# Puppy doesn't seem to want to go on walks



## mweidner (Apr 15, 2010)

I have a 9 month old Yorkie and I am having a real problem teaching her to walk with me. When we go out for walks she will immediately either just stand and watch me or sit and watch me, she will not move from her spot unless I coax her either with a treat or by sitting on the ground. When she does come for her treat or whatever, she takes it and then that is her new spot, she will not move from that spot.

I have seen all types of help on the internet for when they are pulling at the end of the leash, but not so much for this issue, she has soo much energy that I want her to enjoy walking with me as it would be a great way to burn off some of that puppy energy.

When she stop and stares at me she is not scared, not shaking or anything like that, she is not distracted either, she stares at me, I have tried out-waiting her, but that doesn't work, I have stood still for up to 5 minutes before and she does not move.

That being said once we turn around to head back to the car she is in a full run to get back. The places I have been trying to take her should be puppy heaven, we have a wonderful park nearby with trails through the woods that I thought she would like, but no go. I have also tried just walking around the neighborhood, and also a couple of bike trails.

Any suggestions?


----------



## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Know anyone with a well behaved adult dog? One that will walk steadily on a leash? She might want to follow another dog to not "get left behind"

Try a long leash and walk to the end of it and call her to you. Repeat a few times and then walk to the end of it facing away from her and give a little tug, see if she catches up with you. 

Also on a long leash, try dropping tiny treats (like Cheerios or single bits of dry dog food) like a little trail every couple feet. She should move from one treat to the next while you are a few feet ahead. Start to stretch out the distance between the treats until maybe every 8 or 10 feet. Then only treat occasionally so she has to keep up with you just in case one falls her way.


----------



## mweidner (Apr 15, 2010)

I didn't think to mention this before, but we actually have two puppies (Madison & Ella, Madison is the one having the issue, Ella is an 11 month old Yorkie rescue we got.)

Our other puppy (Ella) is not exactly the perfect walker but she is doing much better and keeps right up with us. When I go walking with my wife, my wife will take Ella and when Madison stops my wife will keep walking with Ella, Madison watches me and them with interest but will not budge.

The leash we are using is one of the retractable ones that is 16ft long, and both dogs have very nice harnesses.

I like the idea of using the cheerios, Madison will do anything for food normally. I would like to eventually get her to walk on a loose leash beside me, but I feel I need to get her to just want to walk with me first before I start on that.


----------



## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Another dog still might be a bigger draw than the dog she sees all the time. Kinda like getting to play with the big kids.

This would only work in a quiet residential area, but what about you walking her on the sidewalk and having your wife very slowly (idle speed basically) drive the car a few car lengths ahead of you. Since the dog wants to go towards the car, she might try to catch up with it. But don't finish the walk by letting her jump in the car, maybe something like stopping and having your wife give her a treat and then walking back towards your house (or point of beginning) without the car there. Add in the treat dropping on the return trip.


----------



## climber (Apr 28, 2008)

Our dog had the same issue when he was a pup - he didn't like to stray from home, and was always excited to go back home. What worked for us was fairly simple - take a break at your furthest point from home, and make that break just amazingly good...treats, attention, play, etc. Make being away from home fun, and when you get back home, make that "blah".

I think we spent so much time with our pup at home when we first got him that he got to the point where he thought it was the most fun place in the world, so why would he want to leave? Nothing bad happened at home, we had fun, it's where the food is, etc. Away from home there were scary things, like big dogs, loud vehicles, etc. It was flattering that he was that comfortable at our house, but we wanted to be able to do things like take our dog for a walk. 

So, I did not accept the the decision the dog was making to stop moving forward with me. I would make the dog walk with me (battling through alligator rolls, games of "grrrr-tug" with the leash, you name it), and then when we reached a point far from our house (for us it was a pond on our regular route), I'd pull out a ball, a tug toy, treats, or all of the above and we'd just have a good old time for 10 minutes or so before we started to head back home. When we got back home, it wasn't a joyous occasion, there was no excitement from me, no treats for going back home, etc for the first 30 minutes or so after we got home. After a few days of this, he was looking forward to "play time at the pond", and would happily walk away from the house in anticipation of some fun.  

Just giving another option, as we found luring him from the house didn't really work - he wasn't food motivated enough for that in this particular circumstance. If your pup is food motivated, the luring will probably work best.


----------



## mweidner (Apr 15, 2010)

Very good idea about playing with her there, I guess I thought of the walk as being the treat 

The thing that is odd about our pup is that she is not scared of anything, the breeder we got her from is very good at desensitizing the pups from birth to not be scared of loud noises etc and we have kept up with that. Also our pup is one of the most social dogs I have ever seen, she absolutely loves attention from anyone, so I would think getting out would be the greatest thing ever for her.

I am going to try taking her our again tonight and try the cheerios while we are walking and then see if I can play with her while we are out (trying to think the best way to play with her while her leash is still on).

Thank you everyone for the advice, and I am still open for more, like I said, I am going to try a couple of the things out tonight if I can.


----------



## mweidner (Apr 15, 2010)

So I had a chance to take Madison to the park this evening and I tried the whole giving her treats every few feet, that really seemed to work well! She seemed happy and responded to me asking her to come along, when she would stop I could put down a treat on the ground or just look back and say "Lets Go" and she would come along. We walked for about half an hour and I think she would have gone further, but I didn't want to do too much.

I am not going to say case solved yet, I have had good walks with her before and then the next time out she does awful, but it seemed like a good start. Oh and I tried playing with her while we were out, but she is more interested in sniffing around or keeping moving than wanting to play.

Thanks for the advice thus far.


----------



## iori (Apr 17, 2010)

9 months dogs are still puppies they dont want to walk the only thing they want is to play and play..biting is they want most...


----------



## mweidner (Apr 15, 2010)

I wanted to post another update, I have now gone on three walks with Madison using bread as treats, the first walk I needed to use a ton of bread to get her to keep moving, the second walk it was hit and miss, she would do good for awhile and then decide for a few hundred feet that she really just wanted to sit. Then the third walk I took with her last night she was running right along side me or ahead of me a bit, I am still giving her bread every 100-200 feet, but I think I will be able to drop giving her bread except as a treat for doing something good pretty soon.

Thank you for all the advice, I think I am well on the way to having Madison love her walks, now on to fixing the next issue (Which I will post soon).


----------



## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Good to hear the update and some success. I'd keep using treats on occasion for walks for little awhile, better to give her more bread than to stop to soon. Maybe even some more distance between treats, like 300 ft, but get a good dozen walks in with NO sitting down at all before dropping the treats from the equation. After that, I'd treat her at the halfway point and at the return home on another dozen walks with no sitting. If she sits (without reason, if you ask her to because you stop or someone comes up to you etc, that's okay so long as she gets started again when asked) then no treats.


----------



## mweidner (Apr 15, 2010)

I plan to continue with the treats for some time, I am really not in any hurry to get her off from them, but I do want to be able to walk her without constant treats in the future.

Something I have been happy about, the times she has sat down in the last walk or so, I just have to look back at her and ask her if she is going to come and she catches back up, I of course praise her and give her a treat for doing so.


----------

