Hi,
Can anyone recommend any good sites or any good books with advice on getting your puppy to walk on a lead?
I've been trying with Foxy since the week after her first injection and she still wont walk on a lead! She has accepted her harness and lead no problem, but as soon as I walk off in front, she just freezes and eventually does start to walk but the lead is constantly taught (as if I am pulling her, forcing her to walk... of course that isn't what I am doing) with me way in front. She isn't waking freely. It's as if she is having to walk, but pulling backwards to stop. I have tried making it fun and using treats to get her to walk forward by herself, but it doesn't work. I have also not forced her into walking, I have just tried to get her to slightly, using treats and reasurring her etc. So now, I just end up giving in and picking her up and carrying her on a walk! Yes I know bad mummy, but I just need some help!
I don't really want to be one of these toy breed owners that never takes their dogs for walks, or carries them everywhere. I enjoy the thought of taking Foxy out for walks (even if they are short), and over the park, but at the moment that just isn't happening.
So it's not the harness or lead being a problem, she is used to them and has no problem with that... it's the getting her to walk outside of the garden that I need help with.
Also, any good books with training (hard to train) puppies to sit and other simple commands? Foxy seems to be extremely difficult (not sure if that word is too harsh) to even train to sit. I've been doing short sessions daily or every other day for weeks, and she still isn't getting anywhere. She's just too distracted all the time.
For example, if I were to do a search on Google - How to train a puppy to sit. I'd get a good few sites with an explanation. It's usuallly, "stand/kneel over your puppy and hold the treat in your fingers, lower your hand over the back of your pups head and the automatic reaction of your puppy is to sit"... but noooooooooooooooooooo not Foxy
she just stands up on her back feet and walks backwards!!!!! So I tried lowering my hand, so that she couldn't stand, but then she's just trying to get at the treat as soon as she knows it's in my hand, so she's dancing and running all over the place. The above technique just doesn't work with Foxy unfortunately. She doesn't get into that sit position doing it like that.
Thanks