Pup puts on the brakes when walking on leash

[1Stella98]

Another challenging student of mine is a Pit Bull puppy, 18 wks old. He arrived on the first day of class being carried in! I was quick to judge the owner for babying the dog but now see her dilemma. This pup, Rocky, refuses to be walked! He is friendly, outgoing and is doing great with all of the basic obedience commands. He will start off happily on a walk, but when we want to go one way and he wants to go the other, he just puts on the breaks and shuts down. He will walk with other dogs and happily follow them around the store where I train. When we try to take him in another direction, he just quits on us! I have tried luring with chicken, happy/silly clapping and running in the direction I want him to go, praising when he walks with us, but nothing works when he just plain doesn't want to move forward!
The family is frustrated because they want to walk their dog but cannot stop and carry him when he decides the walk is done. They are not in charge. Should we just take the pressure of of Rocky for a while and let him lead the walk, or is this him training us??

Thx!
Michelle

[GundogGuy]

Hi Michele... You don't half have a lot of questions for an 'Obedience Trainer'...

Anyhoo... Have you tried just leaving the dog alone?

[jacksdad]

They are not in charge.

Ok...first step is to not think in terms of "babying the dog" or "dog is in charge" or the "owners aren't in charge". When you view problems though those filters it limits your ability to actually solve a "problem" by very possibly misdirecting "training" in the wrong direction. Is the dog doing X because it's afraid? or was never taught what to do? or because it's in pain? etc.

Ok, so back to the dog you are asking about..... there is a reason the dog is doing this. If you can figure out that reason...it could be helpful. BUT if not, it's not the end of the world.

What kind of collar is on the dog?

How do they people handle the walk? do they "drag" the dog? does the dog pull, if so, how do they address that? does the dog seem overwhelmed by the world around him? What signals does he give off when his people are close?

Take in the whole picture, ask some careful questions, observe. Don't jump to "babying" or who is charge. There is something going on and I bet you my next pay check it's not about who is in charge ..In fact I guarantee it. Time to play detective and think creative.

If this was my case, I would absolutely start off with

1. look at how the dog and it's people enter act. are they misinterpreting the signals given off by the dog? is there unreasonable assumptions/expectations of the dog? what is the dogs history?
2. consider health issues (based on what you share, probably not an issue, but better safe than sorry)

In your opening post, you gave one possible option to get things moving again and no chicken is required.

[gwd]

will he walk with them without the leash?

[ClareMarsh]

One of the things to look at might be how much "forced" exercise he's getting so training, walking etc he's getting. At 18 weeks his walks shouldn't be more than about 20 mins or so. He may just be overwhelmed by everything.

My pup is 16 MONTHS old and sometimes he parks himself and stares. It would be easy to lose my patience (and sometimes I have to hide the fact that I have ) but I try to work out what is distracting him, get his attention on me and give him some time to gather himself ready to move on.

Perhaps look at the family's expectations of what pup will achieve in the first few years of his life so they can enjoy his development rather than be disappointed that they don't have the dog they expected as yet.

[ladybug1802]

What stands out to me is he will go with other dogs, so its almost indicating that when he stops and wont move its coz he is bored and when other dogs are around its more exciting and gives him some motivation. So does this happen each and every single time the owners want to walk him anywhere? or it is just at times when you are in situations like in training class or when the owners have done training or been doing something the pup could be finding boring?