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Old August 19th, 2013, 12:03 PM
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dave dave is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Toronto, ON
Posts: 72
Problem with walking new puppy

Hi everyone,

This is Dave one of the owners of pets.ca

After three years and the loss of Bailey, my family and I have recently adopted a new puppy.

Holly is a Bernedoodle (a cross between a Bernese Mountain Dog and a Standard Poodle).

She is a lovely puppy which we have had for 2 weeks now.

However, we are having a significant issue walking her. Rather, I might describe it as "dragging" her. While we are able to get her outside to "do her stuff" she refuses to walk. Once she takes care of her business she will pull to return to the house. She will refuse to walk in any other direction, even if she is dragged (please note that we use a choke collar with her as advised by out trainer). We have tried carrying her to the corner, and she will (with some but not too much difficulty) return to the house but she will not walk past it or walk in the opposite direction from the corner. We do this multiple times in order to ensure that she gets some exercise. We have tried driving her to a new location away from the house but then she will also refuse to walk, pulling to return to the car. We have also placed her on a treadmill (her front paws in the front of it and she walks with her back paws) so that she will get some exercise. She is displaying some aggression which we feel is likely attributable to not getting enough exercise and because of her lack of exercise we are not yet able to see her true personality.

Of note, she is able to remain in her crate the entire night without waking. In the evening, she will walk into her crate (which we keep by our bed) on her own so we feel as though she knows that this is a "safe" place for her. We have a second crate on our main floor when she wants to nap during the day. Someone is almost always home and as such, she alternates between sleeping in her main floor crate or on the carpet in the kitchen near our back door. She has had very few accidents overall.

Any advice on getting her to walk would be helpful.

Thanks

Dave
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David Kurzman
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