Training a Puppy

Wezoin

About 2 weeks ago I got my first puppy. Alls good, I've managed to get her sitting on command and she has alot of time where she just likes to sleep or lie around. Theres also a good amount of time where she likes to run around and gets excited. Managed to get her to mostly just chew her toys and and those little chew bone things.

In these energetic phases, I want to try and get her out to walk so she'll get the energy out, plus it's a nice excuse to get myself out for some exercise anyway.

I go to the leash, she's all excited, and lets me put it on. She's all gun ho about going for the walk, UNTIL we get to the end of the driveway. She just sits down and refuses to move. If I wait 5 or 10 minutes I can sometimes get her to take maybe 10 steps after that, but then she just sits again and wont move.

tl;dr: Energetic puppy won't walk, just sits at end of drive. Any solutions?

BTW she's almost 10weeks old now, black lab/hound cross.

Heir

She might be scared. I know our puppy freaked out the first time we took her past our yard.

Amazingly, what worked best was taking her in the car to a park. Since she didn't recognize anything, she was kind of forced to make her own territory out of it. After a couple of trips, she no longer feared leaving our yard when we would take her out.

In my experience, Labs can get freaked out pretty easily by the most random things. Each one is different when it comes to what it is that scares them. Your's might just be the end of the driveway.

Wezoin

Oh ok. I'll try taking her out to a park, but she doesn't seem scared of our back yard at all. Seems to quite like it, actually, so I'm thinking its not a fear of the outdoors thing.

Sky

Dog Obediance School works.

And the more strict on the dog you are, the better trained it'll turn out.

EggyToast

Your dog sounds like she's becoming very well trained. Like most pets, she's going to have a comfort zone, and while she'll respond to your positive reinforcement, she'll also learn to show you where she's uncomfortable. In this case, she's not currently comfortable leaving the "house area." Perhaps she dislikes the road, or the sidewalk, or some other element that you're not noticing.

She will probably grow out of it the more she's outside. Try the park thing, but don't force her -- put the leash on, hold the leash and show her that you're there, and let her know that it's OK if she wants to get out of the car. She may not want to. Play with her in the yard and run around there, and when she gets to a point in the yard where she no longer wants to walk any further, try playing with her with a toy at that spot. She'll get more comfortable being there and anxious to expand her boundaries. It also probably will force you to, at some point, be beyond her "zone" by yourself, where she'll see you and want to be by you.

Puppies learn well by being frustrated and overcoming that frustration. Push her boundaries gently and she'll learn well.

DrFrylock

Puppies don't automatically know how to walk on a leash when they're new. Ours would stop at any given moment to do whatever or just stare off into space. The best thing to do is to get an appropriately sized training collar and use it right. Don't drag the dog, just give it a tiny pop and keep walking. Eventually the puppy will learn to follow you. If the puppy is especially reticent about going to a certain area, just start out in the area where it's comfortable.

Your puppy is very very small so you have to give it plenty of leeway.

Step 2 is learning to heel. Once the dog learns to follow you, it'll probably just sort of run around distracted - running ahead, stopping behind, sniffing around, etc. Basically, whenever the dog gets ahead of you, you turn around and start walking the other way. The dog will keep going and you give the leash a light pull with the training collar and the dog will turn around and follow you the other way. After a couple of weeks of this, the dog will start to become less distracted on walks. It might still try to get ahead of you - just give a small correction until it's next to you or slightly behind you.

During the walks, especially when the puppy is still small, only do this for a portion of the walk. Let some random sniffing and stuff go on too, but make sure it's when YOU want it to.

I worked with our little guy for a month or so on this stuff and he's the best walker ever now. He loves going out for walks and even "helps" to get his collar on. When he's on the leash he's 12 inches from my left leg, looking up at me to "check in" every once in a while while we walk. He doesn't get too distracted but he is very suspicious of bicycles. If I say "OK!" and switch the leash to one hand, he knows it's OK to walk ahead or sniff or play in the grass or whatever.

Keep at it and don't get frustrated - 10 weeks is VERY young and it may take several months to get up to speed, but it's very much worth it.

Djeet

I have a puppy, 9 wks old. The internet tells me not to play with him in certain ways (wrestling and physical horseplay, tug of war, excessive chasing) as the breed can tend towards dominance when older. So how the heck am I suppose to play with him? He's not interested in my console systems, and he's cute as hell and has energy and intelligence. I know I need to engage him in activities or he'll get destructive, I can already see him getting into stuff cause he's bored.

He doesn't like the leash really, and I don't want to pick him up and take him everywhere. Also, how young can you start walking a dog (round the hood for exercise and all)? Have heard that you don't want to "exercise" them too much when they're too young as it can lead to developmental/structural issues. what's too young?

My vet recommended some classes, but the next round of obedience classes doesn't start up til January, and I'd like to start sooner.

mts

first off.

10 weeks is too young to have your puppy out in the real world. wait until at least its had all its main shots.

what i would do is try and incorporate the leash into play time. clip it on and play with him and his favorite toy or throw a ball around. he will associate the leash with fun time.

Djeet.
most of the stuff on horseplay tug of war is outdated. yu need to establish yourself as the leader, once that is set feel free to play all you want however you want,just make sure you drill in when its over its over. unless its going to be a larger breed, than i would avoid having it learn it can jump on you in play.

defintiely get puppies out in obedience early, but at the age of the dogs you guys have , its more about dog socialization. and most classes they need all their shots.

some tips i have learned from the most stubborn dog in the world.

try and make them seem like coming back to you is the best thing ever. lots of praise and treats when you call them and they come.

throw impromptu training sessions , make them sit for stuff, then make them go down etc gradually increasing.

find something they really really like as their motivation for training. mine was food, some people use toys etc.

DON'T LET THEM DO ANYTHING NOW THAT YOU WOULDN'T WANT THEM TO DO WHEN THEY ARE FULLY GROWN
i can't stress that one enough. it was cute when they sleep on your bed and legs a puppy, but not when they are 60+ pounds and taking up the entire bed.

get them used to being by themselves slowly, seperation anxiety makes things a pain in the ass

be consistent. stick with command calls and use them, have consistent rules,( on the couch on the bed etc)

final tip for now is have fun with you dogs. they are not going to be robots, cherish that.