# Puppy Doesn't Like Walks



## ChancetheGSD

Ok, so Gretchen is an odd one. Most of us here go for walks with our dogs, yes? It's suppose to be enjoyable, yes? Well for Gretchen, she's not a fan. She does better off leash than on but it's still a struggle. She'll sit down, I'll be walking and be a good 10-20ft from her, call her and she comes running to me. This is how we "take walks". Which yes, is fantastic recall training but I don't want to do recall training, I want to take a walk with my dog! If I put her on a leash she just bites at it and tries to pull back and doesn't want to come at all. Now here is the catch, if we're walking BACK to the house, she's all for it and will even run ahead if she's off leash. She'll grab her leash herself and walk ME back to the house if she's on it. It's only going AWAY from the house that is an issue.

On the other hand, she walks fine in public on a leash.  It's just around our yard/driveway (We live on 9 acres of land surrounded by more land) that she doesn't want to walk. The only outside time she really does is going potty and then as soon as I say "inside" she FLYS for the door.

I...honestly don't know what to do. We live so far away from "the world" that it's not economical to get in the car and drive somewhere every day to take her walking. (Plus most the places that she can walk right now are secluded and I don't always have someone to walk with me and refuse to go alone, at least until she's big enough to scare someone off) Has anyone ever had this happen? What do I do to fix it? Just accept that my puppy is going to be a little **** hound except on days we're away from the house? I do training, we play fetch in the house, we work on tugs/rags, I've even went as far as walking the house just to have her follow me as a "walk". (On and off leash) It's boring being inside!!! Why can't my puppy be normal and raise **** OUTSIDE? Where she has all the space to run and have zoomies and play and have fun? I mean eventually this dog has the potential to reach nearly 80lb, even at 60+ it's not very easy to play "fetch" in a mobile home. :headbang:


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## MaggieRoseLee

None of my pups have been a fan of walking on leash around the block either (or the leash much at all).

Since I'm like you and don't want a walk to be a battle, I choose to NOT walk my pups from my house/yard with a leash. Instead, I use my yard for the off leash poops/pees and fun play.

For walking I have to use the car 

It seems like when we are in the car and somewhere new, then it's no battle. I tend to find places we can hike off leash so it's all about fun and exercise and NO leash. 





 
That said, I realize that life may involve the leash, so I take advantages of opportunities like:





 
and


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## Shade

Delgado was the *exact* same, and he still loves being off leash rather then on leash.

I started walking him with just a flat collar when I got him at 9 weeks, within a few days he was pulling too hard on the walk home so I used a harness, it worked for a few days but then he started pulling again and my arm just kept getting more and more sore. There's several tools for dogs that pull *forward* but Delgado would mostly pull *backward* so the harness was useless for those moments. 

I ended up buying a gentle leader head harness and it was like a miracle, finally I had something that worked when he pulled both forwards and backwards! He fought it for the first few walks but now he doesn't react to it

He's at the point now where he'll cause a fuss for the first 10 seconds of walking of jumping around and pawing but then he'll heel perfectly and we can walk. If I stop however, the cycle starts all over again. 

I've tried the treat to the nose but he's so excited when we walk he just about takes off my fingers, and I've tried taking a toy as well and he looses interest fairly quickly. 

I've just toughed it out and kept walking when he stops, if he really puts on the breaks I'll stop and look behind and call his name and he'll come right back. He's pretty much ceased the complete stop now since he knows it won't do him any good


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## JohnD

Very cute..My girl, soon to be 5 months still runs to her crate when you pull out her leash..My wife walks our boys and Colby about a mile to school every day.
The funny part is after you take her out she loves it! 

I guess she's like me. I hate going to a party but when i'm there i have a good time.


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## MaggieRoseLee

JohnD said:


> I guess she's like me. I hate going to a party but when i'm there i have a good time.


That's too funny and sounds familiar


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## ChancetheGSD

She has NO problem being on the leash, it's only at home walking AWAY from the house that she doesn't like being on it but she also doesn't like being OFF it and walking away from the house either. If she's going TO the house, it doesn't matter if she is on or off leash, she's just happy to be going back towards the house. She wont go outside and play in the yard, she'll go out and potty but that is it. She doesn't WANT to be in the yard, I've tried high value treats and fun toys...She's very reluctant to be outside, on or off leash...Unless we're out in public. Then she's perfect on leash, heeling right at me, sits or lays when I ask her to...I've never had the chance to test her off leash in public nor do I plan to any time soon. It's like night and day when we're home and when we're not at home.


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## Sunflowers

She's really young. Hans did this, too. 
I honestly think he felt safer at home.
Give her time, get a flexi leash and bring treats. In a few weeks she will be a different dog.


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## ChancetheGSD

I just want a dog who will travel further than 5ft from the porch on her own. :/ Off leash she HATES it but only does it because I can only assume she's scared of being left behind. Whereas on leash, I suppose she knows we're attached and there is no getting lost so she does everything in her power to pull me back home.


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## Sunflowers

ChancetheGSD said:


> she does everything in her power to pull me back home.


