How to stop from pulling when seeing other dogs?

[marc515]

What's the best tactic to use to stop a puppy from pulling when the see other dogs?

Thank you

[dogmom]

Obedience training, continued socialization and obedience training. It is generally a matter of youthful exuberance and immaturity. Training, training, training.

Have you attended obedience classes? They are a great socialization tool as well as a good resource for behavior issue input.

[Tanya]

ditto the above. you have to work on slowly adding distractions with a pup. Ideally, you want to work within their threshold, meaning, far enough (low enough distractions) to still be able to get their attention and praise/reward, then slowly you can increase the distractions (i.e. get closer).

[jessesnewperson]

I went to Petsmart with this issue and bought a PetSafe harness. it's designed differently than other harnesses and it works with my 80 ish lb lab that had no previous training before I got him and was a horrible puller. We're also doing obedience class.

[marc515]

We're in week 7 of Basic Obedience Class. Just wanted to hear some different ideas/thoughts.

[Jax's Mom]

Wish I could offer advice but I'm still working on that also.

[Snowshoe]

When Oban was 8 months I got a prong. I could control him better with a prong. When he was 2ish I discovered Leslie McDevitt's book, "Control Unleashed." With the games in the book I learned how to gain his focus and the prong was no longer needed because he focused on me, not the other dog, thus no pulling at all. I still use the games. I'm not sure where in the house the prong's got to.

[windycanyon]

You have to become more important and exciting to the pup than other dogs. As for classes--- there are classes, and then there are classes. Some of the puppy classes around here are really good for socialization but not so good for that much needed handler focus/respect/joy. It depends on your goals, but I have pretty sociable pups and compete in various venues, so it's important to me to establish work vs play time early on.

[windycanyon]

This training video may help some of you: Conversational Leash Work - K9 Connection It's one of the first things we did in our workshop I hosted here last weekend.
This is a longish video (~11min), so watch it when you have time.
It is ideal for the dogs that aren't paying attention (lack focus/respect) to their handler.
Interestingly enough, one of my pup owners w/ a 5 mo old was making no progress at first, then I noticed she was not connected to the collar, but was to a harness. Harnesses do NOT help, folks! Harnesses TEACH / encourage dogs to PULL, that's why we use them in Tracking where they are supposed to be in the lead and pull.
I put her on one of my prongs, and had the trainer work her w/ that exercise, and oh boy.... you could sure tell that puppy has never not gotten her own way! I've never seen a temper tantrum on this exercise until now, but w/in 5 min, she decided maybe she was not going to emerge the victor. She was a model student the rest of the day. She had been in STAR puppy class, and no training collars are allowed and I doubt corrections are either, unfortunately.