The craziness of walks

[MollyHopps]

I am having real trouble with my one year old pup when it comes to walks.

He is relatively well trained, knows the basic commands and indoors is a little delight. But when it comes to walking everything goes out the window.

Everything is a struggle, from actually walking the short distance from our house to the fields (across the road) - where he yelps and howls and pulls like crazy - to seeing other dogs and the odd horse and rider go by.

I have tried taking treats to distract him with but he just ignores them. It is making recall training near impossible. Does anyone have any tips on how to crack this?

I love walking him, we are lucky enough to have some stunning walks in our area, but the start and potential of meeting other dogs (inevitable) is making me dread them.

They can be a pain at this age! How much socialising has he done? You might find it helpful to take him everywhere with you for a bit so horses etc are not as thrilling. Didn't work for us as the dog got so car sick it had a negative effect.

Keep some high value treats (our dog has tiny bits of boiled kidney at the moment) just for walks and keep doing recall along the walk.

Also - Don't let him pull, stop immediately. They pick up really quickly that pulling means stop not go!

He's going through his teenage phase of not listening and being overwhelmed by the sights and smells. I went through this a few times with mine, and you need to find his weakness - my dogs is a tennis ball and if I get one out of my pocket I have his focus immediately. Some dogs it's food ie sausage/chicken, or a squeaky toy - it has to be high value to him. Then get a long training lead and keep him on it until he learns that he has to listen to you. I have a 10m long line (not retractable) that if he was going through a deaf phase, he goes on until he listens again. You have to go right back to basics but he will get there - mine is now 3 and he's been amazing the last 12 months. He will listen, always comes back and the only battle I ever have is if a pheasant is around but I have to keep his attention. It does get better honest .