Lead walking

[nearlyfinished1moreyear]

Hi hoping for some advice on lead walking. My 11wk old pup will not walk on the lead. I've tried collar, harness, letting her drag the lead behind but as soon as it's in my hand she lies down and refuses to walk.

She will walk happily off lead alongside my other ddog but obviously near roads etc this isn't safe. I've had a few dogs over the years and never had this problem!

Any advice?

She is very young.

is she happy with a collar?
If so attach a light piece of string or wool to the collar.
Possible when eating and then let her trail that behind her
If still unhappy make it shorter and feed her while she has the string attached.
gradually build up to her moving with the string,you holding the string etc
Do not pull her in a direction follow her direction around the house or the garden
Then over time add heavier string or the actual lead.

Have you let her drag it round the house eg when she's about to be fed? That might be enough to desensitise her and allow you to pick it up, call her to you and reward her. You could move on from there.

Should your pup be out walking at 11weeks? Most aren't fully vaccinated until12/13 weeks, 11 weeks is too early for final vaccs. Do you have a garden you can practice in?

I have tried the trailing behind but I will try and preserver with this. @BlueGheko she will be 12wks tomorrow and had her final jabs last week. We got her at 6wks but that's another story, thanks for your concern tho. Also yes I have a garden

Have you tried treats, some chicken etc to get her to walk alongside you

Pop her collar and a light lead on her in the house and encourage her with treats. Once she's happy, move to the garden and then outside on walks. Take tasty treats with you for encouragement bribery

Hi thanks for suggestions I will persevere with treats

At that age she won’t need to be lead walked. Get her used to it in the garden with treats. Remember to limit exercise whilst your pup is so little.

Again thanks for your input @Wolfie11 no she prefers to walk at the side of me .I'm not a novice dog owner so know with common sense to limit to 5mins per month but cheers for you expert knowledge

Many people don’t have common sense. But then not many people get a dog at 6 weeks.

Puppy could have been a rescue to be fair. I doubt OP just went and picked up a dog from a perfectly normal mum and puppy situation at 6 weeks

There's no scientific basis for the 5 minute rule. None at all. And 15-odd years ago, getting a puppy at six weeks was still seen as normal.

I was listening to a podcast about dogs and stress and the chap pointed out that we assume that dogs will hate crates and muzzles so we desensitise them carefully. And we assume that they'll love walks, but their social distance can stretch further than theirs and they find us terribly slow, so they can find leads really, really stressful. In effect he said, desensitise a puppy to the lead as you would to a crate. It made perfect sense to me, anyway.

Exactly @midnightstar66 @Wolfiefan you don't know the ins and outs of the situation so who are you to judge a random person over the internet?

I can judge when someone is rude.

@Wolfiefan you come on these threads give your advice then usually follow it by some sort of judgment. Cannot be arsed with your comments piss off.

I’m not sure what size your pup is and what size they start at, but a harness sorted the problem out for us.

Hi

She is around the size of a Jack Russel but chunky. I purchased a harness yesterday and I'm gonna give it a go along with treats,praise. Thanks for your input

Good luck OP - treats normally do wonders in situations like this! Mine did anything for cooked chicken at that age

Piss off? Nice. You asked for advice. I gave advice on treats and limiting exercise. How exactly was that judging? You asked for advice. I gave it and you were rude. Very.

Your gave advice stating she wouldn't need to be lead walked? Well why not? Not even around my garden?

Like I said I've saw you post on a few posts dogs related and always give your nicey nicey advice then finish off with (you should/shouldn't be doing this /it's not necessary).

Thanks to everyone for their helpful advice, it's appreciated.

It's the way you say "REMEMBER to limit exercise". Well actually no I'll give her as much exercise I feel she's needs thanks @Wolfiefan

When mine was a pup I used to have to carry him to the end of our close and then put him down. He was too scared to take the tentative step out of the front door. After a week or so he was fine.

Ok. I’m sorry you didn’t like the use of that particular word. But the point is that not limiting on lead exercise when young can cause serious damage as a pup ages.
And no. Very young puppies don’t generally need much lead walking at all. At 11 weeks it’s still very much a baby and growth plates etc are very vulnerable to damage.

@Wolfiefan Ok sorry yes I understand what you are saying. A mad dash around the garden/house for 10mins usually tired here out.

She tends to be more alert when my dc is on his hyperactive mode then snores away in her bed once he's in bed