Yep, sounds familiar  She'll grow out of it. Most GSDs pull when they are on the return leg of the walk, anyway, even as adults. Homebody dogs.


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## MaggieRoseLee

ChancetheGSD said:


> She has NO problem being on the leash, it's only at home walking AWAY from the house that she doesn't like being on it but she also doesn't like being OFF it and walking away from the house either. If she's going TO the house, it doesn't matter if she is on or off leash, she's just happy to be going back towards the house. She wont go outside and play in the yard, she'll go out and potty but that is it. She doesn't WANT to be in the yard, I've tried high value treats and fun toys...She's very reluctant to be outside, on or off leash...Unless we're out in public. Then she's perfect on leash, heeling right at me, sits or lays when I ask her to...I've never had the chance to test her off leash in public nor do I plan to any time soon. It's like night and day when we're home and when we're not at home.


I got it from your first post and my GSD pups are all the same. 

I have no patience and don't want to wait out my pup or get frustrated when what I'm seeing is just that my pups want to be homebodies and they know exactly where home is. 

The leash is only allowing me to drag them away, but you are right, the leash isn't the issue. It's the fact the pup wants to stay in it's safe home environment where it's most comfortable.

I do NOT like to fight battles with my pups I don't have to. So I don't. I use the yard to poo/pee and play. 

But about every other day, I pack the pup in the car and go somewhere new to exercise/train and socialize. I generally love the offleash because it tires the pup out and starts teaching them that when we walk it's a 'We' operation so keep your eye out and stick with mom.

My pups also generally don't mind the leash in NEW places. You can see that in the 2 socialization videos.

So I am saying you are seeing a somewhat normal situation (normal for 3 out of 3 of my GSD's) and can either be frustrated and take tons of time to work thru it. 

OR....

Just figure out a smarter way to make walks with your pup 100% fun and happy by MANAGING them. 

I choose management and it works for us. BTW, when my pups matured and got more confident, it's no problem to use leashes and do the around-the-block thing.

:wub:


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## Shade

She is really young and possibly going through a fear stage, start slow and gradually increase how far away you go. Bring toys and treats and make outside a really great place to be, even if she's just sitting outside on the porch or within 5' of the house, find her comfort level and work with it

As Sunflowers stated, they change quickly at that age, in a few weeks she'll probably have her confidence back and will want to take on the world lol


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## cwedge11

Probably her age..she wants to stay where she is most comfortable..what items and smells and surroundings are most familiar. Imagine seeing and smelling a thousand different things and you are only 10 inches off the ground lol. 
Just keep slowly working with her and she'll start wanting to venture out more and more within the next few weeks. Also..they get worn out pretty quickly being so young..so the stamina will increase within the next few weeks also.


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## Sunflowers

Hans would get to the second half of the driveway, then put on the brakes, lower his head and do the looking away thing. He was literally terrified of the world out there.
Now, he prances like a show horse.


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## ChancetheGSD

I'm sorry, my retarded uncle will NOT leave me alone and I'm having issues replying to people. I'm also getting REALLY mad and don't even want to deal with the dog at this point because my anger levels are just through the roof due to him. >____<

Overall, everything you said MRL is correct, except she DOES walk well on the leash when we're walking HOME and she will NOT play in the yard just as much as she will NOT walk around it. There is no "around the block", it's literally in our yard that she wont walk or play. We don't HAVE a "block" to walk. Literally just land, land and more land.

I've been working on this for nearly 2 weeks and I feel helpless. Toys and treats don't work. How long is this suppose to take? I'd at least like to be able to play fetch or something with her outside, she wont even play tug. But when she's an adult this isn't going to be possible to do in the house. She is taken out every other day but that doesn't fix her when she's here. :/


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## cwedge11

Please don't take this wrong..I don't mean it come out rude or anything...but how many times have you dealt with a 6-8 wk old puppy before? You have to have an extreme amount of patience. I remember you talking about Chance before and how awesome he was..and we had one of those, Chili (r.i.p).."knew everything at 6 wks old" type dogs...but MOST dogs/puppies aren't like that. It's all going to take time, it's not something you can force a deadline date to, and she'll sense your frustration and impatience so just relax.


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## ChancetheGSD

Hopefully it'll just pass with age, I'm just scared of ending up with an adult dog that I have to pull around.  I've never experienced this with a dog before.


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## ChancetheGSD

I've raised MANY 6-8 week old puppies. Never had one like this and I'm losing patience because of family not because of the dog. I just don't want the puppy around to pick up on my frustration. (Though right now she's out for a nap so I guess it doesn't matter)


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## Shade

Honestly if it's really frustrating you, start back at the absolute basics and work your way up rather then keeping pushing the limits of what she can do and you can handle without stress. 

Take a day or two break from walking and just enjoy sticking around the house, slowly push the amount of time you spend outside and remember above all to have fun and that you're not alone 

Every dog is different, my family has raised many puppies and every puppy had their quirks.


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## msvette2u

Your puppy is barely old enough to leave mama. Most puppies would still be with mama and littermates right now!
I would not expect leaving the yard right now, it's not really even that safe to do so as she's only had, like, one vaccine so far?
If this was a 12-14 or 16 week old I'd be concerned a bit, but at barely 8 weeks, I'd back off and leave walks for when the puppy grows up more 

Not to mention, if her walking issues get worse she may not be a dog that'll be able to be walked much.


