How To Get Puppy To Go For Walks

[aussielover]

If she is still little, maybe just carry her in the area you want to walk to start with?

I would take my puppy to busy areas/high traffic areas when she was a baby, but I would only carry her, so she felt quite secure (also not fully vaccinated). Now she is fine with traffic- it doesn't bother her at all, she won't even react if a siren goes off close to her or a motorcycle revs near her.

my puppy did not start walking well until about 4 months of age, she was not timid as such, but would refuse to move if she didn;t feel like it. after a fair amount of work at home and only doing very short walks, she did learn to walk. Now we are having a slight issue with pulling because we encouraged her to go forward too much as a young pup and even encouraged tension on the lead.

But personally i think pulling is a little easier to deal with than refusal to walk.

Edited October 7, 2010 by aussielover

[mackiemad]

if it is just sounds she doesn't like, perhaps you can get a cd or dvd of traffic noises, motors revving, horns beeping etc and play them inside the house. obviously start off not too lound and increase over time.

if it is the movement then maybe (if just ignoring her doesn't work, which is what i would do. ignore, drag and then prasie when she is moving forward freely) get your daughter to ride progessively closer past her and by her on all sides on a bicycle? i personally would have her in a sit or drop and try and keep focus whilst the bike is going past.

i'm not a behviouralist, but that is how i would first approach it, whilst talking with my instructor- bring it up in class, other puppy owners might be going through the same thing!

[Dogsfevr]

but i will give it a break for a few weeks and then start out by taking her to an area with some traffic and build her up from there,

I wouldn't do this .

In your situation then i would use my own vehicle as a form of training.

Take it in turns of driving past with pup sitting outside calmly & ignoring the insecurity & praising .

I would pretend to be doing gardening anything that is non specific to what is happening.

If she is good at school then use that area for more "fun time" with vehicles.

[lovemesideways]

In this situation, I would be tempted to ignore the bad behaviour and reward the good. Find an area that is a little busy, a few cars every now and again. Maybe a person or two. Something like outside a local shopping centre at a odd hour. The point of finding this is that you start working at a level that is not horrific for the dog. (Just like when you start learning how to drive a car. We always start on the back streets, then when the confidence is up, you move onto the busier roads and highways.)

I'm thinking it probably a lack of confidence, but also there could be the added factor that shes got a bit of a history of success with this "don't move" thing she pulls. Stop moving = Attention and success. Success with her goal of not going anywhere, and loads of attention for doing it.

So find your area, could be corner of your road. Make sure she is on a collar that cannot slip over her head (Like a Training collar/Martingale). Lead on, get your treats ready, every step she takes, praise and reward her with some tasty treats Whilst still moving. Even if you are just standing and she is wandering around your feet sniffing. Reward every confident movement to sniff.

Then say for example, a car goes nearby, she digs her little heels in. Well how much does she really weigh? I would stop paying her any attention at this point and keep walking. Keeping a gentle tension on the lead to get her moving. So you aren't yanking her by her neck, just tension and constant movement untill that second where she starts walking on her own. At that moment, WOohOoo praise and treat and ALL tension out of the leash again. Treats and lots of rewards, back to every single step she makes forward on the lead equaling fun awesome rewards.

This is just an idea of mine that could either help or do nothing at all, the best option always is to get a trainer in. 1 small session with a decent trainer to work out anything you are having a problem with.

Edited October 7, 2010 by lovemesideways

[lovemesideways]

but i will give it a break for a few weeks and then start out by taking her to an area with some traffic and build her up from there,

I wouldn't do this .

In your situation then i would use my own vehicle as a form of training.

Take it in turns of driving past with pup sitting outside calmly & ignoring the insecurity & praising .

I would pretend to be doing gardening anything that is non specific to what is happening.

If she is good at school then use that area for more "fun time" with vehicles.

Good idea there If you can arrange to arrive to Obedience early and just hang around the parking lot as other people arrive (Obviously off to the side somewhere safe!) lots of cars driving around, but you can make it super fun with training!

[Christina]

I think it is wrong to drag a puppy & never do it if they freeze or wont walk.

I just let the puppy sit there & do absolutely nothing if a few words wont make it move.

Pup gets bored eventually & moves then it praise, no treats. The longest time was about 7 minutes & yes its frustrating but they do move eventually.

Freaked out by the many road trains at my nearest busy place on occasion I don't pick them up I crouch down & speak in a soothing voice & praise when they get over it & carry on with the walk.

Unless they are in danger of strangling themselves then of course you have to pick them up, rarely happens.

[poodlefan]

Mrs RB:

So vet and chief instructor said - "she's having you on - just drag her and keep walking".

