How do you cope with 2 strong doodles on leads??

[janettehamman]

Hello

In a campaign to get fit I was jogging along with Holly the other day (she was on the lead) and she saw a doggie friend coming towards her and made a mad dash to get to the other dog. This resulted in her getting under my feet and me screeching to a hault with her paw under my foot. Not nice; skin scrapped off her paw but not much blood fortunately.

This has led me to wonder if I get another doodle how on earth would I cope. Holly is well behaved but as we know when they make there minds up to go and see someone they are off, she really is strong so I wouldn;t have a chance with 2 on leads.

Just wondered how everyone else gets on who has 2 doodles. Not sure if we need a smaller dog if we get another, maybe a cockerpoo but would have to investigate these.

Just ordered a spray collar for the poo chomping problem so will let everyone know how that works out.

[deb Beasor]

Hi

I have 2 big doodles who are really strong most of the time they walk nicely loads of practice heel work.

However I also have 2 kids who like to walk the dogs too, but if my 2 see a cat, dog etc they would pull my kids over.

I use a halti they are about 10 squid from Pets at home they dont like it but I cannot risk kids being dragged across a road if I do a recall though I have to hide the halti.

Some people on here use the dogmatic collar too, I find the halti really good especially when I need control ie shopping centre etc.

Debs

[Bid]

A lot of it is to do with anticipating your dogs behaviour imo! I have 3 large dogs (will Ok - Pops is medium sized, but she's no chiahuahua), and although I don't do long lead walks with them all at the same time, they do have to go from car to track on their leads, and atm Daisy & Poppy are walked on flexis all the time. If they all spotted something to go haring after & I hadn't seen it I doubt I could hold them all going at full pelt, but if I am aware of something that they might be interested in I can brace myself and can hold them. If I am doing a lead walk with Daze & Pops for any distance I use a coupler, and it does seem to make them behave better.

I have just been given an exercise to do which is supposed to start working towards making them think about how to get what they want rather than just going for it, which is supposed to help with this lunging after things....

We put a plate of treat on the floor, and have the dog on a lead a little distance from it. The game doesn't start until the dog sits. The first few times you have to give the sit command, but after a while the dogs should have figured out what they have to do to start the game. Once she has sat, I praise her and we walk toward the plate. When she lunges or pulls we go back to the start. When we get to the plate I mustn't let her lunge & grab the food, but as soon as she steps back from it of her own accord I give her 3 or 4 of the treats, stopping if she lunges. Then we go back & start it all over again. This means she has to figure out for herself that she only gets what she wants by stepping back from it. I don't know yet what the next step in the training is, but they are enjoying practising this step

[taffyjack]

I use a halti with Olga and Paddy. Paddy is a x lab, heavier and stronger than Olga and have always needed a halti for him, at least on the way out to walk. Olga walks reasonably without it when she's on her own but pulls like hell when they're together. She goes a bit loopy when she sees another dog but much easier to control with the halti on.
They both walk home like angels without it after a run in the woods though
Might be worth a try for you, although I'm sure not everyone is fan of the halti.
I'd be like Ben Hur without it!

Cheers,
Sue

[Butterfly]

I use haltis with my two, and walks are really enjoyable, i have no control over their strength with a collar and lead they just pull me along......We did use dogomatic head collars which are great, but the dogs found them too bulky on their faces!x

[MrsAdmin]

Develop arm muscles like Arnie Seriously, it's a great workout. I will never have to worry about 'bingo wings'

I have a Gentle Leader for Jack and a Dogmatic for Becky, both of which head collars they hate, but I find them essential if we are going on longer road walks. Actually in crowds they are both fine on their normal leads and collars as they are a bit daunted so tend to stay close/under my feet.

For everyday use I find that I can actually hold them both in one hand as long as I use webbing leads I can get a firm grip on or wrap round my hand twice. I found a short length webbing lead in a charity shop and it's really strong, which is great to use on Jack as he's a bu**er for pulling. That keeps him close and I can be firm with him. Flexi lead handles are too rigid to hold with another lead and chains can rip your hands to shreds if the Doodles take off (bad experience trying that out )

Having the two of them on one arm does mean you can use their weight to counteract each other and they tend to be (slightly) better behaved if squashed in together a bit more than if I have one in each hand and they are pulling in different directions . I've never tried a splitter (I think that's one lead with two clips right?) and would worry that if they pulled the one lead from my hand they would then both be off. They are brilliant at combined chariot racing with a stick or ragga so would both head for trouble in unison

We have to walk along the road a little to get to the country park where I can let them loose. There is a cat with a suicide mission (either that or it's just plain dim ) on the way who insists on just lying in the road as they walk round it. The sight of me controlling two madly tugging, slathering beasts has onlookers crossing themselves and backing away rapidly, particularly as Becky's party trick is dancing on two legs and pawing the air whilst being dragged backwards She's an imposing (if not terrifying ) sight as she's such a long girl and it makes her taller than me when she's up on her hindlegs.

