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The doghouse

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Original poster

13 week old pup won't leave the house

14 replies

WonderOnTheUp · 10/06/2016 17:49

Has anyone else experienced this? What have I done wrong?

Pup has lived with us for 4 weeks and until his vaccinations we carried him about lots of places - school run, park, cafe, visit to family etc and he seemed to enjoy being out and about. He loves meeting new people and dogs.

He's been able to go on the ground for 1.5 weeks now and we used to take him on school run (5 mins each way, taking our time etc). He's getting more and more reluctant to go out and now refuses to walk at all. He's already huge and not feasible for me to carry him about. We have tried tempting him with a trail of treats etc which he will get but then sits down straight away. I don't think the problem is with the lead as he will happily wear it in the garden and when I taken him to a field he will happily walk alongside me with the lead on. He just seems scared outside our house. What have I done wrong? Am I expecting too much too soon? How can I help him overcome this? Would it help to stop trying for a few days then start again?

I'd really appreciate hearing your experiences or advice on this.

OP posts:

pigsDOfly · 10/06/2016 18:18

This problem is a frequent visitor to the dog house Wonder and no you aren't doing anything wrong, in fact it sounds as if you're doing everything absolutely right.

My dog at that age would sit outside the front door refusing to move and looking terrified. Seems this is something that a lot of puppies have a problem with.

Just keep luring him with the treats and take is very slowly. I wouldn't stop for a few day because any progress you've made will be lost.

Before you know it he'll be leaping out the door and dragging you down the street and you'll be posting on here about how to stop him pulling :)

Original poster

WonderOnTheUp · 10/06/2016 18:32

I hope so! (Can't believe I'm hoping he will be dragging me anywhere - he's a lab so I expected more enthusiasm for the great outdoors!)

Thank you for posting, that's given me the reassurance I needed. I think I may break the task down a bit smaller so just get him to the end of the drive (not very long) then let him walk back and try and extend the distance each day. Maybe I could rope some willing neighbours to lure him out too - the prospect of bounding over to a new person may help! I've never had a dog this young before so it's definitely a new situation for me. We went to our first puppy training class this week and each had to take a turn to show our "loose lead walking" which basically consisted of him say in the middle of the room with me trying to coax him along in a silly voice waving a hotdog under his nose! Kept the rest of the class amused I suppose!

OP posts:

Greyhorses · 10/06/2016 19:23

You could try taking him with another dog until he gets the idea? My puppy followed the older one out and went from there and it made everything very fun for her as she had a friend to play with along the way.

Once she figured out what to do she got it pretty quickly but if the puppy is fearful then that's a different matter and you need to be careful not to allow anything to knock his confidence any more. Everything needs to be fun and positive and it will all fall into place

Original poster

WonderOnTheUp · 11/06/2016 08:49

We have another dog too and I thought he may give the pup the incentive/confidence to follow him. That hasn't really happened but maybe we can ask some friends with friendly dogs to meet us as that may seem more interesting today. I'm going to stop trying at school run times as we still need to get ds to school on time but try throughout the day instead, just little bits at a time and hopefully he will be ok. Maybe a sneaky you will work better than treats - I shall try it out today

OP posts:

ChairRider4 · 11/06/2016 11:05

Hi I posted same question last year as felt like never leave the street and it did get better after a month or so

Sometimes I found carrying him a bit and letting him walk back helped

MrsDeVere · 11/06/2016 11:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lighteningirll · 11/06/2016 16:28

I went through the same with my puppy he was very scared didn't even like the garden much now at fifteen months it's hard to keep him in. We did a mix of carrying and walking back and very short walks to the end of the street always letting him go at his own pace which was very, very, very slow at first. The school run is possibly really scary for him if it's anything like the mad, shouty rush we used to do.

Original poster

WonderOnTheUp · 12/06/2016 18:09

Thanks - we have made small progress today but are taking baby steps. Would rather we took our time and got it right than rush and make things worse. We have made 3 trips to end of drive (about 3 car lengths) and back today. I put the lead on but didn't hold the end and threw treats on the ground as he came towards me. Took a while the first time but gradually got a bit quicker, he was quite unsure at the end of the drive so we just went back to the house. Will keep building on his confidence around the house and will be roping in my friend to meet us with her dog to go for a short walk around the street as soon as he seems a bit happier with the drive walk. On the plus side I think we have nearly got there with house training! Today was the first day he stood by the door to "ask" to go out - clever boy!

OP posts:

pigsDOfly · 13/06/2016 12:04

Aaw, bless him.

I found all these little steps of progress so thrilling when my dog was a puppy - she's my first so everything was very new to me.

When she got to 8 months however, and got all 'whatever' and decided she wasn't going to come back to me when I called, that wasn't so thrilling:)

DogsMightFly · 14/06/2016 11:08

Mine was like this too, even though we did all the socialisation and noise therapy beforehand. She still found it all really overwhelming.

Same advice as everyone else - give your pup lots of encouragement in a bright calm voice, lots of tasty treats, but importantly make sure you reward him whenever he shows any confident behaviour outside.

Lighteningirll · 14/06/2016 13:22

My sister has just reminded me that we visited a large garden centre when my ddog was 14 weeks with her dog and that helped loads he got to walk on the lead tons at a slow pace with lots of smells and another dog. He did get very tired and I had to papoose him in my scarf after lunch as he slept.

Swatsup · 15/06/2016 09:19

Is it only the school run that he has been doing? Great for socialising them but maybe he now associates going for a walk with being surrounded buy loads of noisy scary kids. Maybe leave the school run for a bit and take him for some less busy walks?

Original poster

WonderOnTheUp · 15/06/2016 17:24

Good point swatsup. We have dropped the school run "walk" now. We have worked on coming down the drive which has improved a fair bit. We have also been driving him to the park (while its quiet) to try a different environment. It's a bit strange - he initially sits and needs lots of coaxing/reward for walking. Then he seems to relax and go about walking/sniffing and then we are back to sitting and refusal to walk. We were there for only 5 mins today to make sure we are not pushing too much. Tripe sticks helped lure him along a bit! He's having a nap now before we go to puppy class. Hopefully he will enjoy being out in the big wide world soon!

OP posts:

Sallyhasleftthebuilding · 15/06/2016 17:29

We had the same thing, he absolutely refused to go anywhere without me and even then would run home -

It's probably simular to babies at 9 months - very clingy!

It does get better

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