Walking Question/Problem

[OsaBarbosa]

So our little Osa (8 months) loves going on walks and does a fairly good job when it is my wife and I walking with her. She still wants to sniff a lot but is getting better at "leave it" and continuing the walk. We are making small strides (litterally) every time we walk.

The problem is, she is absolutely horrible at walks when it is just one of us. She gets excited to go for the walk but only wants to sniff and doesn't want to continue walking. Sometimes we get a block away, sometimes we only get a house away. She also does this think were she stops and looks behind her (I am guessing she is looking for the other person). There are time that we can coax her to walk but then she doesn't want to go anywhere, either continuing or back home. It is getting really frusterating. Any advice????
We are think that when take our nightly walks that one of us takes her out for about a block and then the other catches up and slowly increase the distance that the other waits till they catch up.

 

[harrischrysler]

My Saint did that waiting for the other person/smell everything, thing. I'm not certain of how to approach it with one dog, cuz the three sled dogs just go, no questions. I ended up hitchin him to the front dog, and the two rear dogs would do the corrections for me. When he would stall and collapse, or stop and sniff, they would growl and nudge him along. Now all it takes is a few love taps on the side to get moving. HOWEVER, when the wife is also walking with us, he will NOT move forward unless she is in front of him. I completely understand the frustration. I've been working on it with him alone, we leave, and then she leaves about 100 yards behind us. When he collapses and focuses back on her, I turn and head straight for her continuing past and starting a light jog. It's only been a week or so, but we are getting close to a two block distance before he realizes she kept going the other way, then he collapses, I get him up, make him sit, and rub his face and love on him before heading off towards her again. Glad the wife has the boring part of the equation. Heh.

 

[OsaBarbosa]

That sounds a whole lot like what Osa does. When we are both walking her, if she is getting stubborn and stops walking, my wife just keeps walking and when she gets so far ahead, Osa basically runs to her and then keeps walking (Osa doesn't do it if I am in the lead and my wife is walking her).

My wife is busy two nights this week so I am trying to think of things to do to Osa moving. I think we are going to try a new place to walk tonight to see if that helps. Who knows....

 

[OsaBarbosa]

Well, I walked Osa by myself last night at a new location and she did wonderful. She did amazing on her loose leash walking and just trucked along the whole time. I is weird because when we walk around our neighborhood, she is a completely different dog, she wants to stop, sniff, stop, sniff, etc.

 

[harrischrysler]

Nice. That's part of why I have 10-12 routes from 2.2 to 6.8 miles. The first half mile is always a pain, no matter what way we go. But once we pass that, they all just cruise. Now that they all have the endurance, we're going to move on to x-harness/pulling. I've been cruising 2 miles on a snowboard for the last couple days. Not a good calorie burner though.

 

[jrs3936296]

All you need some good help.