Walking on leash


jake1133

New Member
My puppy is 3 months old now. Things are going well, but I can't seem to figure out how to get her to walk around the neighborhood on the leash.

In the yard I have her on a very long and light weight cord and i just let her roam and sniff as she wants in the yard. My yard is 2 acres and about 10 trees, so she seems to love walking and sniffing.

My problem is walking her. When we are going away from the house, she doesn't want to move. I can get her moving with treats, but once she eats the treat it is back to sitting and not moving. When we are coming back towards the house, she wants to run and pull on the leash. When she pulls I've been stopping and backing up to get her to come to me, and then we start walking again. It can take us 30 minutes to go a very short distance like this. She doesn't seem to learn that pulling the leash means we go backward.

Is this a training issue and I need to find a better way to train, or is it more a puppy thing and as she gets older it will get better?
 

Nell

Member
Hi Jake, so pleased things are going well!

I remember with one of mine I had quite a job getting him to move to begin with! he just laid down and refuged to budge! lol.

I know it sounds silly but to get them to move forward you need to be as animated as you can, act the idiot and make it fun! (better find somewhere quite to begin with lol) puppies cant resist a skip and a bit of fooling around?

As for the pulling, the way I get mine to stop this is as soon as they get too far ahead of me I turn round and walk in the other direction, of course this can mean that you go up and down the road about twenty times to begin with but consistency is the trick and they soon cotton on that pulling doesn't get them in the direction they want to go.

Rather than tell them off, every time I turn I slap/tap the side of my leg (the one I am going to turn to) so they know we are turning. It is monotonous to begin with but well worth it, when mine are off the lead now I only have to slap my thigh and they instinctively know we are going in another direction and pay me attention. Good luck if you try it and let us know how you get on.
 

juand24

New Member
hi, jake1133

i have the same problem with my 14 week old doxie, i simply cannot walk him around. either he starts pulling on the leash by sniffing everywhere or just lies down and stares at me. Treats do seem to work but i do not know for how long.

I too have heard of not moving whenever you feel tension on the leash thus teaching them that they cannot move if they pull and can only go where you want to go. However, i do not know if this would work at such a young age. I have personally tried it and it sometimes seems as if he starts to resent me for doing so.

I too am hoping he would just grow out of it. Some say they are only really teachable regarding leash walker after 4 to 5 months.

I hope knowing that someone is in the same boat with you helps. seeing your topic lifted my spirits knowing that maybe my problem is not as rare as i thought it was. I'll be following this thread. Thanks for starting it :)
 

crystalclear1027

New Member
It is normal at this age to be reluctant, they just don't know any better and will learn. Try bringing a toy they like and throw it ahead of them, show excitement when doing it. Another thing to try is sitting down on the ground with them and let them explore on their own while on the leash and then walk a little and repeat a few times.
 
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