About to sell doggo to the circus

[Ilovetea42]

Not actually. I really do love him but I'm incredibly frustrated with him right now.

I have an almost 2 Yr old springer who is generally just the best good boy. He's very smart, recall etc is excellent and he's so gentle for being a really hyper breed. We make sure be gets the right amount of exercise daily and work on commands etc. I used to do the bulk of his training having had dogs before and he was so so good for me. Then, I got pregnant and it was a really tough pregnancy and I wasn't able to walk him so my dh took over that. Since then our dog will literally do everything my husband tells him without hesitation. He will obey the vast majority of commands for me but our issue is when we're out walking. I've been trying to train him to walk beside the pram nicely. He can do this because when my husband takes the dog and pram out the lead is so slack that his issue is that it sometimes gets tangled in the wheels. For me however, it's a completely different story. He pulls so hard in the lead that he's nearly tipped the pram 3 times today on a 50min walk. I've been extremely firm and consistent. Every time he pulls a bit I stop dead and he knows to come back to beside me, but as soon as we start off he's away steaming ahead again. I'm worried he's actually going to end up toppling the pram with baby inside at some point. Any advice?? I've tried walking him just with collar and with a front leading harness. Harness is a bit better but still not too where I want him to be.

You need to go back to basics and teach heel position as if he is a 9 week old puppy. Forget walks outside garden until you have nailed heel position without leas in garden. Once he can do heel without lead in garden then add on the lead. Then once he is heeling in the garden you can very slowly start to go outside the garden ie 5 metres up the road and back. Build up in very bitesized chunks and set your dog up to win not fail.
Continuing to walk while letting him pull means you are rewarding the pulling. It doesn't matter what piece of equipment you use, it is only training that will work.

You could try a halti. We used it just a few times with our poodle and now she walks beautifully without it 90% of the time and only slight pulling if there's another dog approaching (she hated the halti but it got the message across!)

Please don't use a halti, it works purely on pain!

I see what you are meaning, however he'd never cope with just being in our (very small) garden as he needs at least 2 hrs exercise daily. I don't allow him to pull, the second I feel the leash tense I stop and we don't move again until the leash is slack and repeat that every time so he doesn't get to go anywhere unless the leash is slack. For the most part he knows this because as soon as I stop now he'll come back to the right place so we can start again, but it's like sometimes he smells something extra interesting and then he makes a decision to go for it regardless of not being supposed to and pulls extra hard which is when it's difficult for me to keep the pram upright. I've been bringing treats and rewarding when he is walking to heel but they're not a big motivator for him, he prefers to be rewarded with a ball when we're out but I only use that when he's off leash.

He only needs 2 hours because that's what you have trained him to expect. Mental training is more tiring than physical exercise so heel training will tire him.
If he pulls on the lead to get to somewhere for off lead fun then you are rewarding him for pulling. Training is the only way to sort this, it is up to you whether you put the time and effort in.

Poor you. 6 year gap between my youngest 2 dc. Dog's face when The Pram returned. She walked perfectly or she knew The Wrath of a buggy wheel on her feet! What memories. Lost her 3 years ago... Good luck op. Nowt like seeing your 2 'babies' forge a great relationship..

2 hrs is the recommended physical activity level for his breed as he's a working dog. We've had periods where he's not been able to be walked after neutering etc and we did plenty of scent work and mental training in the house but there is still a noticeable difference in his behaviour if he doesn't get out every day, we did our research before getting this breed. After a day at home he's much bouncier and I have a small baby in a small house to consider as well. I have no issue committing the time to training as we work on his training daily anyways but I'm just saying I genuinely don't think he'd cope without his usual level of exercise so it needs to be something we can do while we're on walks and combine the two. Wondering if we could go somewhere quiet with more space and work on it there. My garden is too small to wheel the pram around so it's not possible for him to be trained with it there. Also he'll walk to heel for me when I don't have the pram using the stop heel start method. I do think he's a little nervous of it which could be a component.

So sorry for your loss she sounds like she was a fab doggo. Yes I'm really looking forward to watching them grow up, baby is obsessed with the dog already!

@Ilovetea42 I have always had working bredds ie spaniels. Exercise isnt just about walking them it is about trainjng + brain work. The more physical exercise you give any dog will only result in a fitter dog.
Read up on arousal states:
So many people fall into this trap thinking it's what high energy dogs need, when it couldn't be further from the truth. Info and photo taken from another page.

There ABSOLUTELY is such a thing as too much high-arousal exercise. And you probably don’t want to find out for yourself what happens next.
.
Activities that tend to physically wear dogs out the fastest are also the ones that create the highest excitement levels. Fetching balls. Playing frisbee. Racing around at the dog park. Chasing water from the garden hose. Running next to a bike.
All of these are physical exercise, but they also create intense arousal states. And if you put your dog into high-arousal states repeatedly you better know how to train around this, too.
.
I have a lot of students who fell into this trap. They got a high-energy dog (a GSD, a herding breed mix of some sort, a retriever etc.).
They figured out that the fastest way to make the dog physically really tired (the tongue-hanging-to-the-floor-kind-of-tired) was by playing chuck-it for half an hour. Or by taking the dog to the dog park every day for a wild romp.
The dog started to crave these arousal states (as programmed in their DNA).
But at the same time, no impulse control training happened. So now we have a dog who knows the fun of adrenaline and who seeks it, without having been taught to listen and regulate when in a state of high excitement.
.
This dog will start to show other problems. They might get frustrated to the point of redirecting when they cannot access fun immediately. They might be vocalizing or unable to settle and then I get messages that say “My dog just cannot be normal in public”.
If your dog gets to enjoy a high-arousal activity every time they leave the house, they will start to expect (and eventually demand) a high-arousal activity every time.
And this is not fun.
.
Your dog needs a balance of high-arousal and low-arousal activities. Furthermore, the more high-arousal activities your dog has, the more you have to balance these with impulse control training. It’s not fair to make our dogs crazy without teaching them the skills to un-crazy 😉
.
“Exercise” can have four quadrants:

