lab puppy obsessed with sniffing everything

Question
Hi,
I have had my 12 week old black lab for 4 weeks now. Overall he has been a great puppy. This is my first lab and my first puppy.

For the past week and a half our walk have become increasingly difficult...He has always wanted to smell things on the walk- but lately he is obsessed! From the door to each step on our way down to the ground floor, to the first bush, tree, rock,sidewalk..etc.. EVERYTHING! He pulls and barely will take his nose off the ground. Its even getting difficult to get him to "use the bathroom" he goes around smelling and trying to eat everything in sight.. pebbles, other dog stuff, leaves etc...

I'm feeding him a high nutrient food.. Canidae. He weighs 19.2 lbs and I feed him 3 times a day. He gets 2 cups/day per the bags instructions.

We are in puppy training and its just not working for the walks... he pulls and sits down. Its even becoming difficult using treats.

Please help... thanks ahead of time!

Mark

Answer
Hello Mark and Super congrats on yuor very first Labrador retreiver puppy and for your first puppy all together! Labs are wonderful dogs and make great companion when well trained(mine isnt lol). I can tell you this short story about my lab pulling and stopping everywhere and how I fixed it simpley... My lab was 1 year old and had barely been walked...I'd had her since she was a pup but she was so hard to walk I avoided it at all costs since we did have a very large yard for her to run in I thought what was the use(he gets fat when not walked I know that now lol) She wold pull so much using a normal or choker collar that I ended up with what my friend reffered to as shin splints...where the front of my lower calf felt like they'd been ran over with a truck lol...from racing myself to stop her pulling...this was nuts. I tryed buckle collars/snap collars choke collars assorted thicknesses and weights but the only thing that worked and I use to this day is The Gentle Leader head collar...without this my lab would be 20 pounds overweight and a tub of lard because I could no longer wlk her via normal collars or even a choker collar. I highly reccomend this product to anyone with a large to meduim breed dog that is a big puller or just does listne during walks, you can buy a smaller one now and get a large when he is older....this head collar let you contrl your dog...one light pull adn the dogs nose is up from the ground, its easy to teach heel or so I've read lol with one of these and the dog isnt inclined to pull after a few walks with the Gentle Leader my dog was walking by my side....ntil I got my other dogs adn now she just walks ahead like them but doens tpull much if at all during our walks...this contraption is a miracle and there is no substute for the Gentle leaded...I tryed a hali head collor on my jack russell terrier not only did it not work as well as the gentle leader it had more straps going over the dogs face which was unaccpetable to him ad i returned it after relsiing all he needed was a harrness.. the gnetle leader comes in several colors and sizes and with a how to use mnaual you can get a kit now that comes with a dvd I think also which is great, I cant rmember exactly what the manual says but it works well because if you pull on teh leash when wearing the head collar tyhe dogs face turns toward you and you can tell him what is expected of him when making eye contact. Try one out after three or four walks the puppy will get used to it and shouldnt try to paw it off anymore.