Pup refuses to walk on lead

AryaStark

My dog is 11 months. She was trained on the lead very young and loves to go walking. She learned not to pull and generally behaves on lead.

The last two nights that changed. She was great until she realised that we were going back to the car to go home and started to pull jump and try to get off the lead... She is a husky and quite big! She is grabbing and biting the lead ... I can manage to hold onto the lead and after a few minutes got her to sit and focus on me and calm down.

When we go out we go where she can chase the ball off lead for about 20 minutes and then walk for 1 hour. I don't really want to go longer as I was advised to go 5 minutes for every month.

Has anybody experienced this? Should we walk for longer?

DBB

No need to walk for longer!
It sounds like she's simply anticipating going home when you return to the car, and for her, staying out on her walk is farrrrr more fun!
A bit of reverse psychology needed I think...
First of all, I think I'd change location for a while so that she's not predicting where you've parked (if you park in about the same place most days, she's going to have copped the route back to the car!)
I'd limit the fun and games until you're back at the car. For example, out on your walk maybe just throw a normal tennis ball for her, but when she gets back to the car, she gets a squeaky ball (which many dogs prefer). You may need to squeak it to attract her towards the car in the first few days.
You could also give her some delicious treats once she's back in the car... maybe reserve a part of her daily food allowance and feed it to her in the car (but I'd be inclined to make this meal a REALLY tasty one for now)... feed it to her in a Kong Toy whilst you drive home?
Make a BIG fuss of her when she gets back to the car too.
She should start really looking forward to getting back to the car after a few days

AryaStark

DBB wrote: »

No need to walk for longer!
It sounds like she's simply anticipating going home when you return to the car, and for her, staying out on her walk is farrrrr more fun!
A bit of reverse psychology needed I think...
First of all, I think I'd change location for a while so that she's not predicting where you've parked (if you park in about the same place most days, she's going to have copped the route back to the car!)
I'd limit the fun and games until you're back at the car. For example, out on your walk maybe just throw a normal tennis ball for her, but when she gets back to the car, she gets a squeaky ball (which many dogs prefer). You may need to squeak it to attract her towards the car in the first few days.
You could also give her some delicious treats once she's back in the car... maybe reserve a part of her daily food allowance and feed it to her in the car (but I'd be inclined to make this meal a REALLY tasty one for now)... feed it to her in a Kong Toy whilst you drive home?
Make a BIG fuss of her when she gets back to the car too.
She should start really looking forward to getting back to the car after a few days

Thanks. The treats getting back to the car is a good idea ill try it tomorrow.. It's funny because when we go out in the morning she is fine heading home but its probably because she knows that she gets breakfast once we get in!
We were getting some funny looks this evening when she was having her hissy fit ... It probably looked like I was being attacked by big husky!!,

mymo

I bring my two to an area where I can let them off lead straight out of the car, and sometimes Oliver doesn't want to go home.
I keep a couple of slices of chorizo in a bag in my pocket for such occasions, chorizo is smelly and tasty so he comes running, I think he has a serious addiction to it, he will do anything for it!

Oliver isn't even overly food orientated but he has gotten out of my daughters bed on a rainy day within seconds of me putting some chorizo in a pan (nice in your scrambled eggs )

tk123

I have a spare squeaker in my walking belt for getting Lucy's attention and also a special squeaky tug toy I keep in my backpack if she needs encoruagement to come back. She only gets the tug in the park when she goes back on lead. I don't need to use it very often in fairness to her but when I do she's AMAZED by the toy because she's not used to seeing it!