# Husky is pulling - to stop it or not?



## russiarulez (Jun 13, 2007)

This question is aimed to people that have experience with huskies (mine is Siberian). He is 4.5 months old and pulls like crazy when walking. I'm considering buying a "halti" or similar training aid and train him to not pull and heel when walking. 
The question is that I plan on skijoring (pulling me along on skis) with him later on, or have him pull sleds and stuff. So if I stop his pulling behavior now, will I be able to train him to pull when needed later on?


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## Durbkat (Jun 26, 2007)

He needs to be in a obidence class to be taught how not to do this. Thats what these classes are for as to teach the dog manners and to do tricks.


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## Dakota Spirit (Jul 31, 2007)

russiarulez said:


> This question is aimed to people that have experience with huskies (mine is Siberian). He is 4.5 months old and pulls like crazy when walking. I'm considering buying a "halti" or similar training aid and train him to not pull and heel when walking.
> The question is that I plan on skijoring (pulling me along on skis) with him later on, or have him pull sleds and stuff. So if I stop his pulling behavior now, will I be able to train him to pull when needed later on?


Teaching your dog to walk nicely on a leash will not deter him from pulling later on (in skijoring.). It’s just a matter of teaching him when and where it is appropriate.

Sibes are notorious pullers and hard heads. I would suggest getting your dog into a professional class as soon as possible.


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## Jr. Dog Expert (Sep 11, 2007)

There is always the option of classes, but in some situations thats just not possible. When it comes to self training you really need to get informed, i would know from expirence! This problem isn't limited to huskies, although it is more commonly seen in them, actually it is common in most spitzes, Junior my dog is a spitz and i had the same problem. 

What was recommended to me was to "walk in circles". 

This implies to take the dog out for a walk, then if it pulls turn around and walk the other way, the dog will eventually turn around and start walking the way you are going, it will most likely start to pull again, every time it starts pulling on the leash turn around and walk the other way, a slight word like "No" when he/she pulls makes the learning process alot faster. It will take a long time till the dog gets the idea that pulling will get it no where. Praise your dog if she walks with a slacked leash. 

If your worried about looking silly walking in circles then another method that is closely related is to stop whenever there is tension on the leash and start walking once the leash is loose again. This method is a little less effective in some cases, so you have to choose; look silly walking in circle training your dog OR look silly being pulled by your dog. .

Hopefully this information will work!

P.S. Try this method before refferening to any kind of collar, choke, prong, or head halter.


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## Niccali (Sep 5, 2007)

russiarulez said:


> This question is aimed to people that have experience with huskies (mine is Siberian). He is 4.5 months old and pulls like crazy when walking. I'm considering buying a "halti" or similar training aid and train him to not pull and heel when walking.
> The question is that I plan on skijoring (pulling me along on skis) with him later on, or have him pull sleds and stuff. So if I stop his pulling behavior now, will I be able to train him to pull when needed later on?



I have two Siberian Huskies. I wouldn't say that it's impossible to train it out of them but it's extremely difficult.  Pulling has been bred into huskies for longer than Americans have known they existed. It's something they know to do from birth. 

What worked best for me, is I have two harnesses. I encourage pulling in 1 of the harnesses then the other is designed for her not to pull in it. It clips on her chest and if she pulls, it will pull her torso to face me. She's really understood that it's not pulling that's bad, but there's a time & place for it.


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## Barhund Canine (Aug 28, 2007)

I would start him out in an area with no distractions and teach him how to heal. Trying to walk around the neighborhood or wherever you walk him and trying to get him to heal will almost be impossible. 

Start in the garage, basement, backyard, living room. If he is consistency pulling you cannot show him where you want him to be. If you do not feel comfortable with a prong, a martingale may work also. I would start with a prong, and go to a martingale when he makes progress. 

Chokers are garbage and should be taken off the market. To teach heal you need to get slack in the leash and praise him. When he pulls give him a firm No and an appropriate correction according to his temperament. When he backs off and you get slack then tell him heal and praise him. Even if it is just a couple of seconds. If you use a prong just him pulling should be enough to get him to back off. 

