Please help. Bailey is nearly ten weeks old and totally refuses to have anything to do with the lead.  I did try to introduce it to him early on, but it really still is just as bad, if not worse.
  Literally, the pup will stop and refuse to walk any further ( i'm talking a one meter walk here!), and will struggle and do summersaults and all sorts. He also chews on the lead and refuses to be lead anywhere. It gets to the point where just trying to walk him to the end to the drive is a struggle and i end up having to carry him to the car. :(
  Whats more when we grab his collar to try and move him out the way for example he will go to bite your hand and do the roly poly thing again :(

He is EXTREMELY food motivated, but even a tasty bit of liver has little effect here.
Please please please can anyone offer advice? He is fast getting big and carrying him around everywhere is getting difficult :( It's almost like he is so independent he simply DOESN'T want to be told where to go :(

Hi Jasmine
Someone will come along and give some good advise I'm sure but I just wanted to let you know that you will get there. We have 2 8 month old BC'S and they HATED the lead and did the same as your dog. We used to carry them to the field because they wouldn't move!!.  They did accept it in the end, once they know that having their lead on means walkies, they are happy to!!!!!!

Be patient it will happen, I promise!

Jo

Snap as above! Had back ache from weeks of carrying her lol :D

He's still very young and this is to be expected with a young pup.  What you could try, is using his dinner, have him follow you around the house and garden feeding him one piece of food every step, without the lead on.  When he is happily trotting along beside you every meal time you just attach the lead (whilst he is eating a couple of bits of food from the floor to distract him) and tuck the other end in your pocket or belt loop and do exactly the same and he probably won't even realise he has the lead on. 
Sally

Hi
We have a 8 week old lab. What we have been doing is leaving the lead on her in the house (no one holding it) she just gets on with it, will walk and play as normal. She chews it but i'm not fussed about this she has to know that it something good and not something bad. When we take her out she tends not to move and if we put a bit of pressure to pull her away from something she lays flat and refuses to move unless my kids are there. She see's them as play time and i think that the thought of playing over comes any fears of the outside world.

Your dog will get there, i think they all do eventually.

Debbie

>>What we have been doing is leaving the lead on her in the house (no one holding it) she just gets on with it, will walk and play as normal.

The problem with doing this is that the dog may object when you pick up the end and they can no longer go where they want to.  It's best if they learn that having a lead on means they are with you.
Sally

In order to stop his actually chewing the lead , buy a chain lead rather than leather or fabric. This is what we did to Hudson ..only took him a few days to realise that chewing the lead hurt his teeth :)

Hi,
I have a retriever puppy who was exactly the same at 10 weeks old as your's is now. My puppy is now 6 months and doesn't mind the lead at all. Most retriever puppies will play up like this, there are two things to remember, first he needs to get used to having a lead on and second is that the world outside your home is a pretty big and scary place.

So to start with I put my puppy on a lead in the house, only for a few minutes at a time, while I supervised. I encouraged him to follow me, so that he would not think about chewing the lead. Then after a few times and he was happy about this, I picked up the lead and again encouraged him to walk from room to room with me. I found that walking from the living room to the kitchen helped as he was a food junkie! I then got him walking up the garden and back with me repeating the process, always encouraging him and ignoring it when he was being really difficult, if you get upset he will sense this and play up more!

I then started putting the lead on him and going out into the front of the house and to the car. At first he was reluctant, because the big bad world started at the front door. With some puppies I have had to just stand still for several minutes, until they decided to get up off their back or stomach, and look around. Once in the car I always tried to make the journeys short to start with and there was always a break to do something the dog wanted to do such as a short walk.

Don't worry your puppy is doing what any normal puppy would do and will grow out of it. Let us know how you get on, I am sure we would all be interested in the pup's progress.

Dont worry 10weeks is quite young yet! is it possible to "borrow" an older dog?
with my puppies, we go to a safe area with an older dog,both on lead, put the puppy down & just walk.dont stop dont look back! the puppy will want to keep up with the older dog & forgets about the lead!
a large grass area would be ideal!
do this over a few days till he gets the hang of it!

At 10 weeks I doubt he's had his full course of inoculations yet, so there's plenty of time for him to get used to having his lead on - have you tried putting it on each time before his meal?

Thanks everyone for your advice.

  I have been leaving the lead on him in the house, but its just a toy for him then and he'll spend hours chewing and playing with it. If we try and pick the other end up he'll go through the whole process of standing still, backing off and evntually summersaulting.
  I have been trying to use treats to try and tempt him, but instead he'll stand still and then lunge forward and try to snatch it! He doesn't do this off the lead, just when its on.

