There are so many questions people have about the way their puppy is behaving.. in this blog I will give information about the most common questions I get asked, or things I observe in working with dogs.

Why does my puppy plant their feet and refuse to move?

This is really common. A puppy suddenly refuses to move – you want them to hurry along and they just wont move. Its so tempting to keep walking so they have to follow, or pick them up and make them move on!

However, I want you to think – what is the puppy responding to… a sound? A smell? a oncoming dog? A child on a scooter? A horse? Something else? Its absolutely fine for the puppy to stop dead and wait – they are assessing the safety of the situation. Just be patient and wait – often they will then move on, but if they cant (as the ‘thing’ is coming closer) – then turn and move away so there is more distance. This builds confidence. Just be patient – if you have to reduce the length of the walk, then thats fine.

Pee on greeting a person or another dog?

Its really common for puppies to pee when they are being approached or greeted by a person or another dog. This is usually It is often described as ‘submission’ towards people and dogs, but is actually underpinned by an emotional response which could be excitement, anxiety, fear, uncertainty…

Ultimately our job is to help them feel more confident/calm – so a quiet approach, let them move away if they need to (loose long lead), slow the approach, calm the way that people approach and greet them… anything you can think of which reduces the experience so that the puppy feels more confident and calm. Have a look at this video: https://youtu.be/LWAf0IbsAYg for some great ideas.

Mouth the lead or grab at hand/feet/clothes/washing?

Whilst these behaviours look different they are essentially fueled by the same fire – feeling a big emotion. This could be excitement about going out for a walk, chase type behaviour triggered by motion, enjoyment/hunt type behaviour (‘hunting’ and grabbing your washing off the line) or even fear, anxiety or frustration. Ultimately we can only guess, but we work to support the underlying emotion of the puppy.

Try and work out what happened in the few seconds before hand – what could have been the trigger? Once you know what it could be, we can work with that (more in another blog) but now use a strategy such as ‘find it’ sniffing game to redirect them to sniff and search (as this will be calming). If its the lead, try the same scenario with the lead on the floor (with you standing on it if needs be), or off lead. Some dogs chew the lead as its seen by them and once the lead is more out of sight, the behaviour changes.

Stairs – should your puppy go upstairs?

It is entirely up to you whether your puppy comes up stairs – often it is recommended that large breeds do not due to the issues they can develop with their joints – this is best to wait until they are older but get advice from your vet if you are concerned.

You will probably need to teach your puppy how to climb and come down stairs safely – they have no idea that they have back legs so have no real control over them! The best way to teach it is using wide steps when you are out for a walk

• Encourage them to climb one step – reinforce stepping up calmly and confidently
• Encourage them to turn around on the step and come down – reinforce again

Repeat, until you can get a couple of steps up and down which are controlled and not consisting of the puppy hurling themselves up and down. Then try at home – home stairs tend to be narrower and therefore harder for dogs to be able to turn around on so go very carefully..

Once you have taught the pup how to traverse stairs safely, to avoid upstairs (if you have one) being the ‘hallowed land’ – take them up on lead, walk them in rooms (which are safe – maybe avoid a teenagers bedroom if they have a floor-drobe) and make being upstairs a non event.

Preventing ‘keep away’

You often see dogs on a walk which won’t come right up to their owner and dance around just out of reach. This is infuriating for people and often means they get annoyed or wont let the dog off lead – none of which is good for people or their dogs.

To prevent this – make sure that every time your dog comes back to you – repeat feed them treats – either straight to their mouth or 1 after another to the floor. Whilst doing this, reach down and calmly get hold of their harness/collar and repeat feed.  Once you are ready – either clip on the lead, or let go and send them off again. This teaches that coming back to you is worth it (lots of treats) and that just because your hold onto them it doesn’t always mean the fun is over. Avoid grabbing/swiping at your dog – run away, go hide, throw treats on the floor – use any of the games you have been teaching as they make shift to a previously rewarded behaviour and most dogs respond well to this.

Teach the puppy ‘I’m going to get you!’ as a game – when they have a toy and you are playing together – change your body posture and hands (I tend to stoop over a bit and have outstretched fingers) and then move towards the puppy. You want them to run and stop/come back with the toy and play again. Repeat playing this teaches the pup that if you invoke this game you will chase them for fun (for both of you) but that they can come over to you to continue play. Its really helpful to prevent ‘keep away’!