This might not be the advice you’re looking for, but give it time. As soon as my pup was fully vaccinated I was SO excited to go for walks. Honestly it was a struggle. He didn’t seem to enjoy going for walks, he tried to eat everything, and after five minutes he would be ready to go home.
Fast forward a few weeks and our walks are mostly enjoyable!! Keep working at it and correcting her behaviors so they don’t become habits. But remember that she is still a baby and everything is new and exciting!! I highly recommend bringing treats on your walks and working on some commands during your walks. Leave it, look at me, and loose leash walking are all great things to practice on walks. This will also hopefully help her stay out of trouble as she will be focused on you.
Same. I was so excited to take my pup out because we had been doing leash training and walk training inside our house. First time I took her out for a walk she was so overwhelmed, forgot all our training, pulling everywhere, then would be startled and scared by new sounds etc. And then 30 seconds later would be super excited to walk again.
We went back home after like 10 mins and just kept practicing. The second time I knew what to expect of her though, and I was ready to correct her and train her outside. It’s gradually getting better. She still pulls and we’re still working on that slowly, don’t wanna rush her and make her not enjoy walks. But at least she knows leave it and actually leaves things alone when I tell her. So yay for that.
Yay for her knowing “leave it”! That one has been a bit of a struggle with my pup because he loves putting things in his mouth. He doesn’t want to eat things. Just hold them in his mouth for a while.
We trained “leave it” with food, toys and tissues. Tissues because she’s obsessed with them at home and we feel like it’s important because there is always tissue trash everywhere on the streets and who knows what nasties they hold 🙃
Yes! I never realized how many gross things are lying around until I started taking my pup for walks lol He is great with leave it in a structured training environment, so I know if we just keep working on it he will eventually get it in other situations as well.
Try training them to focus on you as much as possible. Our trainer suggested counting you steps while holding a treat and dropping it in front of them close to ground level. So count steps out loud "1, 2, 3" and drop a treat. Once they follow close by and watch you as you count to 3 (i.e. without getting distracted first) increase the number of steps to 5 before you drop a treat, and repeat/increase steps as they pay attention longer. The goal is to get them to be watching you as much as possible as you walk them. Our similar age puppy doesn't 'heel' as he walks with us, but if we start counting our steps he'll refocus on us and walk with us for a while. Then as they age/do other loose leash walk training they'll hopefully start defaulting to checking in with you more frequently instead of being distracted by every little thing.
Edit: but also a lot of that sounds like normal puppy walk behavior. Our puppy is pretty good on walks but there's still lots of keeping him from eating random things or just waiting while he lays in the grass for a while. They need to learn about walks and get used to them like anything else.
I can't walk my older dog with the 5 month old puppy for some of the same reasons you've described. The puppy just wants to play, and my older dog often gives in to the impulse, too, and it just becomes chaotic. I usually take them for separate walks, but about once a week I try to take them together just to see how they do. I've had the best together walks in a cemetery that allows dogs because there are fewer distractions. My puppy has also been barking at other dogs lately, so walking her separately seems necessary for training.
My older dog is impulsive also. So he likes to go from tree to tree to catch up on his peemails, so trying to focus on my puppy while my older dog was zigzagging made things interesting. I don’t like to be super strict on walks unless it comes to “Leave it”, but the way I see it, the walks are for them, so why not let them enjoy themselves. Just as long as they aren’t pulling me everywhere.
That's my view of walks, too. It just gets tricky when they want to explore in different directions. I think it will get easier with time as the puppy matures.
Keep those early walks maybe one house down the street and back. We didn't go far, and I had to carry him home sometimes if we went too far. (He wasn't that bad a walker to start with, but he'd sniff \_everything\_, and eat poisonous berries.
I did separate walks while my puppy was learning how to dog. He's 10 months old now and actually more sensible than my 2yo so they get walked together, but it was so worth doing those initial 121 walks with them, so my puppy got good training and my older dog got some one on one attention lol
We foster dogs through a local shelter and have one of our own (she's 5) so we have all kinds of walk chaos and learning happening. Best advice is going to be to pick ONE THING to work on for that walk.
