We have a 9 (almost 10 week old puppy) who likes to sit when we take him for a walk. Interestingly enough, when we tell him "lets go home" he walks consistently and often runs home. This may be for 1/4 km. When we start out with him out he sits and looks at us. We offer some treats and he comes a short distance but then he sits again. Any suggestions?
Hi Andrea, I am a novice dog owner but I am going to try and offer some tips from what I have seen and read here and on R+ programmes and videos. We didn't walk Harley out at that age because she wasn't done with her second vaccination yet so we mostly played in the garden and carried her around. Based on my own experience I find that teaching anything to our lab, Harley, works best when it is play based. She is not very food motivated but she LOVES playing. So when we started walking her we would take a favourite tug toy with and play with it at intervals as a reward. Although, I have to add here we didn't have any issues walking her, so it very adventurous. We used the toy to get her attention back to us during the walk. Also, it may be an idea to up the value of the treat that you are offering? And how much other basic training are you doing with her? We didn't start clicker training with Harley until she was older but maybe it is an idea to use C & T for when she stands and walks from her sitting position? I am not sure if this is of any help but there are many knowledgable people here that can lend their experience and advise. Good luck
Hi Andrea and welcome to the forum. This can be caused by lots of things, very often a bit of apprehension on your puppy's part. The world is a very big place to a tiny puppy, and it can be a bit overwhelming. Like @Harley Quinn, I still carried my puppies at this age, until they had completed their course of vaccinations and were safe to go on the ground. My latest pup, Luna, sometimes sat down during a walk, apparently just to watch the world go by. She's not a nervous puppy in the slightest, and had tones of enthusiasm, so it's not always caused by fear. In any event, I found that a good tactic was to walk backwards a few paces. This would encourage her to rejoin me, unsticking her bum from the ground, and I could then continue the way I had planned. Use lots of praise and treats for your puppy walking with you, and this phase will pass, don't worry.
Thank you for your advice. I know it is early and actually today we had a great walk with him with minimal sitting. I agree that it is maturity thing. He is still young. The rewards are helpful.
I carry mine to the end of the walk, then let them walk home. They soon get over this, then you'll be on to working to stop him pulling. I'm lucky my latest pup doesn't do this (he's the first that hasn't) as, at twelve weeks, he's already too heavy to lift .
I used to carry Ariel one house over, then walk home. After a few weeks, I would carry her 2 houses over, and so on. Now when we finish our walks and are outside our door, she lies down, puts her head down and won't budge...she's clearly not done having fun!
Is there a safe place to walk off leash? Mine weren't on the leash at that age, just the bit to get from the car to into the bush, then off leash. Or one I carried over to the safe off leash spot. Off leash at the earliest age is also a great way to teach recall. Be careful you are not walking too far, especially on leash. 1/4 km probably is all we did at that age, even off leash.
A young puppy should only be walked outside for very short distances for a while then gradually increase. When they are very young, especially if they were born and raised indoors, the pads on their paws are soft as baby skin. We're used to thinking dogs can walk on anything. But a young pup still has tender pads and needs time for them to form callouses and toughen up. Perhaps the pup doesn't want to walk because it hurts his feet. He's eager to head home because he knows he'll be back on soft carpet there. Take off your shoes and walk barefoot with your puppy. If your feet start to hurt his probably do too and it's time to go back inside.
Hi! Mine did the same thing that young. He hated walked, only liked to play. I used a flirt pole to get his energy out until he was about 4 months. He's 5 months now and just now has started walking nicely on a leash and actually having the energy to go for a walk. I would wait a bit longer and just work on introducing the collar/leash for now and maybe practice in the yard!