You will also need to know how to properly fit and use a prong. Go to www.leerburg.com and read the article How to fit a Prong also read the theory of corrections, ground work for puppies and everything else you care to read on leerburg's website. You will find the most objective and diverse views on training there on everything from positive reinforcement to Schutzhund and Police K9. They have an excellent basic obedience DVD also. 

If you let him pull and pull him back and say heal he will associate the pulling with the word heal. The other suggestions work well on most dogs. It depends on the temperament of your dog. Huskies tend to be strong willed. Obedience training would be a plus. When training him I would also suggest working with him in 10-15 minute sessions followed by free time or play time for and hour or so in between. Keep it fun, and start positive, and end positive

As your husky makes progress you should eventually be able to go to a flat collar.

If you want him to pull you on skis I would use a body type harness. If you train him properly you should not have any issues with being well mannered and do his job pulling. 

I don't think a haltie would be your best choice for what you are wanting to do at this point from what you have described. I would also suggest getting Karen Pryor's book on clicker training. This will help you with obedience and then when you start training for pulling you can teach him left, right, mush, stop. Clicker or marker training would help you out big time with what you want to do.

Work with him with no distractions until you get comfortable and then start adding distractions and proof the heal when he gets distracted.

Timing, consistency, and practice is very important to training a command. You basically have three main parts to teaching a command that I briefly described here. The learning phase, The proofing or (correction) phase, and the Maintenance phase. It is pretty much across the board when choosing what methods you wish to use. With him being 4.5 months old I really wouldn't expect too much from him too quick. I would recommend going with the most positive methods you can use with the least amount of adversity. He is still in a very critical time in his development and I would concentrate more on your bonding and relationship. Since he is still young I wouldn't start with doing any pulling until he is mature structurally.


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## SammyDog (May 21, 2007)

Ya you want to teach him to heel, its not the hardest thing to train.


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## Dogstar (May 11, 2007)

You'll have no trouble teaching that pulling is okay sometimes later on- but walking nicely really does need to come first, whether you teach a formal heel or just LLW. 

Cait (whose first training job was with Sibe rescue.)


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## Cheetah (May 25, 2006)

I always thought the pulling for a sled dog was on command anyway. They should walk nicely, unless given the command to pull. >o.o<


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## Jr. Dog Expert (Sep 11, 2007)

I think that teaching the heel command is a good start. However like someone already mentioned it will be impossible to teach it that in the neighborhood, i would suggest to start in your own yard/backyard. Im thinking that especially with a husky food will come in handy. Teach him to stay by your side and if he/she does it then give him a piece of food and praise him/her. Conditioning is important too, or else he/she will expect food every time it heels, so what you need to do is start with; giving it food every time he/she heels and then, give it food every other time he/she heels, then at random times, e.g. yes, no, no, yes, no, no, no, etc. This way it won't know when the food will come and it will heel at all times. 

Spitzs really prey motivated, i would know, and so all this training is going to be usless if you come across a cat or rabbit or w/e. So you need to teach your siberian husky the command "leave it!" Start with a small peice of food and place it on the ground, tell it to leave it and don't let it get near the food. After a couple seconds let it have the food. Gradually increase the time and after a while your pooch will know what leave it means. You can also practice when your feeding him/her thier meals, you pour the food in their bowl and set it down, tell them to sit, and then say "leave it". And then let them go to their food. When you go out on a walk, and you see a cat or rabbit, it will take a while, but you say "leave it" and it should know what it means. 

Hope this helps! Give us an update on things!


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## spookemook (Sep 13, 2007)

It is a Huskies natural nature to pull, afterall that is what they were originally bred to do. I owned one for about 4 years before having to get rid of it because of a move. In all that time he was never a good leash walker.

Also with huskies they are very smart but also very stubborn. So the best advice I can give is just to give it time and be consistent and hopefully you will have luck with leash walking.


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## PAWSDOG (Sep 13, 2007)

Teach him how to heel first, and one thing that you can do is to place the leash high on his neck for walking.. which is different from pulling where they have a harness and the pull is from the shoulders...Teaching him to walk nicely on a leash will not deter his desire to pull you later on in other sports.. no more than me teaching my Aussie not to jump on the counter and on people will deter him from leaping for a frisbee..


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