Six month old puppy seems overwhelmed and frantic on walks - advice please

[goingonapuppywalk]

I have a 6 month old poodle cross puppy. She is quite high energy at home but has always been a pretty easy and friendly puppy. She's never bitten anyone, only gently mouths during play. If anything she is too friendly - she'll jump up at my face and does not know personal space. She's tiny (2.5kg) but very springy.

On walks she is constantly pulling forwards. She barks and lunges at cars, and when she sees people or dogs she will whine and walk towards them up on two legs. I've started taking her on countryside walks on a longline but she is even pulling at the end of a 10m lead... I give her treats for check ins and for calling her back. I interrupt the walk with some tricks or scattering treats in long grass for her to find to try and reduce her arousal levels but it doesn't really have any impact.

She has been regularly socialised and taken out and about since she was we got her at 10 weeks old. She attends weekly puppy classes and we go on regular walks with a group of friends who have dogs. When she's on group walks she'll happily say hello to any dog that comes up to us, regardless of whether she's on a tight/short lead or on her longline. When I walk her on my own or with my partner she will cry/whine at other dogs and when she gets near them she seems very unsure and conflicted. She'll go towards them happily and then back away. This evening I was walking her and it was getting dark and a man came around the corner and she barked and growled at him! Once he got closer she wagged her tail and wanted to say hello to him so maybe he just made her jump?

I'm not really sure if I'm expecting too much of her or whether there's something I'm doing wrong to cause this. I've had a dog before but the puppy stage was so long ago that I can't remember what's normal for this age.

Is she anxious about being on a lead? Is her recall unreliable hence not being let off?

If you are on Facebook there is a brilliant group which will train you.....to train your pup.
They have lots of guides and if you read them and follow the advice you will improve things.

"Dog training advice and support" Established 2012. Be patient and put the work in to read the guides. It helps you understand this behaviour in order to modify it

Yes that is a goodFB group but you do need to read their guides before asking for help. They are very thorough.

Essentially I think you either need to work at her recall/ being off leash and/or intervene before the undesirable behaviour occurs. So, if you see someone/ something approaching and you know she will react, you need to get in there fast and reward her for putting her attention on you instead.

It does really need addressing as poodle crosses csn develop some very difficult to manage behaviour.

Is she ever off-lead (or just trailing a line) away from home? Does she get the chance to run and sniff and do dog stuff?

If she is a working cocker cross she may well need more fulfilment than she's getting. She might benefit from e.g. hunting for tennis balls hidden in long grass.

I have two working-line dogs and if one of mine doesn't get regular training sessions that play to her inbred drives she becomes an absolute pita, rude to other dogs and generally obnoxious. Given some fulfilment, she's an absolute delight.

Thank you everyone.

She's a maltese x poodle cross.

She's not been off-lead yet as I don't trust her recall as she can be quite unpredictable if she sees something she wants to run towards. She goes on her longline with it trailing along the ground. I might start renting a private field or woods to let her have some proper off-lead time.

What socialisation did you do with her in the first few weeks?

It may be the lack of fulfilment. I work from home all day but can't give her much attention and it's been too hot to walk her during my lunch hour. I usually give her a bully stick and a lickimat at some point during the day and do some kind of confidence-building exercise like scattering her kibble or treats in cardbox boxes or in a small ball pit, etc.

She's tiny (2.5kg) so conscious that I don't want to overwalk her but she has so much energy. Even after coming home from a walk she'll want to then start playing fetch(!)

In that case I’d work really hard on her recall: all dogs will run after things they are interested in, but it can be trained out and most are much happier off the lead.

in the meantime whilst you aren’t confident with her off lead, it’s all about trying to get her focus on you when the problems come into view. And getting incrementally nearer to triggers (dogs/vehicles etc) without her sounding off or posturing on those back legs.

If food doesn’t work as an inducement then you can try other things, whatever works really - human attention, small furry squeakies, etc.

Walked her around our neighbourhood in my arms everyday, took her to garden centres and pet shops, took her to the high street, sat on benches watching dogs from a distance, settling and watching people, bikes, scooters, etc. from a distance. Sat in the car watching people and dogs from a distance. Took her to a puppy socialisation session ran by our vets. Took her out in the car nearly everyday.

By six months I was allowing quite a lot of off lead time. Also lots of training (including trick training) builds relationship and gives stimulation - I’d say she’d maybe need at least 20 min of this a day on top of the sniffy games and licki mat. Does she only get one walk a day? I think two would be better - one long one short. Easy peasy puppy Squeezy was the book I followed for training.

however having said all that, at six months my puppy was still a handful as you describe. The training and extra brain stimulation will help you get them calmer and under your calm positive control sooner though.

