How To Get Puppy To Go For Walks

[mackenzie11]

i need some help getting my puppy to go for walks, she will only go about 30 steps then she digs her heels in and refuses to go any further,

she is 16 weeks old and is a cavalier x poodle,

our first outing was not far as she is only little, the second day she heard a bus near by and hated the noise of it - cowered down scared and afraid of it,

the next day i took her to a walking track away from traffic, but there were some people and she did not want to walk near them - cowered down afraid again ;)

she goes to obedience training and has been twice and loves it - people, dogs, the works and enjoys it!!!

so i took her to a grass area where no traffic and no people were, first day her was excellent she was able to run on her lead in the grass and had a ball, so i thought great will keep coming back here, BUT the next day we went down there and as she was running about a motorcycle came through - (even though they are not allowed down there ), it scared the daylights out of her, she took off running that fast she ripped the lead out of my hand, my daughter finally caught her and she was shaking so bad

next day took her back but she refused to go down there,

have tried parks, cycle tracks ect but don't know what to do next,

how do i get her to walk????? :D

any ideas would be greatly appreciated

thanks

[poodlefan]

What encouragement are you offering for her to move forward? Treats? A Toy?

Does she walk on lead at obedience?

[persephone]

Why not take her to where you normally do obedience, and walk her around there on leash to build up her confidence?When she is happy walking there, then gradually work up to areas where there are other things ...She may well need treats and pats for being brave ... but ONLY when she IS being brave.. not when she's cowering...or you are rewarding her fears

[ellz]

You may also find that if you go for a little walk and carry her and then put her down not far from home on your return, she will be happy to walk back to her familiar, safe, home turf.

[mackenzie11]

Poodle fan - i am using treats, pats, encouragment, squating down in front of her to get her to come to me, taking my other dog with us, taking my daughter with us - does not work. at obedience class she does really well, first class was really bad all she wanted to do was play with the other puppies and play in the fresh mown grass, but the second day she was amazing really good and did most of what she was told, and walked with no problems,

Perspephone - the obedience class is in an area that is closed off on the days that the obedience training is on, otherwise i would as that sounds like a good idea

[mackenzie11]

You may also find that if you go for a little walk and carry her and then put her down not far from home on your return, she will be happy to walk back to her familiar, safe, home turf.

tried that and it worked to start with - till she saw another person and then she refused to walk

the only place that i have found that she will walk fine is out the front of the house, she will walk 3 houses up and then turn and go 3 houses back up the steps and wants to go inside - she wont go further than this, she gets to the corner peers around the corner then runs me back home - even though the very first walk she had was twice the lenght of this,

i want her to go further than 3 houses up and 3 houses back,

she is keen to go for a walk, but it is the actual walking bit that she does not get or like

Edited October 7, 2010 by mackenzie11

[poodlefan]

Maybe you need to take a step back and take her out with her lead on and just let her get used to all this without the pressure of walking.

Find a bench near a path or similar and have a sit and just let her take in the sights and sounds. Reward any behaviour you want to encourage and ignore the rest.

[Bow Wow]

She maybe going through her fear period, I have heard it is best to keep them at home when they are going through this period. Wait a couple of weeks to see if she handles the noises differently.

[poodlefan]

She maybe going through her fear period, I have heard it is best to keep them at home when they are going through this period. Wait a couple of weeks to see if she handles the noises differently.

Wrong age Bindi Boo.

She may simply be a timid dog.. plenty around. OP will need to build her confidence.

[Bow Wow]

She maybe going through her fear period, I have heard it is best to keep them at home when they are going through this period. Wait a couple of weeks to see if she handles the noises differently.

Wrong age Bindi Boo.

She may simply be a timid dog.. plenty around. OP will need to build her confidence.

When the OP said that the pup was 16 weeks, it reminded me of this information http://www.k9pro.com.au/pages.php?pageid=89

[mackenzie11]

thanks everyone, i will take some time out from taking her for walks, i was thinking this today, maybe start her back in a few weeks, and take poodles advice and take baby steps and ease her into it again,

if it is a fear problem, you would think she would be afraid at obedience class but she is not, granted the first class she was such a goose, and the second class - we walked around the back of the car to go to class and she saw where we were going and took off back to the car and wanted to get in, but once she got over to the class she was fine,

thanks again for all your advice,

[poodlefan]

thanks everyone, i will take some time out from taking her for walks, i was thinking this today, maybe start her back in a few weeks, and take poodles advice and take baby steps and ease her into it again,

if it is a fear problem, you would think she would be afraid at obedience class but she is not, granted the first class she was such a goose, and the second class - we walked around the back of the car to go to class and she saw where we were going and took off back to the car and wanted to get in, but once she got over to the class she was fine,

thanks again for all your advice,

It could be that the presence of the other dogs stimulates her past her timidity.

[poodlefan]

She maybe going through her fear period, I have heard it is best to keep them at home when they are going through this period. Wait a couple of weeks to see if she handles the noises differently.

