Hi looking for some advice, my puppy has been walking ok (by this I mean stopping and starting) on lead for a week this week. However for the past couple of days I cant even get him off the drive. We do 2 walks a day that are only 5 minutes normal walking but take him much longer (20 mins) as he doesn't walk without stops. We also play lots in the house but they aren't heavy energetic plays more gentle tugs. So I have 2 questions: 1) am I over exercising him and thus his reluctance to walk? 2) should I concentrate on just getting one good walk out of him? thanking you all in advance
Hi. I had similar problems when Sophie was 2-4 months old. The rule I found about walk times was 5 minutes of exercise for every month of age. I never walked Sophie for long at first because she pulled horribly on leash. So I trainer her in my driveway and just walked her around my yard until like 5-6 months. When she wouldn’t walk and would stop and sit (which was often) I assumed it was because she either just didn’t know what she was supposed to do or she was too interested in all the exciting things outside. She was super good motivated so to teach her yo walk I would throw a treat down a foot or so ahead and when she would walk to get it I would say, “yes! Walk! Good walk!” After a few weeks of doing that, when we would go outside I’d say walk and she’d walk a bit and if she stopped I’d use the treats again - sometimes I even held one in my hand to lure her. Before long she was walking pretty good. I think there’s videos on line for different methods of addressing this. You just gotta try different things cuz each pup is different. Good luck!
I don't tend to walk puppies as such. I tend to drive somewhere to have a sit and let them watch the world go by. I like market squares as they get to see lots of dogs which are on lead so can't come flying over, people, children, pushchairs cars etc etc. Other days I drive to a quiet field /woodland etc and let the pup have a mooch about off lead for a while.
My old pup was like that for a while. We did one walk and just played fetch in the yard. I never realized you can over walk a puppy and learned to cut them shorter and if he was tired, just did something else. He was very attached to home and it took some persuasion at times to get him going or if it was cold but I think you will find it passes.
