Puppy doesn't want to walk?

[AlliKat]

So we are having a difficult time getting Bruiser to go for a walk. I managed around our whole street with him yesterday (some parts more slowly than others!) but I tried again this morning and NO luck. I always thought most puppies (and/or untrained older dogs) do the pulling on the leash thing because they are excited to walk.

But our dog does the pulling on the leash thing to get back to the house as quick as possible. If I try to get him to walk with me, he plants his butt and won't move! Somtimes he likes it, sometimes he doesn't - it seems totally random to me!

Any ideas? Is this a stubborn Frenchie thing or is my dog just weird? :rolleyes:

[citygirl]

I can only tell you what I did with my dogs and they have loved walking outside on leash since they were 10 weeks old. I first started them off on the leash inside the house. We'd put the leash on and walk up and down the hall upstairs. At first, I'd have to throw a little treat a few feet ahead of us to get them to move forward. Before I knew it, they were walking without treats up and down the hallway like little pros. When we transitioned to the outside they didn't love it immediately. I just took them around the yard and let them sniff a little and we would go up and down the driveway. It just evolved to walking out on the street and now they get walked three times a day and they absolutely love it. I can take them anywhere on their leashes and they know when they put them on that they're going out to have a good time -- they get so excited when ask if they want to go for a walk. I can't recall how old your puppy is at this point, but don't give up. He'll eventually get it and you'll be a much happier dog owner to have a dog who walks well on leash.

Your dog isn't weird. You'll see other posts on this site about people trying to get their dogs walking on leash having problems at first. Apparently, it's kind of common. Good luck!!

[BecksDad]

Stubborn Frenchie thing. Beckham was like that too but he's much better now. We learned a few tricks from our trainer that have really helped out. Practice in the house first where there are fewer distractions. Put the leash on bruiser and position him close to you on the left side. Have some favorite treats on hand. Move the treats near his nose and step forward and use a command like "let's go". Just take one step, have him sit, reward him with whatever you use (we say "YES!") and give him a treat. Keep repeating this in the house, gradually working your way up to additional steps until you are eventually walking around the house. By having him sit each time you stop walking, it also tells him that when you stop he has to stop. This should help with the pulling if you ever get Bruiser moving! Haha.
I can't say its a perfect solution but it works alot of the time. If he's being stubborn I can usually walk up beside him, say "let's go" and we move.

Good luck!

[wendykei]

Sidney also hated going for walks--until we got a pinch collar. Now he walks great!!! Before, he would always stop after a few moments and just sit or refuse to budge unless we went in the direction HE wanted to go. I would end up having to carry him, which just wasn't practical once he weighed more than 15 lbs. It got to the point where I just wouldn't take him on walks -- we would go around the block just one time so he could potty, but then we'd go back inside because I didn't want to have to carry him home if he stopped more than a half a block away.

I tried all kinds of methods to get him to walk: front-ring harnesses, peanut butter on a spoon, cheese, throwing toys, throwing treats, etc., etc. Nothing worked!! Finally, one of the trainers at Sidney's daycare (who observed me one more than one occasion trying to leave the daycare with Sidney rooted to the ground before I finally gave up and picked him up to carry him out) that the only thing that would probably work was a pinch collar.

It looks like a horrible device (and I'll probably get creamed on this board for resorting to it), but it worked like a charm!! Sidney walks perfectly now and I literally only needed to yank on it the very first day that we used it. We routinely go on 2-3 mile walks now and Sidney does great!!! It has really been a godsend -- not being able to go on long walks with Sidney was really limiting our activities and it's something that I really enjoy doing with him.

[gmacleod]

It looks like a horrible device (and I'll probably get creamed on this board for resorting to it), but it worked like a charm!! Sidney walks perfectly now and I literally only needed to yank on it the very first day that we used it.

No, not creamed for using it - the devices and yanking you choose to resort to to control your dog are your own business. But promoting it here? That's a different matter.

You know the site rules, and you know we won't accept promotion of those sorts of devices here. More than that, this site exists for the promotion of humane and ethical positive reinforcement training methods only. So why abuse the site owner's hospitality like that? It is more than a little rude.

Here's what's written in the site rules:
Discussion of deliberate use of devices or practices that cause or have the potential to cause physical trauma to a dog. Bulldogworld does recognise that people do have genuine questions regarding training tools (choke chains, prong collars, mousetraps etc) and methods, but we support and promote wholeheartedly positive training and behaviour management, that is, teaching the dog what to do by using positive methods, not teaching a dog what not to do by causing it discomfort and pain. Any threads which appear to promote "negative" training and methods will be closed.
That is not plagarism, we didn't mindlessly uplift some words from someone else's site with no understanding of what it means or intent of applying it. We wrote it. And we meant it. Those are the terms and conditions of the use of this site and there are no exceptions. We wouldn't tolerate someone promoting backyard breeding or puppy milling either.

If you don't agree with the ethos promoted here, that's fine - there are plenty of other sites out there for you. But you will not promote negative training methods and devices like that here.

Per the site rules, this thread is now closed.