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## ChancetheGSD

How is walking around my yard any less safe than letting her go into it to poop and pee? And again, I'm not taking her to dog parks or anything. She's gone with me to get the car cleaned, get the oil changed, places like that. I've taken her to some secluded woods but again, it isn't ANY different than being at home. Dogs come through our yard that we don't own so I guess she needs to be bubble dog, huh? She was raised at her breeders for 6 weeks, running around his land which twice a week, dozens of dogs he didn't own trained on, again, how is it any different than my yard? And honestly, after having had a dog get parvo when I was a kid who NEVER left our yard even for a walk and had her vaccines, I don't believe that you should be waiting and missing that socialization point when you can easily bring parvo in on your clothes or shoes. I worked in a boarding kennel AND a grooming salon and was often walking through the vets office (owned by the same guy) and still came home every day to litters of puppies and guess what? Nobody ever caught anything.

Again, I'm not frustrated with the puppy, I just don't want the puppy picking up on my problems with my family. Once I'd calmed down, I took her outside to potty after her nap, played with her on one of her tug toys in the living room and now she's enjoying a stuffed Kong in her kennel. Besides the walking in the yard, she's not an issue.


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## MaggieRoseLee

chancetheGSD... take a deep breath and remember what our puppies need the most from us is both love and patience.

So if what I am doing is NOT working I need to slam to a halt and rethink the situation. Rather then continuing in a vicious circle that I keep 'losing' and getting angry and feeling helpless plus that is absolutely being taken out on my puppy..... I need a new plan.

It's the PLAN that's not working and broken, not your puppy 

I have a brain that I need to use to come up with a way to have my puppy do well and SUCCEED so I love and am proud of it. If I continue with the same plan (that isn't working) it is *NOT MY PUPS FAULT*. It is my own.

I gave you what works for me and THREE of my GSD pups were exactly like yours. You may come up with another plan that works, and that's fantastic! But the important thing is you sitting down, with out the puppy, and independently figuring out a NEW plan, and trying it out. 

If that one doesn't work, then sit down (with out the puppy) and coming up with another new plan. 

The most important thing to keep in mind at all times, if YOUR plan isn't working, the problem is THE PLAN, not the puppy. So to get naturally angry and frustrated with the puppy isn't going to change the fact that you are now taking our your feelings on a puppy. 

My plan works for me. Others have recommended other plans that work for them. 

Key is a NEW PLAN, and keep trying them until you find the one that does work for your puppy in your situation.


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## Cassidy's Mom

I did a lot of training to walk with me on and off leash around the house the first couple of weeks. I don't think I even tried to walk my puppies around the block until they were here for a few weeks, and I got all of them older than you got Gretchen - Dena and Keefer were each 9 weeks old and Halo was 10 weeks. 

I don't remember exactly, but the earliest was probably 12 weeks old or so. Halo went into puppy class at 13 weeks old and I can't remember how much leash walking we did prior to that. I understand your frustration and concern, but she is still SO young and I think you need to adjust your expectations accordingly.


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## ChancetheGSD

There is no frustration being taken out on her. I'll continue to work on it and figure it out. Hopefully I'll eventually be out of this place and have somewhere of my own to work with her at that is in a more human populated area since she seems to do better in social situations than she does out here where the is no "block" to walk. The 2 days she was at my moms house, she seemed scared (Of course, she'd literally just been taken from her family) but did okish walking on the pathway in front of the house and socializing and being curious; my mom lives in a subdivison so there was a "block" to walk and a lot going on. But I just walked her about 2-3 houses down and back and she would do fine. HERE she is like whoa, not going anywhere that isn't close to the porch. I don't know if it's the openness or what that freaks her out. :/


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## ChancetheGSD

Well, good news is I figured out how to get her to walk. Even though I didn't really want her socializing with the dogs (Big issue I had with Eevee, she was far more interested in Zoey and Maggie than she was ME) I found a pack walk with Maggie (Zoey she bugs the **** out of so I don't bother bringing her) gets her moving. I also realized why she doesn't want to be out in the yard! I went for a barefoot walk and realized we have some prickly crap in our yard. No clue what it's from but it HURTS!!!!! No wonder she didn't want to be so far from the house! Up close to the house, it's mostly dirt and soft grass but out in the yard there are a LOT of patches of those prickly things. We've switched to walking the (long) driveway and back which has been working well.

I guess this also explains why she did better off leash than on, at least off leash she could tell where the patches were and avoid them as best as possible but ON leash she didn't have much choice where she walked. 

I feel kind of bad now. Maggie and Zoey walk around like it's nothing so I didn't think about something like that but I guess they have thicker paw pads. :/


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## erricsimmons457

Soft grass is the best region where our pet can enjoy walking.Clean air in the morning time and playful surrounding in the evening time are the best situations to take advantage of for our pet.It's playfulness should be uninterrupted and we must keep ourselves engaged in communication with it.That's the best way to gift a beautiful life to such animals.


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