[artsycourtneysue]

Hi Everyone,

Cozi is doing well with crate training now and housebreaking is coming along but we are having major probelms with the leash... She is just now 10 weeks old.

When we first got her she would just follow us around off leash...but now that she has been getting braver we have to keep her on a leash when she goes out to use the bathroom (we live in an apartment so no fenced yard).

She started out hating the leash but we kept trying to make her keep going, with either treats, clicker training when she came and followed us...and then when she protested, we tried just standing their and waiting for her...and just trying to keep walking, which ended up feeling like we were just dragging her. She just sits and protests and draggs her heels, and worse, she will grab the leash in her mouth and pull us the other way in protest!

Today she got worse...She started grabbing the leash and running either way frantically and then got on her back and wrested it, when I took it away from her, she did the play snappy thing at me, which seemed like she is trying to be dominant on the leash....

The breeder told us to do what the mother does if she got too wild and just turn her on her side until she calms down. I tried that too but when she calmed down and quit snapping, she got up and then just began all over again!

I am very frustrated it and don't want her to pick up bad habits!

The weird thing is she is so passive and sweet in the house, always rolling over when I ask and showing her tummy, sitting whenever I ask and waiting patiently..but as soon as she's on the leash, she becomes frantic!

Any suggestions? Has anyone else experienced leash problems?

 

[Emily-By]

You're probably not 'pinning' her long enough, you need her to relax completely the first time it may take a 2 or 3 minutes, but she'll get the hint after that.

If you can, what I do it stop paying attention and walk the other way, they(dogs) generally want to know what YOU are doing so if you're not chasing her and making a game out of it she will usually stop the behaviour, If you could borrow someones back yard for a few hours a week this excercise will help, also in the mean time dont give her the option to run around if you cannot correct the behaviour.

Also her getting use to the leash, try the umbelical cord method around the house. Tie her leash to your waist and attach it to her, dont talk to her, just go about your daily routine with her following you as you go, at first its ackward but it does get better.

good luck!

 

[artsycourtneysue]

thank you! Will try that next time.

We tried doing a different method tonight and tried clicker training her to come and follow us on the leash.....tried more positive reinforcement....

It actually worked really well, but I can't tell if it will continue to work without the clicker later on.

Has anyone had leash problems??? I never had this problem before because with a fenced yard we didn't even worry about leashes until the other dogs were much older.

 

[AgilityIG]

A couple of suggestions - The umbilical method is nice for the house. Give it a try. The other thing you can do in the house is attach the leash to her and let her drag it around to get used to the feel of having it on. You can also play fun positive games with her in the house (coming to you for a treat, play, etc...).

Try taking your puppy outside for her breakfast/dinner and have her walk for a few steps - give her a bite of her food - walk a few more steps - bite of food, etc... This way she will associate something positive with the leash outside. Better to make them think that it is THEIR idea. Look at it from her viewpoint - she can make YOU feed HER if she takes a step towards you. She will grow out of this - it's just a puppy thing. Enjoy her puppyhood - it goes waaaaaaay too fast. :biggrin:

 

[bigpoodleperson]

Great ideas so far. I disagree that she is trying to be "dominant" with the leash. I dont think that dogs try and dominant every single thing. She is a Baby. She is trying to Play! If you watch puppies play they do alot of growling, snapping, lunging, tug, etc. Its just what they do, it is natural for them to play like that. We just have to teach them not to do it with us as their teeth hurt. I would work on some obedience with her. When she gets mouthy/wants to play, then i would make her sit. I would also carry around a toy in my pocket, and offer her the toy to tug/play with instead of the leash/hands. Leashes are not for tug, they are for walks. I dont want chew marks on my nice leather leashes, so i just teach young not to mouth it. I am not one for alpha rolling, or forcing them on their side, esp when they are doing normal puppy things. They are just full of energy and puppy-ness and need to be taught a proper outlet for it.

 

[artsycourtneysue]

You are definitely right....she is just in super play mode....I end up just letting her wear her self out wrestling the leash and then take it out of her mouth and go on our way.

We had her first play date last night (dinner date for us) with our friends large pointer/boxer mix. She was soo well behaved!!!

We were so proud of her! While she tackled the shih tzu that lives across the hall from us and just licks him and annoys the heck out of him, she was completely respectful to this new dog! She slept right near the table while we all ate, and did not have any accidents in our friends house.

I was just so amazed that she was so enamored with this dog...she kept trying to silently creep closer to him when they were lying down and she happily followed him around the house and sat down when he sat down-- too cute!

I'm in love with my puppy:dance:

Tonight is her first puppy training class!

 

[bkitchen0406]

I have trained 2 poodles and one for my mother who is getting older. I have a lot of experience training poodles only because I have read a lot and put a lot of time in. You started off not leashing the dog. This is where your problem started. It takes a longer time to correct a dog then it does doing things right from the start. I have seen this happen before and correct it.

1) You must be very pacient.
2) You must stand and walk with authority.
3) Don't get the dog any attention at all untill the dog produces good behavior. When the dog produces good behavior no mater how small treat the dog with lots of positive attention. ( CIA uses tug of war with a sock, I have read that some people have success with this with poodles and I have used this method in other forms of training.)
4) Who ever walks the dog must do the exact same things or everything will be worthless.

If you do this then you should have your dog walking great for you in a short period of time. Poodles learn fast even young ones. I have trained poodles to learn behavior in a few days that other breeds could not learn in months. I would expect improved results in atleast a month. If you put a lot of time in and do a good job you may see improvement in a week or atleast have better days then others.

As children we learn to train dogs with treats, but as an adult I have found this worthless. Poodles especially learn faster this way because they hate to be left a lone and thrive on attention more so then most dogs. They are very synsitive. I have found that using this to your advantage in training is a great asset.

My mother loves children and they are all grown up. She loves her dogs but at the age of 57 she has a hard time walking them as they are a bit as you described above. Two of her dogs died and she was left with the brittney and standard poodle. Brittneys are very difficult. I did not have a year to devote to this dog because. My father is also having trouble with his knees. I moved the Standard Poodle into my apartment for training. In one month I trained a very large standard poodle with bad habits to walk well, and fetch 3 objects in the order I commanded him to. I put a lot of time into it, but if I can do it, you can do it with the time you have. This is kind of long, but I wanted to give you so me encouragement. The giant standard poodle my parents were scared of is now the best dog they every had. YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!