Did they add a check chain to the advice?

Why do so many folk ascribe every damn behaviour to the dog trying to put one over on the handler?

Dogs that are overwhelmed by situations can shut down. I have a dog like this. I also had one of the "just give her to me and I'll sort it" type of instructors early on. So he dragged my dog and I didn't know better then or I'd have stopped it. She never budged.. never.

That dog lacked confidence. By building her confidence in ME, we got past it. I made sure that all her experiences were positive, that my responses to her behaviour were never worse than neutral and I worked hard at making her comfortable. And it worked.

Edited October 7, 2010 by poodlefan

[aussielover]

I think it is wrong to drag a puppy & never do it if they freeze or wont walk.

I just let the puppy sit there & do absolutely nothing if a few words wont make it move.

Pup gets bored eventually & moves then it praise, no treats. The longest time was about 7 minutes & yes its frustrating but they do move eventually.

Freaked out by the many road trains at my nearest busy place on occasion I don't pick them up I crouch down & speak in a soothing voice & praise when they get over it & carry on with the walk.

Unless they are in danger of strangling themselves then of course you have to pick them up, rarely happens.

Personally I found this method to be the most effective with my dog.

[R00]

Mrs RB:

So vet and chief instructor said - "she's having you on - just drag her and keep walking".

Did they add a check chain to the advice?

Why do so many folk ascribe every damn behaviour to the dog trying to put one over on the handler?

Dogs that are overwhelmed by situations can shut down. I have a dog like this. I also had one of the "just give her to me and I'll sort it" type of instructors early on. So he dragged my dog and I didn't know better then or I'd have stopped it. She never budged.. never.

That dog lacked confidence. By building her confidence in ME, we got past it. I made sure that all her experiences were positive, that my responses to her behaviour were never worse than neutral and I worked hard at making her comfortable. And it worked.

I would agree with you PF, with the exception of some dogs. Rosie would try and pull the wool over my OH eyes when she would stop walking but wouldn't when she was with me. So I got the OH to give her a slight drag and it worked. Rosie doesn't pull that stunt now. But to the orginal poster this is not something to do unless you are absolute certain that she is just not scared or lacks confidence. You will do far more damage long term if you do that. And also Rosie was 6 months old at the time.

Edited October 7, 2010 by R00

[SpotTheDog]

I've just come in from a walk with Gus, and oh how I lolled to see this thread.

Gus is somewhere between five and six months of age (rescue crossbreed - bull arab x or bull arab or bitsa everydamnthing basically.)

When I left the house this morning I didn't register the time - 8.30am, rush hour. Doh.

We met, on our walk today:

• Traffic.
  
• The postie on his motorbike.
  
• A cyclist.
  
• A small child on a tricycle.
  
• Another dog on-lead whose owners were very intimidated by Gus's barely restrained, vibrating interest - he sat down, I didn't try to move him until they'd passed. I even said hello to them, which confused them even more - it's like they thought I was going to set Gus on their dog (a kelpie that was minding its own business.)
  
• A shetland pony in his paddock (terrifying).
  
• The police. (Sit and obediently wait at the corner of the road beside owner, like rockstar dog.)
  
• Two heavy machinery road graders. (Bitsa mix includes greyhound - rockstar to dickhead in 0.2 seconds.)
  
• A 16-wheel flatbed truck stacked with pallets, who pulled away from the kerb while we were passing him (cue total panic attack).
  
• Various barking dogs in their gardens.
  
• Various barking dogs in the front windows of their houses.
  
• A guy pressure washing his car at the back of the servo.
  

Gus sat down a few times, and I just waited him out. He had a panic attack outside the DVD store and refused to move, (prompted by apparently nothing) so I sat down on the kerb with him. I got him to lie down, and gave him a treat. (Puppy can lie down on request, tempted by a treat, in a public space, but won't walk across the vacant concrete in front of the DVD shop. Go figure.) Once I stood up he was ready to go again, panic having passed.

He tried to go the opposite way to where I wanted to go a few times - we went his way for about seven feet and then turned about and continued the way I wanted to go.

The machinery, the cars, the truck, the pony - with all of those I managed to jolly him past with a combination of weighty praise, confident movement and treats, but I'm at a loss about the other dog - Gus didn't want to move, I didn't make him, he didn't bark or strain the lead, he just sat with his attention 10000000% on the other dog - whose owners, as I said, looked a bit worried. There are a lot of dogs around here, but we've managed to avoid them to date - not that many seem to get walked. Not sure if I should do something differently next time?

