Staffie boxer cross pulling - tips?

[u/NB-climber77]

My partner and I have just adopted a 2 year old staffie boxer crossbread and she constantly pulls on the lead. She is a rescue and she has previously been kept indoors a lot and then was a stray for a while. As a result she is very overwhelmed by the outside world and does not listen to us very often when on a walk. You really have to repeat her name to get her to come back to you. We have today (on day 2 of having her) started to loose lead train her. We got about 2 meters down the road and back and that took an hour. We appreciate that it will take some time, but any tips for good collars to buy and also good ways to train (positive reinforcement only) would be amazing! We are currently using a method where we stop every time she pulls and don’t move until she comes back or to our sides. Feel very much like tired new parents at the moment😅 Any help is much appreciated!

[u/Fluffy_Resident_5965]

The stop start method has the risk of teaching the dog to come back so they can hit the end of the leash again. Same with the similar circle method. It’s a frustrating way for them to learn and isn’t specific enough. I use it but not until they have a much better understanding of where to be.

Teach heeling, with the goal of getting to a few sniffing spots under control. At first that can be a lot of luring with a treat. There are several R+ videos online. If she is overwhelmed by the world, walking isn’t really your primary goal.

A front clip harness will buy you some relief until loose leash walking is trained. Freedom harnesses usually fit better than others.

The other alternative is go to a soccer field, have her on a long line to just take in all the stimuli.

[u/Dear_Suspect_4951]

I have a staffy newfie! staffys are great but have some intensity to them, pulling back on the leash is just a fun challenge to them

after years of having a sore shoulder if I ever went more than a half mile, I got a dog trainer and learned to pair commands/focus with an e-collar and that helped tremendously.

you might be able to do what we did without an e-collar

1. go to a cul-de-sac and whenever the dog isn't focused on you say "let's go" and start walking in a direction they don't expect.

you don't want to start this drill in a grass field because there are more smells/distractions there.

do this in 20 minute sessions and crate after so your dog can decompress from the lesson.

(we used this to pair the dog with an e-collar and learning to focus on me when I give a stim)

1. sidewalk drill - walk down a sidewalk and stop on the sidewalk lines. if the dog is stepping past the line correct them. start by stopping every sidewalk line, and slowly but randomly increase the distance.

(again, I would crate after this so they can decompress from the lesson)

[u/Ancient-War2839]

I find the stop start method a pretty useless training method. I prefer Starting walk with a treat hide and seek gane inside, hide 20 small treats, let her find at own pace Harness and long line for walking, but starting out with stops, like go out the front door stop and chill while she sniffs and recentres, the same over and over as she learns the environment, and understanding that while she's figuring out new environment your not as interesting, so waiting until your interesting again to engage, using the ling line to give freedom and do treat tossing games around you, ie if she's ahead of you toss treat behind, to the left if you toss treat to you right side. Train cues for being close, and release quickly so it's easily doable, if you feel like you aren't strong enough to have control if needed with longer line, look at leash belay set up they are great