Any ideas, dropping his head? - Page 1

Hi all, I have a one year male dog who has a bad habit of putting his head down when asked to pull out. We have tried everything we can think of like getting him into a ball and getting his attention but it dosnt seem to work, as soon as he goes out on the end of the lead he drops his head and pulls himself along. We have had him pulling by our side to try and get him more onto his hindlegs which he can do easily but as soon as you let him out the old head drops, this is then ruining his topline and appearance, any helpful suggestions most welcome.

Hi JohnK - I have seen a number of dogs who pull too hard into their collars - it is a habit that may be difficult to resolve. I presume you are training him for showing!! Do you handle the dog yourself or does someone else handle him for you? If you handle him yourself are the other person/persons attracting him TOO MUCH - he may be pulling hard and dropping forward to get to them or vice versa. Is there another experienced dog (one of your own or a friends) that you can clip him on to with a double collar connection, perhaps a few sessions of this would help him keep his head - it worked for us for a dog that would not pull out at all (he was very lazy - we clipped him onto another very experienced, good temperament dog and this cured him). Also, you can use 2 collars and 2 leads, put on his normal working one and add another collar and a shortr lead and when he drops his head try checking him GENTLY with the second collar and lead immediately he shows signs of dropping his head and this might get him in the habit of keeping his head up - it has to be done gently, not forced into it. It is a very labourious task, but it often works well. Another thing you might try is - the second person helping (it may be yourself) walking close alongside him and tempting him with a treat and when he keeps his head up for a short period of time give him a reward, praise him and slowly over time (it may take a long time to change this habit) walk further from him all the time offering him the reward - the treat has to be just high enough for him to have to lift his head just above the level. Are you using the correct collar for training him? - there are curved collars in leather and metal that do not press too hard on his throat, some of the collars can be uncomfortable for him and he may be trying to get away from being uncomfortable. He may need to have some training without any outside disturbance, perhaps just with you or his handler so that he is calm. Perhaps letting him have a free run prior to training and letting off some of the steam/energy might just make him calmer. As he is reasonably young you will want to resolve this problem sooner than later. Hope some of this will help you. Best wishes

Thanks Toots, yes it is for showing, i will try the treat idea first, at the moment he is in a chain i dont think this is the problem as he will do it in his leather collar but anything is worth a try. It is a habit, he has done it for a while but hoped as he did more and looked for me more it would correct itself but at his last show he still continued to drop and pull from the front, he is being handled by someone else. Thanks again.

Hi Johnk, Have you tried training him in the woods. You hide behind trees so he isnt sure where excatly you are,then he has to raise his head to look. Try just being out of his sight and popping up in different places,he has to keep his head up to see where you might be. We have a young female who if she knows where you are will just dig into the lead to get to that point. If she has no idea where we have gone up comes her head looking for us. Might be worth a try. Also if he is old enough try biking him,he is going at a faster pace than you can do running and cant drop his head at a good gait,esp if you are in a car infront but just out of the way. Let us know how you get on.

Hi Johnk, I agree with X Factor - when showing my bitch and indeed during ring 'training' my handler insists that I am fuly out of sight thus necessitating that she raises her head in search of me. Occasionaly whilst hidden I will call her name to alert her. The main problem, as described to me with a dog that drops his/head is that they can develop more power in the fore than hind quarters and tend to tire themselves out much more quickly. Another piece of advice which I was given and which I have also witnessed as being very effective has been the use of a prong collar during training. The collar was placed quite tightly on the dog, hence when it began to drop its head, the prong became uncomfortable