walking with a loose leash

my dog does NOT have a good focus - when he walk, he doesn't "charge" or "lunge", per se, but he keeps a steady tension on the leash which, after a while, starts to hurt the hands, y'know?

if i say "ah-ah!" or "back!", he'll back off, flick me a look, then he's forging ahead again. correct, he backs off, then off he goes again.

the exception is when he smells something - it's like his entire body turns into a huge black nose and he'll try to drag me all over the place tracking the scent.

i've tried several different methods to get him to walk on a loose leash consistently - he does do it: when we're on our way home, he walks picture-perfect. if i have a lot of bags or my daughter or stuff in general to carry, he's perfect to the point i have forgotten i had him with me. but i can't seem to figure out what it is i'm doing that brings that out in him or, conversely, what it is i'm doing that has him zooming out everywhere except on me.

that was actually a new thought that popped into my head: now that i think about it, when we leave for our walks, we didn't have this trouble when i lived in the bush. in the bush, there are only two other dogs both elderly females and 100% trustworthy. here in town, every man jack has his bloody mutt running loose and about 80% of the dogs in town are completely undisciplined (and now in heat, apparently). of that 80%, i'd say a good 20% are clearly aggressive. so when we leave the house, the first thing i do is scan around looking to see if any of the dogs are loose but when we're coming home, i'm usually thinking about a nice hot cup of tea.

would that make such a big difference? it would, wouldn't it, considering when we lived in the bush, his main job was protection and wildlife deterrance?

I think you've hit the nail on the head :-)
I can't say what works for every dog, but here is how I trained my dog, he's clicker trained by the way.
I held treats in my hand on the same side as my dog was walking. The clicker was in the other hand. The treats were always really good smelling ones so they kept his focus over anything else outside on the sidewalk. I would just walk along looking ahead and he would stay right by my side focused on me, I would take a few steps and click and treat, take a few steps and click and treat, repeat. Eventually we would walk the whole block before the treat came.

I recently learned the difference between "heel" in the sense that the dog is glued to your left leg focused solely on you and loose leash walking where the dog will pay attention to you if you ask it to but the dog is also free to sniff around so long as they don't pull you or lag behind.

Sometimes when my dog starts to forge ahead and forget himself, I have to call him back and remind him that there is someone attached to the other end of the leash. I just call his name and praise him/pat him when he stops and looks. That's usually enough to bring his focus back so that he isn't ignoring me.

Good luck!

he's not great with any reward beyond praise and pat - he tends to hyperfocus on the treat or the clicker (although i've discovered a model that can be concealed - fex, i can put it on the floor and click it with my foot, or in my mouth if i want him to focus on my face, so i'll give that one a try). otherwise, the way he is, i'd need to drag a garbage can of treats to get him to the end of the block, lol!

but i'm going to try the "stop if he's pulling" method again - we did it yesterday and i KNOW he got the point; he just didn't want to listen.