Hi,

Just wondered if anyone had any advice. My cocker spaniel puppy is just 12 weeks old and doesn't appear to like going for a walk.  We took her out as soon as she was able after her vaccinations but she is just quite hard to walk.  I realise everything is new and was expecting her to stop and sniff and watch everything but she seems to be getting worse.  She just sits sometimes and wont move.  Funny thing is she walks nicely back home.  She is very happy with other dogs and plays well.  Any advice?

Thanks

That's perfectly normal, I usually carry puppies away from the house, just a couple of minutes away and then get them to walk back, encouraging as we go and dropping tiny but very tasty treats on the path. Even then it can take 2 minutes to carry pup out and 30mins to return home! It's usually a very short lived stage, soon she'll be desperate to go new places and the challenge then is preventing pulling, so use this time to reward loose lead walking or sitting calming beside you

Edited to say that puppies don't need, and shouldn't have, a lot of lead exercise. 5 minutes per month of life is the general rule, so at 3 months old she could be walking 15 minutes maximum. However don't worry if it takes you 30 minutes to go 100 yards, that's not going to do her any harm.

We have been lucky as we have other dogs & I usually take another as a confidence builder but I suspect this is your only dog??

They always are better walking home.

Could you perhaps try going with someone whose dog she is happy with..even if you carried her until you got to them?

> I usually carry puppies away from the house, just a couple of minutes away and then get them to walk back, encouraging as we go and dropping tiny but very tasty treats on the path.

We too did this although at the immediate start, we'd take the pups to the kerb only, so they could sit and watch the outside world, people, dogs, traffic.    Some took to it faster than others and we quite often got the 'Basset flop'.  

As said, don't expect too much of your puppy, too fast.

> puppies don't need, and shouldn't have, a lot of lead exercise. 5 minutes per month of life is the general rule, so at 3 months old she could be walking 15 minutes maximum. However don't worry if it takes you 30 minutes to go 100 yards, that's not going to do her any harm.

Having had a big boned often heavy Basset puppy, I'd totally agree with this.   Far better to take a puppy out away in the car to a field or park than trying to do 'organised walking' on hard ground, at first.

I do appreciate you don't have a Basset to worry about (doing too much too soon).

My current boy was a non-walker and we had a bit of a going over the "threshold" problem.   Don't worry, it will pass.  What worked for me was picking him up and popping him down somewhere interesting perhaps where there are other dogs and smells.  Just don't force anything, everything is a bit scary at the moment and smells and sounds can be overwhelming.    It's a great opportunity for training rather than walking and just generally getting them used to the external stimulation.  I certainly did a lot of picking him up in the early days.  Neighbours were always laughing at us.  He just used to stop and the middle of the lane was a favourite.   Hope you have your pup signed up for pup classes....

I haven't, I have tried but due to covid no one seems to be running them.