All dogs and humans should have enjoyable, stress-free walks and I want to help you achieve that.
Your puppy can go out!
Finally, the big day arrives.
Your puppy has had their vaccinations and you can finally stride out together proudly on your first walk. You fit the beautiful new collar round your pup’s neck, attach the pristine new lead and set off – only for your puppy to put the brakes on and refuse to move.
It is a common problem.
I received this email from a client earlier:
“Good morning Carol.
I just wanted to ask for some advice if that’s ok to help us on our daily walks. My mother got us your book when we first got Oscar, so I have been working hard on the loose lead walking since he has been allowed outside, but we are still having problems.
Oscar can be extremely hesitant to actually walk anywhere, especially away from our house. We have a bit of a loop around the local primary school that isn’t too long but as we leave our house, he constantly “drops anchor” and refuses to move. He will look backwards or strain back against the lead. This is made 10 times worse if there is a person or dog walking anywhere behind us, I normally have to just wait until they overtake us. The same happens if anyone walks towards us, he refuses to move until they pass us and then the looking backwards starts again.
He will eventually turn and come back beside me or if there is an external distraction (person/dog) I usually have to hold a treat in front of his nose to get him to turn. He has an extremely active sense of smell, and wants to stop and sniff (and eat) every stick, leaf and bush we go past.
Some days he is better than others, he may only stop 4/5 times along the straight part of the route and then when we turn the corner and the house is out of sight, he is generally a lot better, providing the street doesn’t have many people out walking.
How long can this take?
However sometimes it can take us 20/30 minutes to get 200m down the street, which as you can imagine isn’t a pleasant walking experience for either of us in the current climate.
I’ve found he is a lot better on the small loop we do around the school, I have tried to take him different routes, but it makes the problem far worse. If he doesn’t know where he is he will stop almost constantly, only walking a few metres at a time, so I’m going to just keep to our same route for now?
When he does actually walk, 90% of the time he is trotting along happily beside me on the loose lead, only shooting off sideways when he gets a sniff of something. Anytime he is walking correctly he gets lots of praise and treats, although once he gets a treat from walking correctly that often causes him to then stop again, breaking the momentum.
He rarely pulls ahead on the lead and when he goes ahead I stop and he usually “resets” beside me quite quickly.
Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated, he is a lovely dog and our family love him, however he is over 4 months now and we have yet to really “enjoy” taking him for a walk so far. The walks usually end with both of us being cold and wet and I am mentally exhausted!
Sorry about the long email but I’ve tried to include as much detail as possible to give the best picture I can.
Many thanks
J”
Here’s my reply, which I hope will help everyone who is having this frustrating problem:
“Hi J,
Sounds like you are doing really well actually! 20-30 minutes for a 220m walk down the street is about right and you are doing the right thing if he does pull ahead.
It is entirely normal for puppies to go on strike frequently in the first few weeks and months when out walking in the big, bad world. In fact, many puppies refuse to go further than the end of the driveway for the first week or so! For a puppy everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) is new and needs to be thought about, explored, experienced and investigated. And the more things that are around the more a puppy will put the brakes on.
Patience
The key is to be patient. Wait beside Oscar when he refuses to move, and chat away happily about whatever it is that he’s seen or heard – “oh, there’s a funny thing coming towards us, we call it a bicycle but yes it does make a funny squeaky noise doesn’t it, perhaps it needs the cogs oiling, oh and there’s our next door neighbour coming home with a strange looking bag of shopping, now here’s a shaggy dog coming, but he looks friendly….etc. etc.” Every so often, see if he’ll move off with you and give him praise and treats for doing so. If he doesn’t, wait and try again after a minute or so.
Try to avoid bribing as you’ll potentially be setting up a problem for the future. Rather use an excited voice and tapping your leg or something to encourage movement, then produce a treat as a reward.
I firmly believe that it is even more difficult for pups at this time, because the only non-family people and activity they see is when they are out on walks, so think about it like this – Oscar is only getting new things to experience for 20 minutes or so once or twice a day. Think how long it would take you to learn about a new job or something with only that amount of time to absorb everything. And think how you would feel if you were dumped in a foreign place that looked, sounded and smelt different than what you are used to, and where you had no idea what all the new beings, things and places might be, what they might do, or what might happen there. That’s what Oscar is trying to cope with.
So please be patient and give Oscar the time he needs on walks, to watch, to listen and especially, to sniff (though not to eat). It’s important to allow your pup to sniff as sniffing is their main sense and is how they find out about our world.
Please DO take him on different walks to different places
because he needs as full a range of experiences as you can give him at this age. My book, “Help! How to Socialise Your Dog During Lockdown” provides a shed-load of ideas about how you can expand your pup’s socialisation at home when you can’t get out and about as much, as well as what to do on walks.
In the next few months Oscar will grow in confidence and you’ll be able to have the exercise walk you want. But for now, be patient and give him the time and support he needs.
Hope this helps!
Carol”
I hope this information helps you, too if you’re tearing your hair out or worried about your puppy not wanting to go for walks. Things normally improve by the time the pup is around 6 months old.
More help is available for you
But if you are not seeing any improvement and your dog is still scared of, or reacting to things in our noisy, busy world, our Reactive Rover online course will help.
In this twelve session bootcamp you’ll learn why your dog reacts to things, how to help them, what to do when a trigger comes along, and the secrets to keeping your dog calm. You’ll also learn a lot about yourself.
If you’re frustrated with your dog’s crazy behaviour, why not use lockdown to transform both your lives. If there’s no live course starting soon, you can sign up for the self-study online course from later on in January.
All dogs and humans should have enjoyable, stress-free walks and I want to help you achieve that.
Keep training and stay safe,
Carol
