puppy on a lead trouble

[entemeranair]

Oh dear - it was all going so well. My pup is now 14 weeks old and she has decided that walking on a lead is really not for her. The minute it is clipped on, her bum goes down and she won't budge. It is a bit odd really as she trotted along quite nicely on the lead to start with but she is now getting progressively worse. I think it reached an all time low at her puppy class last night - even a bit of one to one work with the instructor left me none the wiser. She suggested I go back to basics and get her using the lead in the garden. My pup seems to have regressed and is even resistant to this! I have tried treats - they don't seem particularly helpful. I tried using massive enthusiasm to coax her along (another fail) - and I tried giving a couple of yanks on the lead (obvious fail!). She is happy to go off lead and walk with me and she is otherwise good (she will do sit/down/come/stay etc). How can I get her going again?

[Sianny]

Ralphy was hesitant at first on the lead so one of us used to run away from the other with a high value treat in the hand - cooked chicken. He'd then canter after us. I think more experienced dog owners will have something better for you! Good luck

[Caramomo]

Hmmm. How about putting the lead on at home and letting it drag whilst playing a BRILLIANT game with her but don't go near the door. then when she is fully happy in the house move the game into the garden. When happy with this start tsking the game out and about - drive to a safe open place and carry her to the middle then put her and her trailing lead on the ground and play the game. This should distract her from the lead and break the habit.

[entemeranair]

oooh.... that sounds good...I'll give it a go. Hmmmm.... I think my 5yr old daughter might prove useful for this exercise!

[Caramomo]

Let us know if it works please?

[entemeranair]

woohoo! Movement! Daughter came home from school - so I set her the task of getting Popy to walk on the lead in the lounge... Cue chaos... 5yr old + puppy + lead + bag of chopped hotdogs + cushions and a tunnel. I decided to keep out of it as I didn't seem to be helping much! Ok, so it was a bit scarey to watch but they seemed to enjoy it...I will see if we make any more progress over the weekend and I will keep you posted!

[Caramomo]

Yay!

[Mrs. B]

We are sorta having the opposite problem. All of a sudden, well this last week or so, on the way home from walks Jetson just stops dead in his tracks when we start getting near our house. I finally gave up yesterday and carried him the rest of the way home. I can only assume he wants to keep walking. Today when we take him out after work I want to go a different direction, come home the opposite way and see if we still have the same problem, atleast then we might be able to get to the front walk.

This has all started out slowly, first he didn't want to go up the front walk and not walk on the porch at all. Everyday it gets worse and worse, the distance from the house getting greater.

[Eddie]

It sounds like he's not ready to go home. There's a few on the forum that behave the same way.

[Mrs. B]

It sounds like he's not ready to go home. There's a few on the forum that behave the same way.

We are thinking that too, but we don't want to over do the walking. And I hate to give into the little turd and pick him up, but even with a high value treat he doesn't want to go home. So we just pick him up.

I was wondering if other dogs did the same thing. Thanks.

[keith j]

Ha, Debs he might be a turd, but he's a cute one, I myself was never happywith Jaspers trainers when he was young, as too much was done with treats, (this is ok when first starting off) but he would do nothing unless he thought a treat was involved.

It took a long time to get him to respect me, to tell him what to do, rather than doing it for a treat. so I think it is important to have good trainers, and also the trouble in this country is the more the merrier in the class the better, but too much is missed this way for the individual.

So more word of mouth, about trainers, and small personal classes , is the best to have.(if you can find both of these)And thats not easy.

Keith

[Mrs. B]

We are trying to use less and less treats, alot of time we can get him to do something just by us getting really excited, like when we want him to come to us in the yard, but we aren't ready to give up on bribbery just yet.

We call him a little turd, but it is a term of endearment, yeah I guess we are weird! (tongue)

[Tulip]

Maisy is the same so far on lead. With calling and enthusiasm, she comes, but she's so teeny right now that one step for me is six for her, so I think a long line will be useful here!

[entemeranair]

Well, I decided to make our family outings as exciting as possible this weekend to see if I could get Poppy motivated. We did the beach on Saturday and Thetford forest/adventure playground today. although she was dragging to start with, the environment was os exciting, she forgot being stubborn and started to enjoy herself. Success!

[Sianny]

Great Success! Huzzah!