Won't walk on lead

[loobymiss]

Amber is a 2 year old show cocker and for around the last 9 months, she has point blank refused to go on leads walks from the house.  In the morning, she is all excited when I put her lead on put as soon as we leave the house and she realises that we are not getting in the car and going down the beach she will throw herself on the floor and try and go back inside!  On a good day we can walk around the block but then she turns around to go home again.

I think it is her sulking as she wants an off lead walk but I don't want to give in to her.  I've tried taking treats out but she just jumps up and down trying to take the food then immediately turns around or lays down again!

I work part time and have a dog walker take her out midday if I'm not around so if she doesn't walk in the morning with me she doesn't get exercised until the walker arrives.  She is good as gold on her off lead walks and loves them.

Does anyone have any idea how to address this behaviour or do I just scrap trying to do the morning walk?

Many thanks

[bizzylizzy]

Hi, - how does she behave with the dog walker? Does she walk on or off line then? Could there be any connection to anything she's experienced then?

[loobymiss]

She walks mainly off lead with the dog walker.  If she is in unfamiliar surroundings she will walk fine as she doesn't know which direction to lay down or drag to go home.  I know this as if we drive somewhere then get out the car and walk she will pull like a train as she thinks that the harder she pulls the quicker she will get let off the lead to play!

[ips]

This is SO similar to my little madam, off lead brilliant on lead rubbish 😁

I think that some dogs (probably most if not all) just don't like being restrained. Some comply and accept it others make sure you know there displeasure by either pulling or refusing to even walk.

This is my inexperienced take on it purely from my own observations.

[bizzylizzy]

I absolutely understand and agree that you need to find a solution rather than just give in and let her be off line all the time, but I somehow don't think she's actually sulking, but rather that she does have a problem with the lead.
Humphrey went through a phase of racing to his bed and refusing to move everytime we started to get ready to go out. We finally concluded it was the harness he had a problem with as as soon as we went back to the collar again, he was fine.
I wonder if you tried to make being on the line as pleasurable for her as off by playing some sort of game - you could hold a ball on a rope for example and play with make a game of jumping over a tree log, hide a few treats and let her find them and make a big thing of it -just try and generally make the walk a bit more exciting than just walking.
Is there anything that could be spooking her and making her want to go back home? Noises, smells, etc?
I think if it was me, that I'd try and make  her walk on the line a bit more often  for a little while, - in all areas, beach included, just so that she gets used to not being able to run all of the time. Pulling is something they all seem to do unfortunately, - irrespect of whether they mind the line or not, the only solution to that is to try and curb it a bit by training (although I wish you luck with that, not many on here have non-pulling cockers!!  )
Don't know if any of this helps, I'm no expert, they were just thoughts that crossed my mind but hopefully someone else will have some suggestions! Best of luck - keep us posted!

[loobymiss]

I know she isn't scared of the lead as she only refuses to walk when we leave the house as she knows the way back.  Yesterday I had to go to Surrey to collect my daughter from Uni and I took Amber with me.  There aren't any places to walk dogs off lead  so we went for a long walk along the canal path all on lead as she would have tried to jump in the canal or chase the ducks lol.  Apart from pulling loads she was as good as gold.

I think she associates coming out of the house and seeing the cars on our driveway with going out for fun walks at the beach and sulks if we try and walk past the cars for a street walk.  I don't really know how to get her over this?

[ips]

I know she isn't scared of the lead as she only refuses to walk when we leave the house as she knows the way back.  Yesterday I had to go to Surrey to collect my daughter from Uni and I took Amber with me.  There aren't any places to walk dogs off lead  so we went for a long walk along the canal path all on lead as she would have tried to jump in the canal or chase the ducks lol.  Apart from pulling loads she was as good as gold.

I think she associates coming out of the house and seeing the cars on our driveway with going out for fun walks at the beach and sulks if we try and walk past the cars for a street walk.  I don't really know how to get her over this?

Ours is similar turn left at top of our lane no problem because that leads to shooting estate, turn right and she isn't as happy as that's a circular mainly on road walk. On the plus side she doesn't pull as much if we turn right 😉