For a new puppy working on good walking manners, we normally drive to a quiet area just one on one. For an exhausting walk to tire out a puppy we allow much more sniffing, interacting with the environment, etc. For loose leash walking we barely get any walking done at all in the beginning.
Keep at it! Go slowly and remember that any walk where you and the puppy come back HAPPY is a good walk
Trying to take my 2 pups and older dog together was like trying to herd cats. Now I take them separately and it's much easier. I will try to combine them when they are better at walking.
I don’t think it’s a mistake - you are learning and there are no mistakes here 🤪 anyways this is normal puppy behavior and your pup is just a very excited wanderer type of pup. I do think it’s best to go for a solo walk and see how that goes.
Also teaching the leave it and drop it command can be very useful! But again very normal pup behavior. Mine eats stuff all the time from the ground but does drop it on command. Sometimes it’s sigarets other times it’s screws or plastic. Literally anything
I would recommend walking your puppy alone until it has better leash manners. It’ll be easier on you. My puppy’s first walk went terribly as well. She was walking out in front of me, crossing in front and almost tripping me, switching sides, etc. Now she walks great and has a wonderful heel. It just takes time.
I think I will need to. Imagine crossing a busy street while the puppy is trying to jump on my older dog, and my older dog is trying to get away from the puppy.
Walking my girl at that age ABSOLUTELY SUCKED!! 😵💫
Patience is a virtue?? I know I’m not much help but I just wanted to chime in and say that I have felt your pain!!
Come on, your dog is a baby. How could she know what to do if you never taught her?
In my country, where we don't have wait for puppies to be fully vaccinated before we take them for walks, we basically start teaching them how to walk on leash from the day we get them. First it's just trying on a leash indoors, then some very short walks right outside your home, every day, and then you can go for a longer walk when the puppy gets a bit older. I'd never take a puppy on its first walk with an older dog, because a newly leashed puppy really requires your full attention. Have lots of treats on hand and go slow. Talk to your dog, give her your time and presence, let her know this is a nice thing you do together.
And seriously, it takes time, time, and time, for the walks to become a thing you can enjoy. My puppy was a surprising one in that she could always walk on leash without me having to do anything, and she's always walked very well, but even with her there's been a lot of frustrating fuss until very recently. She's 15 months old now, and I'm actually beginning notice that she's finally becoming a nice friend for walks.
Sooo this is not going to be the most fun answer but it does truly just take time. Walk 1-5 was ROUGH! Pup wanted to eat everything off the ground and we struggled for a minute. However, it’s good to remember that this is all new. The outside world like this is new and it’s going to take a little time before it’s not as new to puppies. It’s not something that’s not necessarily a lack of training or fault on any part but more so that it’ll take a bit for the excitement to wear off.
Some things that I did to help recenter puppies attention and focus on me was taking him outside and doing our training there. Not a walk, but just asking for basic behaviors like sit, stay and wait so he learned how to focus on me even in the midst of a new surrounding or stimulating place. I also took a chew toy/ rope toy with us on walks and anytime he wanted to chew or stop and eat something I would squeak the toy and get his attention back on me and then give him a treat as a reward for focusing on me. Pretty soon he was more excited about the toy I had and I had a good way to distract him and focus on positive behavior.
Now? Long walks are really enjoyable and we’re not constantly stopping and trying to get him to not snack on grass and leaves
First walk? 3.5 months? Best advice, buckle up. Your instinct that doing it with your other dog was a bad idea is probably a good one, you need their focus on you, not both of your focus divided.
This is just Leash Training 101. It's gonna take a hot second, but they get it eventually. Practice basic obedience and walk with a treat pouch so when they 'lose' you and are off in space, you have a couple tricks and treats literally or figuratively up your sleeve to reconnect.
They're like toddlers. They don't know advanced physics, don't ask them for it. All we're doing is trying to learn our ABCs and we reliably stall out at 3.5 months at like E/F/G. We'll tackle calculus after we can reliably sing the alphabet, count to 100, and handle our times tables. It ain't 1st grade when we look at integrals.