Back to more work on the 'Leave Cats Alone' training, sigh

(They are both very strong dogs so I would not trust any child/old person to walk them together. In fact I have arranged for a pro dog walker to come in to help Mum with them when we are away on holiday as she would not be strong enough to cope with Becky, in particular).

[iwantadog]

We had a halti for our German Shepherd when I was a kid and I wouldn't hesitate to use one on a dog if necessary.

I'm not totally convinced about the flexi leads, we had the biggest, strongest one for our shepherd and she still managed to pull suddenly and break it . I'm going back quite a long time, so maybe they're stronger now than they were then?

[PattyL]

Both our doodles were trained to walk to heel on my left, and now walk brilliantly together with the use of haltis. I have no hesitation in recommending these leads - no pulling at all. Admittedly they hated the leads the first couple of times, but now wear them with no problems.

[Pauline]

I have two strong dogs although Colin is smaller than Dexter. We work hard at the "heel" and "close" command - however if they want to get something I can't hold them! When I need them to walk well I use a canny collar which is brilliant! Never tried the halti but have tried the dogmatic - Dexter didn't mind it but Colin hated it! I prefer the canny as I found the budkle too small and fiddley on the dogmatic.

[broadloan]

I've started walking my 6 month old Doodle, Sparky, recently along with my sister's Cockapoo and found that 2 seperate leads were a nightmare. I have been using the Halti training lead which has 2 clips on it and put dogs on together, they are attached but at a distance, then I can walk holding the middle of the lead and can have them seperate or next to each other. It took a bit of getting used to at the start, but I have it under control now....which was not the case with seperate leads or flexi leads (nightmare I still have at night), Scooby the cockapoo is quite fast and mad, so Sparky's weight slows him down, the other good thing is that if I see a potential incident coming along I can put the dogs either side of me with the lead at my back and use my body weight if necessary to hold them as opposed to my arm sockets being pulled from my shoulders.

[Gypsysmum]

What is a Halti? Please excuse my ignorance! Im finding it hard with my doodle at the moment to and she is only 13weeks!!! I cannot get over the strength she has already. As my OH works away from home, i do most of the walking but i also have a 20mth old in a buggy and a 3yr old walking beside me!!! Most of the time its like a scene from Marley & Me!!!
Do these Halti's make control more easy?

[Butterfly]

They are great as you have complete control over their head, so can turn away from problems, no pulling strength, no choking, ......




I just use the head collars, but i started with the head collar and a connector to their collars! They will fight wearing one, however it soon wears off when they realize it isnt comming off!!x

[Jeanny]

Had 3 dobermanns in my younger days, and the only way I could be sure of not rocketing off down the road if they all decided to go, was to use halti's. Life savers.

Downsized to our mini doodle girl who is much happier in a harness than a collar when heeling on the lead. Not sure why, she's even better off the lead. Doodle brain I guess. Had to be on the lead a lot lately as been in season and what a lustful wench she is, eye on the horizon for likely suitors.

Bye
Jeanny

[jayloony]

I also have two big strong doodle boys, and I am quite happy to use a halti on both of them, they get along absolutely fine with them. My sister has a large german shepherd who has been wearing a halti for six years, she still hates it but these two got used to them very quickly.

It is a matter of safety they are so wilful that you have to be able to know that on roads etc they and everyone else is safe. I tried a harness but they both still pull on this and end up walking upright on their back legs and me looking like a fool walking along behind.

I agree that it is important to be vigilant and try to anticipate any distractions and I have found using my own body weight to hold them back really useful too.

I don't know what a flexi lead is though, feel a bit 'twp' now

[Muffin]

Recommend a Dogmatic collar.
Have tried Halti's and everything else similar over the years with Springers & Field Spaniels but always found they irritated the eyes.
The Dogmatic keeps the nose band well forward on the nose and well clear of the eyes.
Muffin walks beautifully with it.
We've got the large size which fits perfectly - about £20 on the internet.

http://www.dogmatic.org.uk/