I thought I would try you as we are having a major problem with our lab Digby refusing to walk. Digby quite happily walks to the dog park so much so that he knows the way and when we leave the house he refuses to walk any other way. He goes to the dog park every day after his lunch around 12, poops and pees on the way and happily trots along their. The only time he will lie down on the way there is if he sees another dog up to 25 meters away! I am familiar that this behavior is to let other dogs know that he is a puppy and is being submissive. When we get to the dog park he plays non stop anywhere from 20 minutes up to almost an hour. I started cutting his play time at the park because I thought possibly the problem getting him home was that he was too tired to walk. This however does not seem to be the case. As soon as it's time to leave he flops himself completely on the ground. He will not move for treats unless I come right to him where he will happily take it. When I tell him to come he looks me in the eye then turns his head the other way. He has become famous at the dog park as the cutest, laziest, most stubborn lab ever. Other people end up having to take their own dogs up the hill just so Digby will follow the dog up there (thinking it's more play time). Once he realizes he is leaving he completely flops himself down again. What is a 10-15 minute walk to the dog park turns into a 1 hour rigmarole to get home. Digby however can magically start running as soon as he sees a squirrel or pigeons. As soon as they're out of his view down he goes again. When I pull him he lies to the point of being dragged. When I pick him up he splays his legs out so as not to have to walk. My husband has the same problem with him. We have had his joints all checked out from the vet, his parents elbows, hips etc were cleared at Cornell. I am at a complete loss as to what to do. It's getting to the point where I have to allow a 2 hour block of time just to take him for his daily play time. He also gets a shorter walk early in the morning after breakfast, another after dinner and his last to pee around 10pm. What can we do about this???? Nobody has ever seen anything like it and everybody has an opinion that he is stubborn, we are not tough enough etc. I forgot to mention that once we are outside the gate if I take his leash off (which is illegal) and run ahead after a while he will decide to come and catch up. Do you have any advise or is this a normal behavior? Apart from this he is a wonderful dog who learns everything else VERY quickly. I will attach some pictures of him in action (or lack there of!) Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk Hello, and a very warm welcome to the forum. How about just not going to the dog park? If this has become a routine with him, and it's difficult getting him out of that, then simply don't go. Walk elsewhere, do some training instead and so on?
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk Hi there - you posted your question 3 times, so I've merged it all into one. No need to post the same thing in different places - all messages show up on the index board of new messages.
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk I agree with Julie.....do something else for a while He's just having a lot of fun and he doesn't want to go home! Who likes to leave the party early? You could also try engaging him in a game to leave, maybe some simple tricks with great rewards. Also get a long line so if he does down tools you can keep going while still being attached. Make sure you have some primo treats like roast chicken so when he decides to catch you up you can make it really worth his while. You need some serious incentive for him to leave his buddies ;D
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk Hi! Thank you for doing that! We have tried taking him for other walks. My husband walked him a different walk past night and as soon as it was time to walk back down he flopped! Also is there a way to post pics?
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk My dog had the flops too, especially when walking over grass. I either offered her treats, but was not happy about it as I thought she might wind up training me to toss treats in her path to get her to walk. If we were somewhere safe I would drop the lead and walk off. On average I got about 5 paces before she caught up with me
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk Yes - I would vary the places you go and have fun together - a lot, so that the dog has no idea what today's adventure will bring!
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk It must be very frustrating at the dog park.... A dog that will not come is really enough to make you tear your hair out! My sympathies. I agree that branching out a bit is the way to save your sanity... When he lies down on a walk when he sees another dog - my guess is that this is not 'submissive' behaviour (especially is the dog is across the street...) but simply an attempt to prevent you from moving him anywhere so he can have a chance to say hello to the other dog. Dogs just do what pleases them the most or works for them the best. There is no malice in it or any intent to be stubborn or anything else going on in their heads at all other than "I have a choice before me - keep playing or go home...and I choose to keep playing, thank you". If we want them to make the choice WE want (to go home) then we need to make that option the more attractive one for the dog. Maybe you go to the dog park before dinner and he gets his dinner given to him in his bowl right outside the dog park gate? But first you have to work on that recall to catch him. At the moment it looks like being 'caught' or coming back to you means the end of all the fun for him. So a habit you can get into is doing lots and lots of recalls, with food rewards, and then immediately letting him go off to play again right after. For every time you intend to put him on the lead and go home, make sure there are 10 times during that session when you call him and sometimes even put him on the lead and DON'T go home, you just let him go again. You'll first need to practise this in environments where there are no other dogs, and then when you are ready to step it up a bit with other dogs in the area I'd have him on a long line at first. You want to get to the point where coming to you does not predict what is, in his eyes, a great big punishment - leaving his friends.
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk Thank you so much for all of your answers. Oh my gosh it is soooo frustrating. It's not so much at the dog park as much as it is getting him home. If we have him on a long line at the dog park my concern is him getting tangled up in it etc. whilst playing with all of the other dogs. He just seems so stubborn! For the most part within the house he listens and obeys most commands. We live in NYC in an apartment so I don't want to take away free play and run time for him.
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk I certainly can understand your frustration. I think What the others have suggested is right, your pup has equated putting the lead on to going home, and therefore he has figured out a way to make that not happen. The trick is to break that association. I would also try varying your times at the dog park in terms of length there, again, to try to make it difficult for him to figure out when it is the you are heading home. The thing is, once you look t it objectively, us humans are actually often creatures of habit, whether we recognize it or not. But our dogs certainly do, and they figure us out pretty quick. So as much as you can, while you are trying to get this behaviour sorted out, you will have to try to shake up your routines around walks and the dog park as much as you can. Good luck, keep us posted!
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk Thanks Everybody! I will try all of these suggestions. On a side note - How do you get the picture with your profile?
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk [quote author=Digby link=topic=8129.msg115343#msg115343 date=1412691096] Thanks Everybody! I will try all of these suggestions. On a side note - How do you get the picture with your profile? [/quote] Digby, if you select Profile at the top, along from home, hover over it and select "Forum Profile" you can upload an avatar from there. It needs to be quite a small picture so you might need to use something to resize it. I usually use "paint" but I think there are better/easier ways just never really looked myself. Sorry but I can't recall the size you need. There is a thread, Avatar again! which should help if you take a look
Re: 7 month pup refusing to walk Hi and welcome from another relative newbie! Just to let you know you're not alone. My pup (6 months) does the same when we come home from an evening at my parents. I've no idea why it's just then but she will suddenly sit down at the top of my street and refuse to come home. It's not a lead association like yours but it's definitely about not wanting the fun to end! At first I was a bit put out that my dog doesn't like her lovely home... and it's bizarre it's only after a visit to my parents (nobody else) !!! Like Rachael said, as well as varying the park, why not vary when you put on the lead? Perhaps do some off-lead work/fun, then some lead training, then some more off-lead, so you're breaking that strong association between lead and end of fun? After Bonnie was spayed I had to keep her on the lead for 10 days (which she hated) and so she had a baptism of fire with learning to enjoy on-lead exercise. You may also have to take Digby for exercise in the park on the lead at some point so this would be good practice. I agree about the not being submissive comment as well. Bonnie's submissive around other dogs and she's straight on the deck with the white of her belly showing!! Good luck!
