Puppy walking woes

[Jellycatspyjamas]

I have a 14 week cavalier poodle cross. He mostly walks well on lead though gets very excited to see other dogs and people - we’re working on him not jumping etc and he’s slowly getting the hang of sitting when people approach.

We do two 20 minute sniffy walks a day and one shorter training walk. The last couple of times on the way home he’s started snapping at my legs, usually as we turn into the street to come back to the house. I’m going to extend his walks a bit because he clearly doesn’t want to finish his walks but what can I do about the snapping?

He also gets the zoomies after a walk, is that quite normal?

This. My pup is currently 13 weeks and after every burst of energy (playing with my older dog, mainly) I put her into her crate with a little treat, for rest and pull the cover down (I have a large throw over it to darken it down); she has a quick whine but is usually flat out within 10 minutes. She gets very bitey when over tired. It's such an easy mistake to make and it's taken me many years and many puppies to realise and be able to pinpoint this! Good luck.

He is actually a puppy not a baby. God what is wrong with people 🙄

Well a baby dog my god why are people so pedantic. The op knew what I meant🙄

The 5 minute rule has been debunked . Are you taking him to the park and letting him offlead as it’s best to start young . If you want to use a longline make sure you attach it to a harness not a collar .

No, he’s not off lead because his recall isn’t great, he’s on a short lead for sniffy walks and a long lead for training, we also go to a dog field a couple of times a week for a proper run around.

I’ve cut his walks to one 20 minute walk and two/three 5 minute training sessions a day which does seem to suit him better. He’s sleeping more during the day and less hyper and bitey.

Success hopefully he will stop being a monster 😀

This is the golden period for recall so make sure you incorporate this into your daily training and get it proofed. Get the Pippa Mattinson "Total Recall" book, it is excellent

Yep we work on it daily, he’s just excited by everything so finds it hard to focus - I’ll have a look at that book though cos we do need to get it cracked.

With little pups I don't worry too much about structured walking on leash. I always give them a very long leash/long line, and on walks focus on giving them plenty of freedom and getting them into the habit of following you, so I make it more of a wander around, building in lots of play, plenty of time for sniffing and exploring, recall, hand targeting, "follow the leader" games where you walk on and drop a treat on the ground where they catch up with you, rewarding when they engage with and catch up with you. I tend to do that and treat walks as a little wander around, rather than doing a more traditional walk where you're covering a lot of ground and pup is having to walk by your side on leash. It really helps build their focus on you and it will also make proper loose leash walking easier when dog is older