Stubborn Dog!

[utfannette]

Hey guys!
I am knew to this site and new to the dog-owner world! I have an English bulldog who is coming up on his first birthday next month. He is a very stubborn dog! I need help trying to teach him to learn to walk on a leash. When I put his collar on him (even without the leash), he "shuts down". He WILL NOT move. He thinks he is being punished-we don't know why. We have tried treats, positive association with the collar/leash, and nothing works! He won't eat treats when he is wearing his collar (which he only wears out in public just to ease the people around him who may be afraid of dogs). When I try to take him for a walk, he "cowers" (sp?) to the ground. Once the leash is on him, HE WILL NOT MOVE AT ALL! He knows how to wiggle out of the collar if he stops there is some tension in the leash.
If he is walking with our puppy lab, he walks decently once we get away from the house. But, if he is by himself, he just won't walk!!!!
Someone please help!!!!

 

[bubbatd]

Have you tried a harness ???

 

[utfannette]

Harness does a little better-but he still shuts down any time we put it on him (and he still won't walk). We have tried to see if it is just the collar (we have put a necklace on him that was very light and he shut down again). I am just trying to avoid paying for someone to train my dog to walk on a leash if it is an easily fixed problem...

 

[Bunny82]

From your post considering he is almost a year old and you have to teach him to learn to walk on a leash I wonder if maybe his refusal to walk on one is because he is unfamiliar with one?

Is the leash new to him? If so you could try to introducing it to him like one might to a puppy. Let him wear it around the house and get used to the feel of it.

 

[utfannette]

We have also tried have him wear it around the house before this. We would start slow and increase the time. But, as the days wore on, he was still scraping his head outside on the grass and concrete trying to get it off, as well as scraping on all of the furniture. He is extremely stubborn!

 

[lizzybeth727]

He's not stubborn, he's smart - he knows that eventually, he can get you to do what he wants, which is to take the collar off.

I'd suggest going back to having him wear the collar in the house at times, building up to wearing it all the time. Start with putting it on him immediately before doing something that he really likes - eating meals, going outside to play, playing with toys, etc. If he scrapes his head trying to get the collar off, just ignore it. If he ignores the collar and goes on to another activity (eating, playing, etc.), go ahead and take the collar off then. The main idea is that when he no longer notices the collar, then you take it off. But if he tries getting the collar off, it NEVER comes off, so that behavior is completely useless for him to do.

 

[utfannette]

I will give this a try!!!! Thank you so much!!!

(I love that he is smart...and stubborn to get his way!)

Thank you for the insight!

 

[adojrts]

What KIND of collar do you have on him?? plain flat buckle collar or choke collar? How tight do you put it on him? Can you easily put two of your fingers between the collar and the dogs neck?
When you go for walks, how long? and how far? Is he over weight? Going for walks could have some very bad memories for him for many different reasons, therefore he isn't being 'stubborn' but as Lizzy said smart for taking care of himself first.

 

[Sch3Dana]

It sounds like he doesn't like the collar and has had quite a few experiences where complaining about it has caused you to remove it. I think you need a bunch of positive experiences around the collar and to make sure you never take it off when he is "complaining" about it. And no walks until his attitude improves.

I would start by putting a nice comfortable flat collar (not a chain or pinch collar but one with a buckle made from leather) on him for every feeding. Bulldogs love to eat, so this should be easy. Start by making a scene about preparing his food. When you have the bowl ready and he is excited, put the collar on him matter of factly and then immediately grab his dish and put it down for him. As soon as he is done eating, take the collar off. He should soon be happy to put the collar on to get his meal.

Then, start doing the same thing with treats- get him excited about some treats, put the collar on and practice some fun training with a clicker or other purely positive method. When the training is over, the collar should come off.

The add a collar with a leash (in the house), but never use it to pull him initially. Put it on, walk to the end of the leash and call him. When he gets there give him a treat and walk away again. If he walks away, drop the leash so that it never pulls him. Each time he follows you, reward him and tell him how great he is. After 10 reps or so, put the collar and leash away.

Keep this up until he is super happy to wear his collar and leash. Then start walking to the end and pulling ever so slighly. He may immediately resist by sitting or leaning away. Try to go with this enough so that the pressure on his collar doesn't increase. If he pulls hard away, drop the leash and know that you moved forward too fast. If he just sits or stands and doesn't move, keep the leash ever so slightly tight and call him, show him treats, etc. As soon as he moves towards you and causes the leash to go slack, praise like crazy and give him lots of treats. In the beginning, you may just do this 3 times per session. Try to keep it short and fun. After several sessions you should see that he "gets it" and starts to move to you when the leash tightens, even before you call him.

At this point you should be ready to take him on some short "walks" around the house or in the back yard. Reward him with lots of treats as he follows you and try not to drag him. If the leash gets tight stand still and call him til he follows again.

This should at leash get you started. At some point you may need to show him that he has to follow the leash even when he doesn't want to. But you should wait for any force until you have trained all of this very well with more positive methods. Most bulldogs are smart and like to work for treats, they just don't like to be made to do things. So, take some time and make him enjoy the training- you might never need to force it after you introduce it this way.

 

[youbetcha1018]

I would think that you need to discipline hims a bit more (no hitting!), and do more training with treats as an award and scolding as a punishment. It might help to keep his leash on indoors so that you can give it a little tug to let him know when you mean business. Also, if you leave food down at all times, put him on a two or three times a day feeding schedule to let him see that food comes from you. If you let him out to roam, keep him in and take him for scheduled walks so that he can see going out comes from you- let him think of you as boss and provider.

 

[lizzybeth727]

I would think that you need to discipline hims a bit more (no hitting!), and do more training with treats as an award and scolding as a punishment.

Can you explain this?