Stubbornness when walking

Dora is getting very stubborn when I take her for a walk. I've just come back from a very unsuccessful walk, she kept digging her heels in and sitting. She has done it before but today was really bad, normally if I coax her along with a treat or a toy she gets going eventually and we make it to the park or the field or whatever. Today I just had to give up and turn back, it felt as though I would have to drag her out there. I felt like such an idiot and it has made me feel really rubbish! Of course as soon as we turned back she was very keen and tried to pull me home, so I picked her up cos I was fed up.

Now I'm hoping that it is just because she is too cold, we have bought her a coat but it s too small and needs to be swapped which we are hoping to do today, so fingers crossed this will improve things, but what if it doesn't? What other things could cause her to be so stubborn? She doesn't seem scared, though there were some more unusual noises today, sounded like there was some building work somewhere, or a leaf blower or something.
She does always seem more keen when we take her for a walk together but we need to be able to walk her on our own too. Thing is she is always keen when we set off and then a few paces down the road and she gets stubborn.

Any ideas?

My dog is exactly the same. He will walk for a bit then he will sit, or try and get out of his collar. The more you get out, the quicker they get used to it I think !

She could have been scared or cold. The important thing is not to force the issue. Coaxing with a toy or a treat is a good option. If it just won't work don't get distrssed just try again later. If you force her to go she will associate walks with negative experiences.

I would advise against picking her up. She needs to do things for herself and if she starts to pull when going home turn around and go the other way each time.

A while ago Violet was refusing to go out. Turned out, it was just the cold, and as soon as she had a jumper or jacket on, she was zooming about as normal

Don't pick her up! Every time she gets a bit tired she'll expect you to do it, and it ain't quite so easy when they're full grown!

Just keep up with the treats or even a squeeky toy & try to vary your walks so she doesn't get bored.

It's rare for a staff to be a 'reluctant walker' so she will pick up on the fun of it eventually. Just think yourself lucky she isn't a full grown 31 kilo EBT like mine - when he decides he doesn't want to walk it's as much as I can do to drag him down the road!

The looks I get, you wouldn't believe..............

jstaff wrote:

I would advise against picking her up. She needs to do things for herself and if she starts to pull when going home turn around and go the other way each time.

I know picking her up was probably the wrong thing to do, but I tried reversing direction and she just wouldn't move!

It's hard to know which problem to focus on first sometimes! I don't want her to learn to pull more than she already does, and I was getting really frustrated which I figured is no good for me or Dora, so I just got us home. We hadn't really made it far out of the close to be honest so I didn't carry her far. I know I shouldn't have got frustrated but I did.
I want her to enjoy walking with me

It doesn't help that our puppy training classes have been postponed for a couple of months. We started early November, went to one class and and now there will be no more until January. I was hoping to get help with things like lead walking and general behaviour etc.

linzy wrote:A while ago Violet was refusing to go out. Turned out, it was just the cold, and as soon as she had a jumper or jacket on, she was zooming about as normal

That is encouraging. We are going to get her a coat now. I really hope it helps!
Trouble is, we have been able to walk her since mid Oct so there haven't been many warm days to compare her behaviour...

fingers crossed x x x

I know it's hard sometimes. They can actually sense our moods and will react accordinally. If you are anxious or frustrated she will sense that and act accordinally.

The key is consistency from everyone she is in contact with and devolping a routine that she can stick to. With that being said Suki really hates the cold. We tried taking her out without clothes and she wasn't acting like we wanted her to. Once we put a sweater on her she seemed much more comfortable. All dogs are different and sometimes the small things make a huge difference.

we had this with billy in the summer, he would just sit down and refused to move, i got some treats showed them to him in my hand and they when he got to get it, i just sort of ran forward saying come on get it.
hope that makes sense, we got home eventually. I think its a faze some go through cause he is fine now.

Just a thought...how far do you walk her & do you go the same way every time?

Caryll wrote:Just a thought...how far do you walk her & do you go the same way every time?

well we have the option of left or right out the door, left is a loop round the close, right is a direct way out of the close but involves going past a garden with a jack russell that Dora is very distracted by! We tend to mix up the direction we go a bit and decide at the time which way to go. if things are going well and we get out of the close - which is the hardest part we find, we then have the options or going left to to the sheep field or right to the park. Once we get to either there she finds it fun, but getting out the close and to the sheep field or park is the struggle. Our trainer advised driving to the park, letting her have a run around and driving back, which we have tried a few times, only OH had the car this morning so that wasn't possible.

The vet told us we shouldn't take her out for more than 20mins, but I think we have prob gone over that a few times due to stubbornness though we do try not to.

We took Dora to pets at home to exchange her coat for a larger size. She loved it at pets at home, she got cuddles off everyone We shall see how she is when I next take her out sporting her new coat...

Aw, she looks so good in her new coat!

hehe, thanks, its a bit big for her but we're hoping it will last her the winter.

aw cute

it could be the weather lemmy hates being cold and wet. a good coat and then just a quick drag for a few feet till he figures out he will stay warm and he will at least go not guarenteeing how long for but we get there