5mo old puppy refuses to walk and other (small) behavioural problems.....

[Naicecuppatea]

1. Our golden retriever puppy is very particular about her walks. We live in a fairly busy village and she refuses to go out on the lead for a walk. This is recent behaviour, starting in the last 2 weeks. She will pin herself down to the pavement facing the direction she wants to go back in, which is towards home, and it is very difficult to get her moving again unless it is back to the house. If we drive somewhere nearby for a walk she will be fine walking as obviously home is not within sights. Sometimes I have to resort to carrying her and at 20 kgs now, this is ridiculous! Any advice would be very welcome as she seems to be laying down the laws, and really needs the exercise.
   
   
2. How can we stop her being a nuisance at mealtimes? She thinks all food is fair game and will happily jump up at the dinner plates and table while we are eating. If we put her out in the garden or in a separate room she will bark or jump up at the door until she is back with us - she is bright and knows exactly when food is around. We have tried distracting her with toys at mealtimes, but it doesn't really work.
   
   I'll stop there for now, as those are the 2 major issues. Otherwise she is a beautiful, smart, and a very loved but cheeky member of the family.

[Hoppinggreen]

Will she get moving on her walks with a bit of cheese held in front of her nose? My Goldie will do anything for cheese.
As for food we firmly but gently tell him to go away if we are eating at the table and pay him no attention at all ( not even eye contact). He is never fed anything apart from on his bowl in a different room to where we eat.
You can also try a time out of 5 minutes or so.

[Naicecuppatea]

Thank you Hoppie. She just is not too fussed about any food, unless it is ours of course. Cheese, and all the treats we've bought her fail to get her interested enough to keep moving. She is partial to ham, which I will try.

Thanks for your advice about meal times, I will give that a try. I have two small DDs who love to "accidentally" drop food for her which does not help matters.

[Naicecuppatea]

Er, that should say thank you Hopping!

[MyKingdomForBrie]

I think that's the key with food at the table - you can never give them any food at your meal times or they will never give up asking! My puppy is currently doing the same re lead walking, she's fine off lead but a non-mover on it so watching with interest!

[yoomoo]

We had the same issue with our pup at around 4 months, he just wouldn't walk! At the time the weather was cold and wet but he started doing it even in nice weather, no amount of treats would help. I did a bit of online research and it seemed to be quite common among young pups and websites suggested he may have been scared by something and we didn't realise so we did really short walks just to the end of the road and back to build up his confidence again and after a few weeks he was fine. Really odd, we've never figured out if it was the weather or something had scared him but luckily he did grow out of it. Hope yours does too
I agree with the no attention at all at meal times, our pup used to try and jump at our plates but we completely ignore him now and he just sits there staring which is hilarious but doesn't bother us at all. When we sit at table he wanders round for a bit looking for anything dropped on floor but quickly gives up and again just sits and stares until we are done. We learned at puppy class it's best to ignore bad behaviour like that completely as its just attention seeking so by telling them to get down or pushing them that's giving attention. Worked for us he soon got bored! Good luck

[LilCamper]

I taught my lab to lay down when we are eating at the table by ignoring everything he did that wasn't laying down and heavily rewarding him with yummy stuff as soon as he did. He caught on very quickly.

[Naicecuppatea]

How do you ignore jumping up when she is very close to knocking plates off or grabbing food? Is it ok to feed while training to lie down if it is while we are eating?

Thanks loads for the advice and ideas.

[LilCamper]

Make sure stuff is pushed back far enough. You could also get her settled with a nice stuffed frozen Kong before you dish up.