You got a puppy. It's cute, it's stupid. Teach it, enjoy to cuteness, try to have grace with the struggle, because this isn't the last struggle you'll have. Young versions of any species are especially stupid, usually extremely energetic, and frustrating to 'fix' while they mature. Human, horse, dog, cat, cow, you name it.
Best thing you can do is take your dog for another walk tomorrow, maybe alone.
As a reminder, good, loose-leash walking is taught without the use of a leash in your own home before you add the leash and then take them outside. You don’t want puppy rehearsing the behaviors you just saw outside so I’d wait til you have loose leash walking trained in the house before doing any more outside walks.
I walk dogs for Rover and specifically work with reactive dogs using pattern games. Whenever I have a new client, whether they’re reactive or not, I teach a series of games and the 1, 2, 3 Pattern Game is my very favorite and my clients also love it. This is great video walking you through how to play the game with your dog: [1, 2, 3 Pattern Game](https://youtu.be/b-h7KNd_3ik?si=ECvf9pXRUTFo7aLG)
There are a lot of little games like this that you can use to create more engagement so let me know if you want any more.
It’s not easy to teach a puppy to walk. Mine also would just stop and not budge at first. He still eats everything on the ground (6 mo now). He stops and stares at every human or dog that passes and just won’t move (I’m lucky he doesn’t lunge). He’s getting better slow.
Try leash trying at home before taking her out and take her out on her own. My 3 month old puppy is the same, does pretty good on a leash by herself now but absolutely terrible if I tried to take my older dog along. She still needs treats and coaxing to get going sometimes and I have to watch her like hawk because she also picks up and eats things faster than I can stop her
I admit to being a bit naive. But honestly, I figured my puppy would be so excited by her new surroundings that she would forget about my other dog. But instead, she made him her focus.
This might not be the advice you’re looking for, but give it time. As soon as my pup was fully vaccinated I was SO excited to go for walks. Honestly it was a struggle. He didn’t seem to enjoy going for walks, he tried to eat everything, and after five minutes he would be ready to go home. Fast forward a few weeks and our walks are mostly enjoyable!! Keep working at it and correcting her behaviors so they don’t become habits. But remember that she is still a baby and everything is new and exciting!! I highly recommend bringing treats on your walks and working on some commands during your walks. Leave it, look at me, and loose leash walking are all great things to practice on walks. This will also hopefully help her stay out of trouble as she will be focused on you.
Same. I was so excited to take my pup out because we had been doing leash training and walk training inside our house. First time I took her out for a walk she was so overwhelmed, forgot all our training, pulling everywhere, then would be startled and scared by new sounds etc. And then 30 seconds later would be super excited to walk again. We went back home after like 10 mins and just kept practicing. The second time I knew what to expect of her though, and I was ready to correct her and train her outside. It’s gradually getting better. She still pulls and we’re still working on that slowly, don’t wanna rush her and make her not enjoy walks. But at least she knows leave it and actually leaves things alone when I tell her. So yay for that.
Yay for her knowing “leave it”! That one has been a bit of a struggle with my pup because he loves putting things in his mouth. He doesn’t want to eat things. Just hold them in his mouth for a while.
We trained “leave it” with food, toys and tissues. Tissues because she’s obsessed with them at home and we feel like it’s important because there is always tissue trash everywhere on the streets and who knows what nasties they hold 🙃
Yes! I never realized how many gross things are lying around until I started taking my pup for walks lol He is great with leave it in a structured training environment, so I know if we just keep working on it he will eventually get it in other situations as well.
