pup. I've already lost a few nylon and leather leads by puppy attack while they are tied to me and I'm not looking. i.e. sitting at the table.


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## Meng Xiong (Jan 21, 2009)

mike suttle said:


> use a chain leash for a while, soak the end of your leash in hot sauce.












I gaurantee some "cock sauce" will put an end to it real quick.


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## Guest (Apr 14, 2010)

An alternative to a chain lead or hot sauce is several short sessions re-introducing the pup to 1) a collar and harness, 2) a lead, with a clicker/voice and a baggie of decent stinky treats. Unless the leash chewing/ tugging has been superbly rewarding for a long time it should really only take a few sessions lasting a few minutes each to re-train your pup. Before you do this I would introduce a positive interrupter to help stop your dog quickly from tugging the leash, (or any countless number of other puppy madness,) if he starts. A positive interrupter is some sound that will cause your dog to stop what it's doing and look at you. You can whistle or make some other noise with your mouth and pair that with a treat... many many times over the course of a few days. After the first few times, your pup will be looking at you every time you make this novel sound, the rest is just further imprinting. Then you can go and reintroduce the harness and lead. Reinforce for not biting the lead the same way you'd reinforce a difficult pup for not biting you. This is a slower process and the exact opposite of a chain or hot sauce which is negative reinforcement and therefore does not pair the lead to something negative. JMO.

And no, I'm, not saying that a chain or hot sauce will traumatize your puppy and break his drive. I just advocate teaching a dog how you want it to behave *before* correcting something that is perfectly natural for a pup to do. Again, JMO.


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## Al Curbow (Mar 27, 2006)

Anne Vaini said:


> Al - I'm with Mike on this one. It is one of the very few things I'll correct a puppy for.
> 
> Unless she's a huge puppy, I'd yank the leash as hard as I can. I usually don't have to do it twice. (can you imagine leash burn on the inside of your mouth? Yikes :-$ )


Ok Anne, if i pulled as hard as i can i easily can break off the pups lower jaw. Not great advice.

To the OP, just go for a walk, hold the leash up high and just walk, it's puppy training101


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Al Curbow said:


> Ok Anne, if i pulled as hard as i can i easily can break off the pups lower jaw. Not great advice.


Then you are much, much stronger than me. :smile:


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## Betty Mathena (Apr 19, 2006)

I have never had a pup not grow out of it and tend to just ignore it for the most part. If you start moving forward quickly usually they drop the leash to keep up.


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## Pamella Renaldi (Mar 6, 2010)

Thanks for the help guys. It seems that I carry my leash too low that it always catch the dog's interest. Now, I carry the leash a bit higher and it is solved ;-). I guess simple action can make a big difference.


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## jack van strien (Apr 9, 2009)

Anne,your pup can also loose a few teeth doing the jerk.


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