Walking on a Leash

Brinkley chewed through his harness today when I had him at work with me...
I was NOT pleased! I thought he was chewing on his tennis ball...sneaky little thing.

I have no good answers...sorry. I know we are starting puppy classes at petsmart and the trainer said we would learn about the walking on a leash on one side, not pullling... but he didn't say anything about not chewing.

I did buy a new harness tonight...it is an XS instead of a small. It fit more snug, and made him REALLY mad b/c he could not get to it to chew.
He only wears it when we are out of the house, which may be why it bothers him so much.

I forgot to mention, a water spray bottle is also a great deterent if you can spray them while they are doing the behavior. We've just started doing this with Tuffy and it seems to be working out pretty good. And another thing that helped getting Tuffy to walk on the leash was taking him to a big open space where he could run around. He was so interested in checking everything out that before he knew it he was leading me around.

Lexi did the same thing. I think we are on harness number 3, regular leash number 3 and retractable leash number 2. I tried the bitter apple spray and it worked at first but after a week it wore out and I had to respray it.

Just to let you know the biting does eventually go away. Lexi is now 6 months old and hardly ever bites. She used to bite people's hand so much that one vet (inside of PetSmart, not my vet) told me I needed to see a behavior trainer. I never did because it started to gradually get better. I think it all has to do with teething. Lexi has almost all of her adult teeth in and is like a different dog. The only time she bites me is on accident when I am holding one of her toys. Even then it is more of a pinch.

Ok, as for the walking on a leash Lexi and I just finished a Puppy Kindergarten class at the ARL. The way they taught us is to tie the leash around your waist or to a belt loop. You want the puppy to able to walk next to you with some slack in the leash but not enough that the puppy can walk away from you. Have a bunch of treats on hand. To start out show the puppy a treat and then take a few steps forward. Anytime there is slack in the leash give the puppy a treat . The important thing here is when you give the treat give it to the puppy right next to your leg at about the height that the puppy's mouth. <_< Did that make sense? Anyway as the puppy catches on you can increase the number of steps you take.

If you try to do this outside you might need to use treats that your puppy loves but does not get a lot. I use chicken & cheese. Lexi LOVES chicken and she LOVES cheese. She will do anything for them. The key is to only give them this at when you are training in areas were there is a lot of distractions. Lexi only gets them when we are in class. This is one way of making sure I keep her attention.

Okay I am going to stop now. This has gotten way to long.

Hope this answered your question!

There is no such thing as a long post...I need all the help I can get! I'm going to try soaking her harness in bitter apple so that Zoe finally understands that it it's not so fun to bite her harness and leash! Great tips from everyone, by the way. I had only been trying to get her to walk in small areas inside, so maybe some larger areas will help.
Thanks for the encouragement about the biting eventually stopping...I know she is still little but sometimes it's just so frustrating because all she will do is bite you, the carpet, the WALLS, everything!
Thanks again for all the help everyone...what would I do without you guys?