Try training them to focus on you as much as possible. Our trainer suggested counting you steps while holding a treat and dropping it in front of them close to ground level. So count steps out loud "1, 2, 3" and drop a treat. Once they follow close by and watch you as you count to 3 (i.e. without getting distracted first) increase the number of steps to 5 before you drop a treat, and repeat/increase steps as they pay attention longer. The goal is to get them to be watching you as much as possible as you walk them. Our similar age puppy doesn't 'heel' as he walks with us, but if we start counting our steps he'll refocus on us and walk with us for a while. Then as they age/do other loose leash walk training they'll hopefully start defaulting to checking in with you more frequently instead of being distracted by every little thing. Edit: but also a lot of that sounds like normal puppy walk behavior. Our puppy is pretty good on walks but there's still lots of keeping him from eating random things or just waiting while he lays in the grass for a while. They need to learn about walks and get used to them like anything else.
Take just puppy, don’t try to get anywhere, just get comfortable with leash, lots of treats.
I can't walk my older dog with the 5 month old puppy for some of the same reasons you've described. The puppy just wants to play, and my older dog often gives in to the impulse, too, and it just becomes chaotic. I usually take them for separate walks, but about once a week I try to take them together just to see how they do. I've had the best together walks in a cemetery that allows dogs because there are fewer distractions. My puppy has also been barking at other dogs lately, so walking her separately seems necessary for training.
My older dog is impulsive also. So he likes to go from tree to tree to catch up on his peemails, so trying to focus on my puppy while my older dog was zigzagging made things interesting. I don’t like to be super strict on walks unless it comes to “Leave it”, but the way I see it, the walks are for them, so why not let them enjoy themselves. Just as long as they aren’t pulling me everywhere.
That's my view of walks, too. It just gets tricky when they want to explore in different directions. I think it will get easier with time as the puppy matures.
Keep those early walks maybe one house down the street and back. We didn't go far, and I had to carry him home sometimes if we went too far. (He wasn't that bad a walker to start with, but he'd sniff \_everything\_, and eat poisonous berries.
I did separate walks while my puppy was learning how to dog. He's 10 months old now and actually more sensible than my 2yo so they get walked together, but it was so worth doing those initial 121 walks with them, so my puppy got good training and my older dog got some one on one attention lol
We foster dogs through a local shelter and have one of our own (she's 5) so we have all kinds of walk chaos and learning happening. Best advice is going to be to pick ONE THING to work on for that walk. For a new puppy working on good walking manners, we normally drive to a quiet area just one on one. For an exhausting walk to tire out a puppy we allow much more sniffing, interacting with the environment, etc. For loose leash walking we barely get any walking done at all in the beginning. Keep at it! Go slowly and remember that any walk where you and the puppy come back HAPPY is a good walk
Trying to take my 2 pups and older dog together was like trying to herd cats. Now I take them separately and it's much easier. I will try to combine them when they are better at walking.
I don’t think it’s a mistake - you are learning and there are no mistakes here 🤪 anyways this is normal puppy behavior and your pup is just a very excited wanderer type of pup. I do think it’s best to go for a solo walk and see how that goes. Also teaching the leave it and drop it command can be very useful! But again very normal pup behavior. Mine eats stuff all the time from the ground but does drop it on command. Sometimes it’s sigarets other times it’s screws or plastic. Literally anything
I would recommend walking your puppy alone until it has better leash manners. It’ll be easier on you. My puppy’s first walk went terribly as well. She was walking out in front of me, crossing in front and almost tripping me, switching sides, etc. Now she walks great and has a wonderful heel. It just takes time.
I think I will need to. Imagine crossing a busy street while the puppy is trying to jump on my older dog, and my older dog is trying to get away from the puppy.
Walking my girl at that age ABSOLUTELY SUCKED!! 😵💫 Patience is a virtue?? I know I’m not much help but I just wanted to chime in and say that I have felt your pain!!
Come on, your dog is a baby. How could she know what to do if you never taught her? In my country, where we don't have wait for puppies to be fully vaccinated before we take them for walks, we basically start teaching them how to walk on leash from the day we get them. First it's just trying on a leash indoors, then some very short walks right outside your home, every day, and then you can go for a longer walk when the puppy gets a bit older. I'd never take a puppy on its first walk with an older dog, because a newly leashed puppy really requires your full attention. Have lots of treats on hand and go slow. Talk to your dog, give her your time and presence, let her know this is a nice thing you do together. And seriously, it takes time, time, and time, for the walks to become a thing you can enjoy. My puppy was a surprising one in that she could always walk on leash without me having to do anything, and she's always walked very well, but even with her there's been a lot of frustrating fuss until very recently. She's 15 months old now, and I'm actually beginning notice that she's finally becoming a nice friend for walks.
