I need some control help

[ChevyTech]

I take my two dogs on a walk just about every day. They are really good with the leash and they hardly ever pull anymore. My problem is that today they saw another dog that was being walked and they both went crazy. They were both pulling hard and making high pitched whining noises. I grabbed them both by the collar and forced them to turn away and I waited until the lady and her dog went up the block. As soon as I tried to continue our walk the dogs bolted and would not quit pulling the whole way back to house. Right now I am using choke chains , is there a better way to control them? Or a way to curb this behavior? I was extremely embarassed. This had to look bad to the neighbors who might have seen this and I don't need any negative attention. Thanks.

Oh yeah P.S. They also love to jump up on company any good ways to break them of this habbit?

[bahamutt99]

I have a few basic suggestions.

1. Don't walk both of your dogs at the same time. They will feed off each other's energy, and it will make the situation harder to deal with.

2. If you have to use a training collar, make it a prong (aka pinch). Choke chains can be useful, but if you don't know how to use them properly, they wont have any effect other than damaging the dog's trachea.

3. There is no quick fix. Its going to take practice and consistency to improve the situation. You will have to work with your dogs (both individually and together) on getting their attention, and teaching them to ignore the other dogs. If you're not sure how to go about this yourself, I would check out the local obedience classes. Try to find an instructor that is familar with the breed.

4. On the jumping up. This will also take practice. I would put your dogs on leads, and have a person walk up to them. Tell the dogs to sit in order to be petted. If they get up, the person stops petting. If they jump up, give a leash correction and say "off" or whatever word you want to use. Then tell them to sit again, and have your helper pet them. This is another thing that an obedience class can help you with.

Good luck!