Hi all! I have a question for all of you. My puppy will be 14 weeks old tomorrow and has suddenly gone on strike when it comes to walking on a leash - away from our house. I have had him for 3 weeks now and had been taking 2 walks a day with him and did great! He'd pull a little, but nothing terrible. He is a puppy after all. Suddenly 3 days ago he has decided that he will not go for walks any more. We make it to our corner and he just plants it. Will not move for love, money or even treats. He is more than happy to walk towards the house though. All of our previous walks have been extremely uneventful - nothing scary or strange. He walks on a leash in the yard all the time, no problems at all. I can't figure it out and really need some help getting him back to walking, because he REALLY needs his walks, if you catch my drift. He needs the exercise and socialization. Anything you got for me is greatly appreciated. TIA!!!
Welcome to the forum. I'm not sure why he would start doing that. Perhaps something has spooked him and he associates that location with something bad. Have you thought about walking him somewhere else to see if its just that corner or something more general?
he won't go in either direction, so it isn't the specific corner. Prior to a few days ago, he would walk anywhere. Will be taking him out this weekend to see if he will walk in public. Maybe he is just bored with our neighborhood. ha ha
Hello and welcome to the forum. My girl Willow, who is nearly two, will do this if she is anxious, such as when she has been previously scared at a certain location. It takes a lot of time, energy and patience to make the location OK again. I'd consider taking him out in the car to somewhere new, or carrying him for a short while, to see if it's location specific - and to see if he'll walk across those bits of road towards the house, rather than away. It might just be that it's become a bit overwhelming for him. He is still just a baby.
This is very normal, new sights and sounds to take in and process. Let him wait, and take it all in - he will want to move soon enough.
Walking towards the house is also a good idea, if he's not to big to carry! My friend got her new puppy and, at about 14 weeks rang me in tears 'I got this dog to go for walks and he won't walk!!' I suggested the carry and walk home thing. It worked a treat. ....
All lovely suggestions and I will try them all. I know he's still little, but he confuses me sometimes.
Molly was like this, exactly. I used to do the carrying thing as we have a walk at the end of the road. She always enjoyed it once there and going out in the car was fine but walking down (or up, I tried that) the road was a no go. Cheese worked, lots of grated cheese in little piles down the road but it was slow going. At 5 months she's often still not keen (cant carry her now!) but I can use treats to lure her along, I throw them just in front of us.
With Molly it also became apparent around that age that she's very timid and I'm assuming that's why she didn't like leaving the house.
Sorry me again, advice I was given was to find a friendly dog to walk with and that did help with us.
I love the walking buddy idea. I had my husband drop us off so that we could walk back last night. Got half way home and he quit. May have been tired, could have been warm. He eventually decided we did not want to sleep outside last night and proceeded to pull me all the way home. I am beginning to wonder if he doesn't like being told to "leave it" all the time (but if he would just leave it, I wouldn't have to correct him ha ha).....We will be doing more work this weekend and will be out in public, will see how that goes. I think mommy needs to learn to just relax and let things go at their natural pace.
As soon as Molly realised we were heading home she would pull me all the way back too, was quite good as we live on a hill.... Good luck, hope the weekend goes well.
My puppy does this time to time. There are two main reasons (in her case). The first is that she is just taking in her surroundings. She is just sat there, looking around her, watching things. I just let her watch, and encourage her onwards when she seems ready. The second reason is that she is confused. Say she has been tugging on her lead either ahead or sideways, and I've stood still. She then stops tugging and I go to walk on, and she is thinking 'what? I was walking and that didn't work!'. She is just learning the rules, that's all.
Update, - we went down town and walked all over yesterday. Like a champ! This morning in the neighborhood again - nothing. I am beginning the think that he doesn't care for our neighborhood. Like - Boring, I've seen it. Let's go somewhere better. LOL
My older dog is a bit like this on walks near home that he does all the time, particularly on his last wees walk in the evening. Unless he really wants a wee or a poo, he walks slowly and visibly cheers up as we turn for home! He just wants his bed and his bedtime biscuit at that point, I think.
He's definitely going to keep me on my toes. I sure hope I can take him enough places he won't get bored. Ha Ha Ha.
