So my little Mole is now 14 weeks and generally a delight! Much less biting (except when over excited) sleeps well, pretty much cracked the housetraining. We are a week into our walks - and having a few problems. He walks well on the lead or harness no problems there as practiced lots in the garden before we went out. But he seems to get spooked on certain walks - field tracks, new walks and can't quite work out how to overcome this. He stops in his tracks and is reluctant to go further. Treats don't seem to entice him. Lots of praise and happy chat doesn't seem to work either. He is fine on the two local walks I do but am longing to explore the lovely Hampshire countryside with him - has anyone had this problem?!?! Also the car .... He will go in his crate and then as soon as we start going he whimpers and howls like a coyote!! I think he is scared of the movement / don't know how to make this better for him- this has been going on for a couple of weeks and we are only going short distances - 5-10 minutes. Should I just keep going everyday and get him more used to it? He is not nervy or scared at home at all - and loves new people dogs etc. Is this just a puppy dealing with new experiences! I last had a lab puppy12 years ago and he had my older dog as a companion so these experiences all seem strange to me. Any help gratefully received!! Sam and Moley Mole!!
Molly also howled on car journeys during the first couple of weeks. It came as a shock as my previous dogs had been fine. I have the beach and recreation ground 2 minutes drive away and so to start with I just went there so she had a good time after 2 minutes distress and she soon settled down and became happy to get in the car. Do you have anywhere a bit closer you could take Mole? Five minutes with howling feels like much longer!
Both Tatze and Gypsy did this! Tatze even did scared, runny poos. Short journeys worked in the end - 3 time a day, but it took about 2 weeks! I took a different approach with Twiglet. I put her in a small cat crate with two teddies and a blanket in with her (the plastic sort) inside the car crate. No crying at all I think she felt safer in a smaller space. Like this one -
My previous Lab was also very scared of the car . What I did was to sit in it with her, no engine running , stroke her , just for a few moments, then try the engine running but not moving, gave her treats if she didn't kick up a fuss, in fact I think I even fed her in the car a couple of times Short journeys to start with and a play at the end , he will soon be just fine
With the crying in the car just practice putting Mole in the car and treating for quiet and gradually extend the time in the car. Next step is to start the engine and treat for quiet and gradually extend the time. Once she is happy with the engine running drive to the bottom of your road and back and treat. If Mole is still happy gradually extend the distance out and back by a minute or two each way and before you know it she will happily settle in the car, particularly if walks are on the end of it I would stick to the more familiar walks at the moment and not introduce too many places all at once. The big wide world can be quite scary for a young pup on the ground. A pup refusing to go further is not at all unusual and it sounds as of you're being positive and encouraging. You could try dropping the lead ad start running away calling, natural instinct is for Mole to stay close so should run after you.
Thanks very much for the suggestions! I think it's different having a pup on his own as my last pup was happy to go anywhere my older dog wanted to go! I can see it might all be a bit scary so will keep doing the local walks and build up confidence. The car ideas are great. I am going to try even shorter trips. Maybe just down the road and back and then a play in the garden and see if that helps! I will also try putting his teddy who he loves in with him Thanks again! And from reading this forum I have just bought a clicker so we will have fun with that! It's fun having the time with this puppy as my son was so small with the last one he was pretty much trained by my older dog (ie. Not at all!!)
