I have a 10 week old female lab puppy. She's adorable of course. I have a spacious pen attached to her crate in the living room so she doesn't poo all over the house. She sleeps well in her crate and my daughter, age 10, is doing a lot of the work taking care of her.
But I wonder if maybe I haven't bonded with her enough in my efforts to help my daughter bond with her, and now the puppy doesn't want to go on walks with me at all.
Here's what's happening: When we go for a walk all together, my daughter, the puppy, our older toy poodle mix, and me, things are a little chaotic but they go kind of well. A major problem is that the puppy will sit down and refuse to walk. Once she does walk she tries to eat everything she sees on the ground, but she'll follow our older dog and has fun.
But I want to work with her walking on her leash so she'll actually move when it's time to walk and eventually learn to heel, etc. The first couple days were a dream and she did so well. But now she doesn't want to go too far from the house. I've tried using a highly tasty treat to get her to walk forwards and reward her but that doesn't work anymore. She digs in and it's just a stressful, embarrassing battle. There's never a point where she gives in and just goes with it. She even trembles and just wants to go back inside.
She goes outside many times a day off leash to potty and she scampers around happily then. But I'm stressed because soon she'll be so big and I don't want an out of control dog. I'm catastrophizing a bit, we've had her less than a week (it will be a week in Saturday). But I'm freaking out, I feel like all the neighbors see me with this puppy pulling like a bull and thrashing around while I dangle a stick of cheese in front of her nose with sweat pouring down my face. 😭
What do I do?
submitted by /u/NiceCandle5357
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