  Whats more the lady who ran the puppy class saw how he detested his collar being held and she suggested the reason this is, is because the dog simply doesn't WANT to be led, ie he has a strong independent mind of his own.
  I tried the metal chain lead but he seemed to like that even more! Think he liked the jongling sound!

  I know he's only ten weeks, but it seems that as he's getting older he's getting more and more stubborn. :(

I'd stop listening to that lady in the class she seems like she's giving you an awful amount of worry for nothing :)
I had few problems with our girl but the halti was even worse so i used to sit her beside me on the chair so at least she didn't think i was dragging her anywhere on it (Oh god forbid! lol) and just kept it on for 5-10 mins and then stepped it up so i could walk her round the house. Take your time it's probably hard enough experience for him to be outside never mind this horrible contraption on his neck ;)

If he doesn't want to be led - why?  Now you've got to get your thinking head on (and maybe your instructor should be too?) to work out hwo to make him want to be led........

I'm afraid that although my puppies have a collar on literally as soon as I get them they never even see a lead until I'm ready to take them out.

Before taking them out for a walk and in fact before even starting on inoculations I carry my puppies out into the big wide world so that they have a chance to see things from the security of my arms. As soon as the inoculations are sorted that's the time I start with a lead. It's not that unusual for the puppy to refuse to walk in which case I pick it up and walk 20 or 30 yards away from the gate then put the puppy on the ground and encourage it to walk back home. Going home is always easier then going away from home and if I can get her to walk that short distance I'm happy for the first time out. Gradually over a period of days I extend the distance and the puppy very soon finds it's enjoying the walk! There is no stress, nothing's important, no fuss, nothing at all to rebel about. If the puppy does not want to walk the first day then I'm not going to make it. That would only cause it stress. I use a bold confident manner and find this soon rubs off onto the puppy.

Best wishes, John

ISn't this the same instructor who said you had a 'dominant' puppy??  Jasmine - run, don't walk, away from this class........

Jasmine, I feel your pain, I am the proud owner of a very independant 7 month old female black lab and we also had issues with giving to lead.  Many have told you not to worry, that in time your dog will eventually come around.  I thought the same for awhile until I had a frightful experience and had to practically drag the dog out of harms way.  From that moment I decided that it was time. Many abhore the idea of a pinching style collar (sometimes called choke chains) but after a few training sessons I had a new dog. Now my dog will give to lead or even a light tug on her collar.  The main thing to keep in mind when using this type of device is to never use when angry.  I am not saying this is the end all method of training, there are hundreds of ways and every one has a different opinion, but this method worked great for me.  Good luck. Donald

Hi Donald,

Just a quick question.  When you say a 'pinching style' collar, do you mean a check chain or a pinch collar, they are 2 totally different training devices?

I have to admit, that when I got Kester as a pup, we went out at least twice a day, either with him in my arms, or in the car, so that he could meet people, horses, cows, children, people with umbrellas etc.  By the time he had his last injection and was allowed out, nothing much phased him, he just naturally followed my adult bitch.  I do think that its easier to get a pup to want to go out on the lead, when they have an adult dog to 'shadow'.  Now I have the opposite problem, if I take them out together, they both want to be infront, if they had their way, we'd be running instead of walking!(only joking!)
Be confident but have fun! (and don't worry, we've all been there!)
Ali :)

Surely you don't mean a choke chain? Any reaction by a dog using a choke chain is quite simply because it is frightened.
In this day and age there are plenty of other aids available like the halti, which IMHO is more effective at gaining control.

Donald surely you aren't suggesting the use of a choke chain (or even worse a 'pinch collar' also known as a prong collar which are banned in the UK) on a 10 week old puppy?

I am not aware that pinch collars are banned in the UK?  When did this happen and can you point me to the legislation please.

On the previous note choke chains are potentially damaging to a puppy's (and adults) windpipe and cervical vertebrae; if you cannot control your dog on an ordinary collar better to invest in a headcollar.

Sorry - my mistake, they are banned by the military and police trainers (and if it's good enough for them ;))

Donald, a choke (or 'check') chain is not the same as a pinch collar.

Thank you all, thank you all. I admit I should have been more specific.  When I mention a pinch collar what I am reffering to consists of a wide leather strap that looks pretty close to a regular collar. The difference is that the way this collar is constructed it basically pinches a little at the neck only at the area of the buckle instead of using a constricting chain or the style with the spikes that stand into the neck when constricted.

Aaaaaahah!  I think you mean a leather half check collar.