fighting the leash

Question
we have a boxer/shepherd mix who is about two mo. old.  we adopted her from the shelter.  she is a great dog, sweet dog.  she is not the least bit hyper until we try to lead her with the leash.  she plants and pulls back and has no interest in coming along.  She also doesnt always respond to the come command which is also worrisome.  can you help in these areas?

Answer
Hello, Brick. Good questions! At just 2 months of age, your puppy is just now 8 weeks old. I hope you just got her because puppies should stay with their littermates until 8 weeks in order to develop the proper skills necessary for them to get along with other dogs as adults. If she was younger than 8 weeks when you adopted her from the shelter, I would question that shelter's policies for adoption, personally.

However, on to your questions. At 8 weeks old, why do you need to have your puppy on a leash? An 8 week old puppy should be more than happy to follow you around wherever you go and be underfoot most of the time. It isn't until they are closer to 14-16 weeks that they start to become more independent and 'test the waters,' so to speak. If you have to put her on a leash to take her out to potty, because you do not have a fenced yard, for example, then there is a very simple way to get her used to the leash. Just let her drag it around with her inside while you are at home. Don't make a big deal about it at all - just clip it to her collar (which should be a cloth or leather flat collar) and let her drag it. It should be no longer than 4 feet, and it may help to undo the loop on the end where you are supposed to hold, to keep it from snagging on things. You can get a $1 leash from the Dollar Tree that would be fine for this purpose. That way you wouldn't have to worry about her chewing it because it was just $1. Do not try to lead her around or control her with the leash yet. When you let her outside, you can hook a longer, 6 foot leash to the one she drags inside in case you need to grab ahold of it, but at this point, she should respond to a happy voice by coming to you.

If she acts afraid while she's dragging it around, just ignore the scared behavior and encourage her to come to you with a happy voice and treats. Praise her for overcoming her fear.

It may take anywhere from a few days to a week or two before she is 100% comfortable dragging the leash around and is no longer afraid when she steps on it and feels it tug on her neck. Once she's at that stage, you can try holding onto it when you take her out. Ignore any kind of bucking or balking, and just encourage her along with your voice if she stops and pulls against it. Praise her and give her a treat for coming along with you.



Teaching come is most easiest with a young puppy. All you need is a happy voice and treats. Start off in the house, sitting in the floor. Have another person sitting across from you, about 3-5 feet away holding onto her. Say her name, followed by your command to come, at which point your helper should release her, and you should begin to praise in a happy, high pitched voice. When she gets to you, feed her the treat (and this should be a special treat that she gets at no other time) and really love her up, play with her, etc. You can gradually increase the distance when she is coming every single time you tell her to, and then you can start to call her from your knees, and then finally from a standing position. You can even make it a game of hide-and-seek. Let her see you, and then run away and hide behind a door with your treat. Say her name and the come command, and have your helper let her go. She *should* come bounding towards where you have hidden. Start praising her as soon as your helper lets her go, and when she gets to you, become more excited and treat her, and play with her for a minute. Repeat throughout the day, gradually making it harder for her - instead of hiding behind something in plain view, go into a room and hide in the closet and make her find you by following her nose from the last place she saw you. You want to make coming when called the most exciting thing ever. This means that you must NEVER punish or scold her when she comes to you, even if she is being bad before you call her. Say, for example, she's digging in the neighbors' flower bed. You catch her and call her to you. She comes. You scold her for digging in the flower bed. This is what SHE understands, though. "Digging in the flower bed is fun, but daddy just called me and when he calls me I get yummy treats and he plays with and pets me so I'm going to go to him now! Oh no! He's fussing at me! Why? I came to him when he told me to, but he started fussing, so it must be because I came to him, so maybe I won't come the next time he wants me to. Digging in the flowers was much more fun than going to him."

You must always, ALWAYS praise your dog for coming when called, no matter what he was doing when you called him, because he obeyed your command to come.


Good luck and please let me know if there's anything else I can help you with!

Kristen