Terrible on a leash

[yodachoda87]

Hi all, I got a sheltie about 2 weeks ago. He's almost 5 months old.

He's already mastered sit, down, stay, come. He's already house trained. But he is absolutely terrible on a leash...I dread taking him on walks.

If I walk him near grass (i.e. on any sidewalk), he'll sniff around the grass and I'm forced to near drag him to move him along. He seems to be investigating, and he'll pick up ANY interesting object in his mouth. He'll put small pieces of wood in his mouth and starts a chewing motion, as if he's going to eat it so I have to remove it from his mouth. He seems to do better if I walk him on large concrete walkways (i.e. across a parking lot).

How do I fix this?

 

[Caro]

Dogs actually don't come leash trained, they have to be taught. What you are describing is very normal behaviour for a puppy.

Let me work in reverse order.

With the putting things in his mouth. Couple of reasons why puppies do this; puppies explore the world with their mouths, so will often put all sorts of things in their mouths (kind of like human children). At that age he is also teething, so will be getting jaw soreness and chewing helps relieve that pain. Just keep doing what you are, taking away what he picks up on the walks. He will grow out of it.

Sniffing is an important thing for a dog to do. That is how they get to know their neighbourhood and who lives there. Being so young and new to the area your puppy has hundreds of smells to learn and process. As he gets to know the smells he probably won't sniff as long. And sometimes dogs sniff as a redirect - because they don't want to walk. What you want to do is moderate his sniffing but not stop it all together.

To get your puppy to walk on leash you need to make it fun. At this age you should always take treats with you. Call his name and when he looks at you give him a treat. As he is walking give him treats, tell him he's a good boy, be playful. Never drag him on a walk, otherwise he will just learn to dislike walking and the leash. So if he is sniffing for a long time and you want to get walking call him to you, offer him a treat and be more fun than the thing he is sniffing.

 

[yodachoda87]

I also suspect he's eating dirt/mud and bird feces. He's at least putting it in his mouth and chewing it, since I'll check his mouth if I think he's about to eat something non-edible. I actually named him Stupid because of this lol. Also because on the first day, he bumped his head in glass trying to walk through.

 

[cmae]

Caro is right - you need to make walking on a leash fun. Our puppy is 11 weeks and doesn't have all his vaccinations yet so we practice lots at home. Lots of treats and he also gets periodic times where we just attach his leash and he drags it around to get him used to the feeling of being leashed. It takes time and patience. Good luck!

 

[Chris]

When I got Layla, we took a private Puppy Kindergarten course. We worked with the trainer on leash walking -- it kept me from doing things that caused problems and sure shortened the learning curve for us both. That sucker was worth its weight in gold! I learned how to train all my other Shelties as they arrived.