Dogs learn from other dogs, keep working on the recall, start building up to letting her off in fenced off areas (do you have any fenced off dog parks nearby? Great for practicing recall & for your dog to meet other dogs. For them to be able to explore, be around other dogs, sniff & play)…

I’ve just seen your last message: she sounds clever and possibly bored. But then, they do need to learn that home and working hours is for boring stuff, and fun happens when the adults say fun happens ;)

Can you do 15 minutes before work of brain work like a puzzle in the house? You can hide food under cushions/ on ledges and tell her to go find it.

in my experience food-based enrichment like kongs or chews is not enough to buy off highly intelligent breeds like poodles, retrievers, spaniels, etc. they need tasks. Lickimats in particular I had zero success with.

30 minutes off lead somewhere safe at lunch with a lot of interaction (hide and seek, run off and come back for a reward, training some more complicated things like ‘down at a distance’ etc).

15 minutes focused fun/training mid afternoon.

Also, though; they do need to learn to chill when you’re working. The best thing I found for this is absolute boredom and nothing they can exploit for mischief. Contained space and don’t give them much eye or body contact unless they’re happy to snuggle up on a lap and leave you largely alone.

And on your worries about overexerting her, she is a very small dog and so likely to be fully grown I’d think? I don’t imagine you have to worry unduly about joint issues unless her poodle line is prone to patellar issues?

Apologies -somehow I transposed 6 months to 9 months. Still a bit of growing and filling out to do. But generally, they are fine on soft surfaces like grass and sand. It’s walking at human pace along tarmac (and playing jarring games like fetch) that cause issues with joints.

That sounds like a lot - did you work on making all those things positive or neutral? That’s the important part of socialisation - not just letting your dog experience everything.

It sounds a lot written down but this was over several weeks. It was all done at quiet times and distanced from others so she was calm. The only things she seemed nervous of were cars so I've been doing a lot of desensitisation with her and she is ok with cars in the distance but when they drive past her she tries to chase them. Other than that, she always came across as very confident and happy go lucky on all of her early experiences

It goes against your instinct, but it’s important to let them off the lead as soon as you are walking them. If you leave it too late, it can be very hard to teach.

Our 16 week old pup has far better recall than his 18 month old brother. Unlike his brother, he’s a greedy little bastard, so comes back like lightning for a treat.

He comes back to a whistle, or in the garden, the squeak of a toy.

Does it seem like she is leash reactive then? Even on a longline that is trailing along the ground she is fine when she's on a group walk, but reactive when she's with just me.

I'm very hesitant to let her completely off lead tbh, a puppy down the road with good recall got spooked by another dog completely out of the blue and ran away and was lost for 2 days.

As part of my lifestyle, the puppy needs to get used to being walked on a short lead around my neighbourhood on weekdays, even if just to get her to the park. I live near lots of busy roads. At the moment I'm driving her to open spaces/to the park but it's not a long-term solution as I won't always have access to a car.

I wouldn’t say she was leash reactive but it doesn’t sound like she’s been very well socialised or trained if she’s leaping about and lunging at everything.

What training have you done with her, OP?

This is going to sound incredibly harsh (and forgive me, 11 less than week old puppies is making me slightly franker than normal) but it sounds slightly like all you do is shove food (bully sticks etc) in front of her and ignore her all day except for walks. Socialisation (taking her out in the car) is not training.

She sounds under-stimulated, over fed (giving dogs a treat every now and then is fine, but the default cannot and should not be ‘I have work, give them food to occupy them until a walk’) and quite frankly a bit bloody bored. Her behaviour would probably improve with some engagement and training through the day - your breeder should have given you information on this. Including key milestones to hit, and what to do if you are faced with these issues…

Really common .

Dont over think it.

Puppies have a second fear phase between 6 months and 18 months ish.

Best to keep things calm simple and do not go over threshold. It will pass if you are empathic to your dog and not expect too much.

Some of the posts above are just mad!

Really common

It is common but that doesn't mean it should just be accepted - six month old puppies need regular training and interaction on walks to stop them lunging and leaping about - it's dangerous and could result in her getting badly hurt.

How does giving her a bully stick once a day to help with her teething mean I'm ignoring her all day... Come on now

She goes to two training classes a week and I do training and enrichment (tunnels, ball pits in the garden; shredding cardboard boxes etc.) all throughout the day with her. She does the basics (sit, stay, lie down, turn around, wait, recall), heel work on my left and right side, middle, pattern games and tricks (paw, roll over, spin).

She has been socialised. Not every dog problem is due to lack of socialisation

Also she isn't able to go on lunch time walks due to the temperature. I walk her early in the morning and late at night

Do you live somewhere really hot? Most dogs in the UK cope fine with lunchtime temperatures -albeit not at the moment as it’s very warm, but normally, lunchtime is when most of my colleagues (and me) excercise their dogs.

It could be that yours is more poodle than Maltese, in which case she will need more physical excercise than lead walks provide.

Agree that some dogs are temperamentally disposed to being reactive, some poodle crosses in particular (as well as the dogs bred for guarding/ herding etc).

What are her parents like? D’you know?