Wrong age Bindi Boo.

She may simply be a timid dog.. plenty around. OP will need to build her confidence.

When the OP said that the pup was 16 weeks, it reminded me of this information http://www.k9pro.com.au/pages.php?pageid=89

First fear period might not have finished I suppose.

[Gretel]

It wouldn't do any harm to give her some Rescue Remedy.

<Maybe you need to take a step back and take her out with her lead on and just let her get used to all this without the pressure of walking.

Find a bench near a path or similar and have a sit and just let her take in the sights and sounds. Reward any behaviour you want to encourage and ignore the rest.>

I think this is good advice I've also found that clicker training can help the dog focus more on your and not notice so much what is going on around them. So you'd start off training her inside at home where she's not stressed and then use the clicker when you just go and sit at the park.

[Dogsfevr]

at 16 weeks most of our youngsters are only doing 3 houses up & back,we are in no rush .

Just sit out on the front lawn & let her watch the cars go past

We sit outside with our pups so they can see the cars go past with no pressure & when a car does go past we make it fun .

You may want to walk further but she is 16 weeks & there is no harm in being patient when you have the next 14 yrs to enjoy the dog

Just give the pup a chance to get use to things & not advice beyond its abilities because you want it to,small steps are always rewarded,giant leaps don't always end well

[mackenzie11]

at 16 weeks most of our youngsters are only doing 3 houses up & back,we are in no rush .

Just sit out on the front lawn & let her watch the cars go past

We sit outside with our pups so they can see the cars go past with no pressure & when a car does go past we make it fun .

You may want to walk further but she is 16 weeks & there is no harm in being patient when you have the next 14 yrs to enjoy the dog

Just give the pup a chance to get use to things & not advice beyond its abilities because you want it to,small steps are always rewarded,giant leaps don't always end well

we are in a dead end and there is only 5 houses in my part of it, and the houses have rear access bar 1 and theirs is pretty much the only car that goes past,

i know we have plenty of time as she is only young, i just don't want her to be afraid, she just seems so afraid of everywhere and everything, the first walk was a good one went about 10 houses all up as i did not want to push her to far and overdo it, but the next day she heard a bus go past and it has all been down hill from there, BUT at school she is not afraid and goes really well - ODD i know.

but i will give it a break for a few weeks and then start out by taking her to an area with some traffic and build her up from there,

[lanabanana]

I might be mean but when my wee Pippi went a bit that way when she started going out in public I just ignored it.

She was about 14 or so weeks, I think, and she would panic everytime a bus or bike went past and jab her heels in pulling to get back home. I just ignored it and carried on walking. I felt that any "attention" I gave her fo rit would just be rewarding the behaviour. Within about 2 weeks she was fine.

[Golden Rules]

I might be mean but when my wee Pippi went a bit that way when she started going out in public I just ignored it.

She was about 14 or so weeks, I think, and she would panic everytime a bus or bike went past and jab her heels in pulling to get back home. I just ignored it and carried on walking. I felt that any "attention" I gave her fo rit would just be rewarding the behaviour. Within about 2 weeks she was fine.

That's exactly what I did with my wee dog (although she was about 6 months old at the time but reared on a farm and had never seen city traffic).

I just ignored the digging in of heels and kept walking. Because she was so small, she didn't have a choice but to keep coming with us (I had a bigger dog as well who was keen to get to the park).

I just praised her in a happy voice as I kept walking, and I think that happened maybe 2 or 3 times and she was fine after that.

I have an 8 week old puppy at present so we'll see what it takes to get this one walking soon enough

[persephone]

When supposing noise of vehicles as a source of fear, one has to remember tho, that a smallish pup is at wheel level/exhaust level of vehicles.... and something going past may well spray the pup with hot smelly exhaust We always were very careful with that when guide dog training - a mouthful of hot exhaust would not do dog any favours .

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

mackenzie11

I had the same problem with my puppy, it went from day dot (10 weeks) to about 18 months old and she still freaks out at busy road crossings - and busy to her, is any road with more than one car moving on it at once.

I didn't know about "fear periods". I did ask my vet and my obedience instructors about it. She was fine at puppy pre-school, obedience classes and our local parks and beaches with loads of other strange things, dogs and people etc. Just footpaths she was nutcase with.

So vet and chief instructor said - "she's having you on - just drag her and keep walking". I still believe she is genuinely frightened but "just dragging" worked every time. Ie I pull and she gets up and walks again. She is too stressed out to take treats or toys or anything when she's in this state. She's not too bad now on the footpaths between home and our nearest park because she knows where we are going, even though we don't go the same way every time. She's relaxed enough to sniff etc.

I found a front-attach harness was a huge help because it made "dragging" a little bit quicker to up and walking and stopped her from going into bolt-pulling mode. Ie she'd either lay down and hug the ground, or she'd bolt to the end of the lead - in any direction not just home or the way we were going or not going.

I haven't tried to de-sensitise her to busy roads yet.