Ok the title sounds ridiculous but I seriously need help. Our 2 year old male Coby hasn't been with us long. If people have read my other couple of posts you will know that I've stated we are his 3rd - and last home. We think he was abused in his first home and his second home let him do basically what he wanted.
Well as expected Coby has some bad habits. Selective hearing, food aggression, collar sensitivity and walking.
Well I understand that huskies pull, its natural but I have purchased a harness that really didn't do much. He pulls constantly, doesn't listen to commands whilst walking, he pulls to chase after cars/bikes and when he sees another dog its a battle to try and keep him under control.
Now I want to be able to walk him with our other dog Mia, she walks fantastic but we have had her from a puppy and trained her ourselves. I just have no idea how to train Coby with so many habits. I know people will say I have to start from the beginning with training but how when he's been allowed to do what he wants previously. Thanks for any help/advice you can give me. X

What kind of harness did you get? An easy walk harness will cut down on pulling because in order to pull, the dog will have to turn around completely. There's also the gentle leader head harnesses that look like muzzles (but they're not!). I don't have any personal experience with those but I've heard good things. We use the easy walk with the 80 lb lab. Me being 5'2" and 120 lbs, he could easy drag me down the street and my mom's got a bad knee and back so it's nice that now she can walk him without fear of injury. (The only thing is now he jumps instead of pulls -__-)

It is going to take time and patience to train him. Just stay consistent and always expect the same behavior. For example, sitting before crossing the street or sitting when he sees another person or animal. So far that's worked for me, but my girl is still a pup, so it'll just take some more patience with a more rowdy dog. Once he sees that you're the boss and he has to listen to you or he won't get very far, he'll start listening. Whenever one of my dogs misbehaves on the leash, I stop walking altogether until they sit and calm down. Very time consuming but eventually behavior improves. Try bringing special treats he doesn't get very often with you and offer them when he's behaving how you want him to.

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He pulls constantly, doesn't listen to commands whilst walking, he pulls to chase after cars/bikes and when he sees another dog its a battle to try and keep him under control.

Sounds to me like you have one distracted pup. Retraining isn't the easiest thing in the world, especially when some owners neglect to do any ground work at all. The only thing you can really do is keep at it and like you said yourself "Start from the beginning"

If Coby is THAT distracted by everything going on you might get better results by taking him out of those situations until you can work on the fundamentals with him. Limit the amount of outside stimulation and start reinforcing your expectations and training.

Find an open field somewhere and begin really working on walking. Start all alone and go through the paces of getting Coby used to walking beside you. Riley has a training method for open field walking training I think might work very well I will try and find and ETA it at the end for you.

Once you and Coby both understand each other a bit more on leash, and he is walking acceptably without pulling, then start bringing him around stimulation and use the same commands or corrections you used in the field.

It might take a long long time at first, but with enough patience and repetition it should sink in over time.

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Well I understand that huskies pull, its natural but I have purchased a harness that really didn't do much.

It comes down to preference, but for SOME dogs harnesses can enforce pulling. Even the "No Pull" harnesses can trigger the need to pull in some cases just because of the force applied on their body from the leash itself when taught.

"Control the head and neck, Control the dog" Is the way I've always been told to do it. If you can control what they see or where they are pointing they have little choice but to go in that direction whereas with a harness they have the freedom to look and go where every they chose and all you can do is pull back instead of redirecting.

We use harnesses for joring or jogging as they are allowed to be at full length and speed whilst doing those activities. Walking or obedience has always been with a flat collar.

~Chris~

ETA - Looking for Riley's Post.

Riley's Basic Open field Training :

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How we started: 30 foot leash, in a large park. No distractions. You walk a square. One side at a time, then pause at the corners. No talking. No praise or correction. Then say 'let's go!" and walk the next side of the square. About 20-30 paces a side. Your dog may run to the end of the leash and get quite a jolt. Don't prevent it. She needs to learn to stay close to you. After you can walk the square without a tug you shorten the leash a little and go again. This was a few weeks worth of work. Not an overnight fix.

As for walking you can't let the pulling get her what she wants. I'd start with just the squares and avoid walking until you can get her to follow you rather closely. Set them up for success. If you want to walk her take treats and praise and treat whenever she walks well. If she pulls, jumps, or bites, you must freeze. Become a tree. Ignore her until she settles down. Start walking again. If she behaves. Treat and praise. Of she doesn't. Freeze again.

Walking is a lot of work. We spent many a 30 minute walks barely moving 100 feet.

Thanks alot to both of you. It was a non pull harness as i needed something to try tonight, someone recommended the Easy Walk harness to me on here last night but no-where around me stocks it so i would have to wait 3-4days for delivery. I use a gentle leader head harness on Mia and it works a treat - I swear by it, If it wasnt for that Mia's walks would consist of her dragging her nose across the floor the whole way around!
Ive tried walking him without a harness & when i tried him with the gentle head leader he went mad, I presume somethings happened to him with previous owners which is why he hates it. We were told that with his first owners he had a shock collar used on him..

I always get him to sit before crossing a road as we did this with Mia, & when he pulls too much i stop and get him to sit and calm before walking again, but he will still pull. If i stopped everytime he pulled we wouldnt walk!
I get him to sit when there is another dog because if i dont and dont prepare myself then he would just drag me. I try and distract him with a treat but hes just not interested, and this is where his selective hearing comes in because he will just ignore my sit and stay command and try to drag me.

I will keep working on him, I just wanted to know I was doing the right things with him. Thanks alot!!

Awesome, I have actually been wondering about this also. My 2 year old Husky also has a lot of the same problems walking on a leash. I will have to pick up one of the easy walk harness to try it out, and I am going to have to give this open field training a shot also.
She is fine with people and other dogs, typically, but if we come across a squirrel or rabbit, which happens quite a few times, every day, I had better have a good grip on the leash, or she would be gone.

The most important thing you need is patience, it seems he really hasn´t learned anything in his former homes, so it will take some time til you get some real results.

We are teaching our 5 month old puppy how to walk on a leash right now. Yesterday we walked a total of 10 blocks, for 40 minutes! Every time he pulls we turn around and start going the other way. Our neighbors probably thought we were insane walking back and forth.

Have you tried freezing some peanut butter on a plastic mixing spoon and hold it down to your side? They spend so much time licking that spoon they don't even realize they're walking. We did that for the first few times we took our puppy on a walk just to get him used to the idea of walking next to us, and not in front of us.

SuzieV wrote:

Have you tried freezing some peanut butter on a plastic mixing spoon and hold it down to your side? They spend so much time licking that spoon they don't even realize they're walking. We did that for the first few times we took our puppy on a walk just to get him used to the idea of walking next to us, and not in front of us.

Oooo...that's a good idea! I froze cheese sticks and allowed my pup to nibble those. Same idea...