[Chantjie]

Hi
My dog goes nuts if you put her on a leash.
She did the same when we put her coller on.
She hated it. She has now got use to it.
But she wants to know nothing about going for a walk.
She was thrown away as a puppy of about four weeks old.
I wonder if this has something to do with it.
She is turning out to be a big dog, but she is not very active.
She will run around the pool, we have a big garden, but other than that she is very relaxed.
I would appreciate it anyone has some insight on this.
Thanks

 

[Amaryllis]

Hi!

It's not uncommon for dogs to freak out about collars and leashes. When you think about it, would you be calm about it?

It's not too hard to train her to accept a leash. (This is easier if you clicker train, but can be done either way.) Show her the leash. Give her a treat. (Click/treat if you use a clicker.) Put the leash on the floor. If she looks at it, sniffs, whatever, give her a treat. We're done for today!

Do that for a few days, then move on and put the leash on. Give her a treat. Take the leash off. Do that 4 or 5 times, several times a day for a few days.

Next, leave the leash on and let her drag it behind her for a few minutes. Give her lots of treats. (Be careful not to let her drag the leash unsupervised. If it gets caught on something, she could get hurt.) Keep doing that for a few days, increasing the time. Now pick up the leash. Give her lots of treats. Walk a few steps inside the house, giving treats the whole way. Work your way up to going outside with it and you're done.

You may have to use high value treats, especially at first. Find something she really gets excited about, cooked chicken, hot dogs, baked liver, cheese. Use that for the leash training and nothing else. It may help to do this before you feed her, so she's hungry and especially interested in treats.

 

[Chantjie]

Thank you, I am going to try that. She loves treats.

 

[Curbside Prophet]

Something like this would be a good start...you can imagine how you'd do it with a leash.