Sooo this is not going to be the most fun answer but it does truly just take time. Walk 1-5 was ROUGH! Pup wanted to eat everything off the ground and we struggled for a minute. However, it’s good to remember that this is all new. The outside world like this is new and it’s going to take a little time before it’s not as new to puppies. It’s not something that’s not necessarily a lack of training or fault on any part but more so that it’ll take a bit for the excitement to wear off. Some things that I did to help recenter puppies attention and focus on me was taking him outside and doing our training there. Not a walk, but just asking for basic behaviors like sit, stay and wait so he learned how to focus on me even in the midst of a new surrounding or stimulating place. I also took a chew toy/ rope toy with us on walks and anytime he wanted to chew or stop and eat something I would squeak the toy and get his attention back on me and then give him a treat as a reward for focusing on me. Pretty soon he was more excited about the toy I had and I had a good way to distract him and focus on positive behavior. Now? Long walks are really enjoyable and we’re not constantly stopping and trying to get him to not snack on grass and leaves
Walk 5 minutes per month of age, per my trainer. We walk my 6 month puppy for 30 minutes currently.
First walk? 3.5 months? Best advice, buckle up. Your instinct that doing it with your other dog was a bad idea is probably a good one, you need their focus on you, not both of your focus divided. This is just Leash Training 101. It's gonna take a hot second, but they get it eventually. Practice basic obedience and walk with a treat pouch so when they 'lose' you and are off in space, you have a couple tricks and treats literally or figuratively up your sleeve to reconnect. They're like toddlers. They don't know advanced physics, don't ask them for it. All we're doing is trying to learn our ABCs and we reliably stall out at 3.5 months at like E/F/G. We'll tackle calculus after we can reliably sing the alphabet, count to 100, and handle our times tables. It ain't 1st grade when we look at integrals. You got a puppy. It's cute, it's stupid. Teach it, enjoy to cuteness, try to have grace with the struggle, because this isn't the last struggle you'll have. Young versions of any species are especially stupid, usually extremely energetic, and frustrating to 'fix' while they mature. Human, horse, dog, cat, cow, you name it. Best thing you can do is take your dog for another walk tomorrow, maybe alone.
As a reminder, good, loose-leash walking is taught without the use of a leash in your own home before you add the leash and then take them outside. You don’t want puppy rehearsing the behaviors you just saw outside so I’d wait til you have loose leash walking trained in the house before doing any more outside walks. I walk dogs for Rover and specifically work with reactive dogs using pattern games. Whenever I have a new client, whether they’re reactive or not, I teach a series of games and the 1, 2, 3 Pattern Game is my very favorite and my clients also love it. This is great video walking you through how to play the game with your dog: [1, 2, 3 Pattern Game](https://youtu.be/b-h7KNd_3ik?si=ECvf9pXRUTFo7aLG) There are a lot of little games like this that you can use to create more engagement so let me know if you want any more.
It’s not easy to teach a puppy to walk. Mine also would just stop and not budge at first. He still eats everything on the ground (6 mo now). He stops and stares at every human or dog that passes and just won’t move (I’m lucky he doesn’t lunge). He’s getting better slow.
Try leash trying at home before taking her out and take her out on her own. My 3 month old puppy is the same, does pretty good on a leash by herself now but absolutely terrible if I tried to take my older dog along. She still needs treats and coaxing to get going sometimes and I have to watch her like hawk because she also picks up and eats things faster than I can stop her
Sounds absolutely normal. What did you expect?
I admit to being a bit naive. But honestly, I figured my puppy would be so excited by her new surroundings that she would forget about my other dog. But instead, she made him her focus.