Hi all, this is my first post even though I have been reading quite a bit about others' experiences for a little while. My partner and I adopted a 10 month old miniature poodle mix, about a week ago and she is the sweetest thing. But, the training has been harder than anticipated, not because of her but mainly because she is the first dog for both of us. We have been working a LOT on potty training, because even though she is 10 months, the previous owner never took her outside so she learned to only use the bathroom inside (not on pee pads either). We have been doing great, we have a schedule for going out and are keeping her crated when not home and overnight which she has been getting more comfortable with and when someone is home we monitor her and typically keep her tethered. No accidents for a few days!
Anyway, this leads into my actual question. The first couple of days that we got her, she was really eagerly walking around with us throughout the whole neighborhood. She is still not used to hearing sounds like birds, cars, or seeing people jogging and initially would freeze when seeing/hearing these things but then resume walking after they passed. Now, she will usually come outside especially in the morning when she has to pee, after breakfast, and after her dinner just to use the bathroom without much protest (we also try to take her to potty in the middle of the day but that only has a 50/50 success rate), and sometimes we carry her to the potty spot if she hasn't gone in a while and will not go on her own.
Over the last few days we are finding that she is just not interested in walking at all other than to go to the bathroom. Once she goes, that's it. She only wants to go back inside. If she doesn't need to go, she doesn't want to come outside even to walk for fun. She only wants to walk in the direction of home. I have tried to entice her with treats and peanut butter but she does not really go for it even though otherwise I would say she is food motivated and loves these treats when they are given inside. The only thing I have really been able to figure to do is carry her to the other end of the block and then she will walk towards home. When we are out in a new place like going on a trip to Petco she does a better job of walking around on the leash. I think maybe like 1 in 5+ attempts to go on a walk for non-potty reasons we have some success and can get her to go around the block, but it still involves a lot of stopping and trying to encourage her to keep going instead of turning back home.
Is this normal? Am I just getting ahead of myself and need to give her more time to settle into the new home? Also, is this something that I can try to address later on, like once we get the potty training down, or is putting this off going to be solidifying bad habits that will be harder to fix later?
submitted by /u/b00bonicplague
[link] [comments]