Loose-leash walking problems

So last week I went to puppy class. When raising a leader puppy, you have to go to at least one social gathering as hosted by Leader Dogs themselves; a lot of people choose to go to the outings hosted by their assigned trainer, which is what I have been doing. She holds basic obedience classes, and this past class' focus was basically loose-leash walking, a fairly self-explanatory subject. Mango is the most headstrong dog that I have ever seen, therefore he has an extremely hard time with loose-leash walking. A little five lb puppy isn't that difficult to walk with even if they pull, but try imagining a 100lb dog pulling you whatever way he wants. In sum, it's pertinent to his career for him to be able to have this basic skill, and because of his hardheadedness, this has always been a problem for him, and I was reprimanded for his inability to be able to walk on a loose leash.

For the past week or so, I have been using Leader Dog's method for training loose-leash walking; every time the dog pulls, even if it is the slightest bit, you have to walk backwards until he starts to walk towards you. Now if your dog doesn't even have the slightest clue of what you're trying to do, like Mango, it takes roughly fifteen minutes to walk outside for him to be able to park (go to the bathroom). I have been struggling with this forever, and now it's even worse because he's older and set in his ways -- train your dog, whatever s/he is, when they are young, because it really is harder to teach an older dog new tricks! Regardless, although their method is working, progress is extremely slow, even though Mango is a very fast learner. In an entire week of being as consistent as possible, he is just now starting to get the idea. He definitely pulls less often, and when he does pull it takes a lot less time for him to correct himself.

But it's not just a learning process for him; it is for me as well. It takes a lot to train yourself to correct the dog the right way, as well as not to say "No" when he pulls. It is definitely takes a lot of patience as well to not completely lose it when he just isn't getting it in a particular day, which happens all the time.

This is definitely one of the things I never expected to have problems with when raising a leader dog, but it certainly is important. With this, the biting problems, as well as his barking issue, he's a handful. Plus, these are all issues that will fail him out of becoming a Leader Dog, which is the very last thing I want for him.

But he's getting better. Whether it's because he's maturing or I am as a raiser is questionable. He's learning very fast, but me, not so fast. It's funny how that works.