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My doxie mix pup turns 4 months old tomorrow. My goal in life has become getting him as tired as possible so he's not a menace in the house. He makes this very difficult, however, and I'm hoping someone has some suggestions.
He refuses to go on walks. He doesn't pull or run off, he just sits and won't walk. Treats don't help, luring doesn't help, dragging doesn't help (and I don't want to drag him!). Sometimes he'll walk at the park, but I have to pack him up and drive him down there so it's like an additional 30 minutes of travel time to and from, which eats into exercise time. He'll walk for maybe 20 minutes then it takes us another 20 minutes to get back to the car because he's pulling to get back to the car so we take two steps, he pulls, we stop, I call him back, he comes back, repeat.
We have a big fenced in back yard. SOMETIMES he'll run after toys if I throw them them, sometimes he'll play fetch, most of the time he'll find a nice stick or pinecone to chew and sit down and chew on it. He insists on going back inside, we go back inside, he's a maniac again, so we go back out, and repeat the process.
In the house he'll decide he wants to do something like eat the couch. I think this is a bad idea. I sit next to him on the floor (mind you, he's always really close by) and throw a toy for him. He ignores it. Get his attention, throw another toy, he ignores it. He wants to eat the couch. I do commands with him, he does them, then goes back to wanting to eat the couch.
He has a kong we stuff with things. He only slightly cares. We have different treat dispensing feeders for his food. If you don't stand right next to him he won't use them. If you do stand right next to him he gives up about halfway through a meal.
The end result of all this is that he has a LOT of pent up energy and he takes it out by getting nutty and nippy but I feel like anything we try to get him to burn it he rejects. He goes to puppy class, and puppy social group, and have play dates with other dogs as often as we can. I get almost nothing else done because I'm constantly trying to engage the puppy in some sort of activity but he wants no part of it. Help?
He refuses to go on walks. He doesn't pull or run off, he just sits and won't walk. Treats don't help, luring doesn't help, dragging doesn't help (and I don't want to drag him!). Sometimes he'll walk at the park, but I have to pack him up and drive him down there so it's like an additional 30 minutes of travel time to and from, which eats into exercise time. He'll walk for maybe 20 minutes then it takes us another 20 minutes to get back to the car because he's pulling to get back to the car so we take two steps, he pulls, we stop, I call him back, he comes back, repeat.
We have a big fenced in back yard. SOMETIMES he'll run after toys if I throw them them, sometimes he'll play fetch, most of the time he'll find a nice stick or pinecone to chew and sit down and chew on it. He insists on going back inside, we go back inside, he's a maniac again, so we go back out, and repeat the process.
In the house he'll decide he wants to do something like eat the couch. I think this is a bad idea. I sit next to him on the floor (mind you, he's always really close by) and throw a toy for him. He ignores it. Get his attention, throw another toy, he ignores it. He wants to eat the couch. I do commands with him, he does them, then goes back to wanting to eat the couch.
He has a kong we stuff with things. He only slightly cares. We have different treat dispensing feeders for his food. If you don't stand right next to him he won't use them. If you do stand right next to him he gives up about halfway through a meal.
The end result of all this is that he has a LOT of pent up energy and he takes it out by getting nutty and nippy but I feel like anything we try to get him to burn it he rejects. He goes to puppy class, and puppy social group, and have play dates with other dogs as often as we can. I get almost nothing else done because I'm constantly trying to engage the puppy in some sort of activity but he wants no part of it. Help?