STRONG dog pulls- until we can get the money for a training class, what can I do?

[Malibu's Mom]

At this stage I would definitely call it leash-frustration, with the frustration stemming from her inability to greet the other dog or chase the cat. That's how my dog started out. But that almost always turns into leash reactivity unless it's taken care of early on, like it did with my dog. So I'm glad you've decided to address the issue before it turns into something more.

I also would suggest not letting her meet dogs on-leash for a bit. It might drive her frustration if she expects to be allowed to greet other dogs when she's on the leash. I don't really like on-leash meetings anyway, because the leash interferes with proper greeting behavior. I much prefer small playgroups. It's more of a personal choice, though.

[ToBeEvergreen]

We once had a greyhound we had adopted at age 5, who had behavioral problems that were never addressed, since before we had him- his trainer from the track would keep him locked up outside, since he got into everything in the house. In a few years his sight started going as well, which didn't help. I'm older now, I never want that for any dog, if I can help it.

Thank you for the suggestion.

[B&Baussies]

I really like all the training messages discussed above. I know for a lot of people that first turn to a new collar or harness but sometimes it’s all about breaking the bad behavior. This is just an experience of mine; maybe it will work for you. But before I got my pups I was really fond of this German shepherd, he wasn’t mine but he saw me as family (I was the first/ only person for a while outside the family that he got excited to see come over instead of barking angrily at the door). He had always had a pulling problem, and they had the prong collar too but it didn’t even faze him. The weird thing was I started to take care of him while the owners were out of town, and he never pulled… walked right next to me. He isn’t neutered either. The only thing I can imagine that caused this was the fact that I had my eye forward. I think they looked at him most of the time during the walk, he in turn notices them watching him and assumes (especially shepherds) that he’s leading. Where when I walked him, he’ll look at me and then back to the road keeping pace with me. The key for me was to use my peripheral vision to watch him instead of a direct line of sight. Kind of like telling them, “I don’t care where you want to go”.
But this would just correlate with their natural behaviors and stimuli. For long term retention and social skills building it would for sure be in your best interest to train her. And my solution would just be a temporary fix that would really just work for you; if anyone new would try and walk her old habits would probably break out. Good luck

[ToBeEvergreen]

That's a very helpful tip, thank you. The training hasn't been going as well lately. I wasn't able to take her out for about a week, and once I started up again, my "training spot" suddenly had other DOGS. Cass gets too excited around other dogs to care what I want her to do. Today actually, I took her out for a 20 minute walk, and as usual there were dogs barking in nearby houses- she tries to pull forward when she hears them. This time, I watched a little kid let a dog OUT OF A NEARBY HOUSE, a boxer. I panicked. He came over to us and Cassie and him were both wagging their tails. Then, he got a little too close and put his paw on her- although she does this to other dogs to play, I think she was taken from her own liter early, as she sees this as a challenge from other pups. Or, maybe she just didn't want to play with a strange dog. They were suddenly both growling and barking at each other. I was pulling Cass away and finally the adult comes out, pulls him back and talks to me for a second, chatting nicely with me.

Cassie came home wagging her tail as if it were a GRAND old time. Lovely, yeah...