First obedience class is on Sunday (given I missed the last one on daylight savings - like dog like owner, bit dumb sometimes).

So we're home, and I'm wrecked, and the pup's asleep in his bed!!

[Bubitty]

For the "puppy refuses to move" situation, the best thing for me was to ask her to do her already known commands and reward her for them. I find that it perks her up, makes her all jolly and then I issue the command "walk" and she will start walking happy as a clam, thinking it was all a set of training exercises.

[aussielover]

I find talking to my puppy in a ridicoulsly high pitched and happy voice helps move her forward as well aqs keep her under control. I probably look and sound like an idiot though.

[lovemesideways]

IMO there is a difference between Dragging a puppy at full speed. And taking very slow steps while keeping a gentle tension on the lead, then praising the very second a dog moves of their own accord.

If it is a behavior of Shutting down, sometimes moving forward can be a very best effective tool.

[Red Fox]

i need some help getting my puppy to go for walks, she will only go about 30 steps then she digs her heels in and refuses to go any further,

she is 16 weeks old and is a cavalier x poodle,

our first outing was not far as she is only little, the second day she heard a bus near by and hated the noise of it - cowered down scared and afraid of it,

the next day i took her to a walking track away from traffic, but there were some people and she did not want to walk near them - cowered down afraid again

she goes to obedience training and has been twice and loves it - people, dogs, the works and enjoys it!!!

so i took her to a grass area where no traffic and no people were, first day her was excellent she was able to run on her lead in the grass and had a ball, so i thought great will keep coming back here, BUT the next day we went down there and as she was running about a motorcycle came through - (even though they are not allowed down there ), it scared the daylights out of her, she took off running that fast she ripped the lead out of my hand, my daughter finally caught her and she was shaking so bad

next day took her back but she refused to go down there,

have tried parks, cycle tracks ect but don't know what to do next,

how do i get her to walk?????

any ideas would be greatly appreciated

thanks

At 16 weeks I wouldn't really be too worried about walking her, she's only a baby.

Do some focus work with her, marker (clicker) training, play games, build her confidence, allow her to drag a leash around the back yard then start teaching her loose leash walking under low distraction (your yard and those 3 houses each way are more than fine for that). Take her out and expose her to new things - school, kids, dogs, weird looking people in hats. Sit in front of a shop or on a street corner or in the park, click and treat her (or just praise and pat her) for focussing on you/ignoring scary things (you can drive to where-ever you wish to go, you don't have to drag her there on a leash). Keep up your obedience training and practice NILIF too - and (while some people may not agree with me) I think crate training helps build confidence and security too.

Walking will happen in time but seriously, at 16 weeks just enjoy her ;)

[R00]

i need some help getting my puppy to go for walks, she will only go about 30 steps then she digs her heels in and refuses to go any further,

she is 16 weeks old and is a cavalier x poodle,

our first outing was not far as she is only little, the second day she heard a bus near by and hated the noise of it - cowered down scared and afraid of it,

the next day i took her to a walking track away from traffic, but there were some people and she did not want to walk near them - cowered down afraid again

she goes to obedience training and has been twice and loves it - people, dogs, the works and enjoys it!!!

so i took her to a grass area where no traffic and no people were, first day her was excellent she was able to run on her lead in the grass and had a ball, so i thought great will keep coming back here, BUT the next day we went down there and as she was running about a motorcycle came through - (even though they are not allowed down there ), it scared the daylights out of her, she took off running that fast she ripped the lead out of my hand, my daughter finally caught her and she was shaking so bad

next day took her back but she refused to go down there,

have tried parks, cycle tracks ect but don't know what to do next,

how do i get her to walk?????

any ideas would be greatly appreciated

thanks

At 16 weeks I wouldn't really be too worried about walking her, she's only a baby.

Do some focus work with her, marker (clicker) training, play games, build her confidence, allow her to drag a leash around the back yard then start teaching her loose leash walking under low distraction (your yard and those 3 houses each way are more than fine for that). Take her out and expose her to new things - school, kids, dogs, weird looking people in hats. Sit in front of a shop or on a street corner or in the park, click and treat her (or just praise and pat her) for focussing on you/ignoring scary things (you can drive to where-ever you wish to go, you don't have to drag her there on a leash). Keep up your obedience training and practice NILIF too - and (while some people may not agree with me) I think crate training helps build confidence and security too.

Walking will happen in time but seriously, at 16 weeks just enjoy her ;)

Good point!

[mackenzie11]

thanks so much for all your replies

so much helpful information, will try what you folks have suggested and will hopefully get somewhere,

baby steps and short outings for now and lots of treats

thanks again