• Low-arousal, not physically demanding (sniff walks)
• Low-arousal, physically demanding (hiking)
• High-arousal, not physically demanding (excited waiting while another dog works)
• High-arousal, physically demanding (fetching)

Make sure you are aware which type of exercise you are providing for your dog, and try to reach a balance that works for your dog.
.
If you are unhappy with your dog’s arousal level or impulse control in daily life, look at whether this is amplified by the type of exercise you are providing.

Instead of stopping dead when he pulls have you tried going back the way you came for a little bit. We did this and I'm sure looked like complete idiots while doing it but it worked very quickly.

That's really interesting I'll have a read into that further. We normally try to mix it up and do what would be low arousal walks on working days and then high arousal walks about 3 days a week where we'd do lots of scent work off leash and fetch I think that's probably what's knocked him off actually because there was a period when my husband was walking him and he'd mainly have done off lead exciting walks so maybe that's why he's frustrated on the leash with me because he thinks he'll get let off at some point whereas I'm walking him more in areas I'd never let him off in.

@Ilovetea42 exactly and by continuing to let him pull to somewhere to run around is just rewarding the behaviour. By keeping to the garden and just training helps to break this cycle.

Would a waist belt help with the lead - at least it's less likely to pull the buggy over?

This worked really well for me in the past but the route we normally take at some points has really narrow footpaths so I'd have to go on the road to get turned around and I generally try to avoid the dog stepping on the road unless it's to cross over. On wider places yes we could do that no problem!

That sounds incredibly stressful. I have no useful advice. I just wanted to share that my dog (lab/goldie cross) can do proper forward rolls/ roly polies and should IMO be a circus dog.

Can you move to a house with a bigger garden?

Just offering an idea that might work to help tire him out. Instead of feeding him in a bowl, if you scatter / hide his food round the house and/or garden he will enjoy sniffing it out and he'll be working hard at the same time.

I'm not sure why you take him on leads walks in areas where he can't be off. I rarely walk my springer on a short lead round the streets. Usually take him to the woods or the big parks or a field walk. He's liable to chase cars so he's usually on a 10m lead so he still has some fun. I think he'd rather stay at home than go for street walks. We do live in a rural area though.

Also 2nd the waist lead. I've always used one and it's fab. Hands free for coffee or whatever

I'm sensing a world famous double act!

We are working hard towards this but there's work we're doing to our current house to get it up to market value as it was a bit of a fixer upper. Adding in a maternity leave it wouldn't be realistic for us within probably the next 5 years but it's definitely on our list.

This is actually how I normally feed him, he gets his breakfast either knotted into a towel or he gets it in exchange for commands or in a snuffle mat or puzzle ball which he loves! He just gorbs it in his bowl and he chewed up his slow feeder bowl!

For the majority of our 2 hr walks we will be in a forest or beach or somewhere he can run off lead and sniff all round him. We do this at least 3 days a week somewhere different each time and I'll usually drive him to these locations. However there are usually car parks etc to navigate when we arrive and I've been wearing my baby in a harness and I'm thinking ahead to when he's too heavy for me to do that comfortably and I'll need the pram. I also need to be able to do shorter walks with him from our house eg our vet, a beach and the daycare we use twice a week are a 10 min walk away so I walk rather than drive these but it's urban with busy roads so I don't let him off there. We bring him most places we go and just use dog friendly cafes rather than leaving him in the boot of the car so he needs to be able to navigate busier areas now with a pram. He will walk nicely and completely ignores other dogs and people he just is used to weaving a bit and following his nose- typical springer!

I walk my cocker spaniel 10 minutes or so on-lead to the park / field most days (not everyone has direct access!).
Honestly so stressful the first few times with the pram - pulling, running sideways to sniff interesting smells etc.
DH mostly walked him while I was pregnant and let his lovely looselead walking go to shit.

I have to admit - DDog massively improved after I let him experience the consequences of running in front of the pram (a controlled and gentle bump on the bum). He was very indignant but is now far more aware of his surroundings, & mostly stays behind the wheels.

This, coupled with the rewards for heeling, using the stopping method and just practice has really improved things.
I practiced heeling a lot in the park with his ball too - he's also quite ball-motivated - so I'd hold the ball and throw it once he'd given me a few feet of good heel (gradually extending this to longer distances).

We have a springer and always chuckle darkly when we see one pulling on a lead. Ours is now 11 and has mellowed but until a couple of years ago we used a soft webbing figure 8 lead as if we used any form of collar she would literally choke herself and if we used a harness she would put the whole strength of her chest against it and pull like a cart horse. Oddly enough she would always happily walk to heel off the lead but there are lots of situations where that’s not appropriate. She was gundog trained and none of the trainers could fix it. She was fine with a figure 8 lead and it’s much kinder than a haltie, but if you go for one, make sure you clip it to the collar too as ours slipped off once or twice. Also agree with PPs that springers love and need to work. We used to plant treats on walks and have her ‘flush’ them although she’d always prefer a duck (we’re in duck country, not pheasant country). And welcome to the springer club - they’re the best!

This is my life 🙈😂