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Need Advise - Over excited when going on walks...

M

Murph

Active member
Hi Guys,

I havent posted here in a long time but im wondering if you can give me some advise. Penny a year and a half old and she is a great dog and we have little or no trouble with her. The only problem i have is when we are going for a walk as soon as she sees the harness she starts to get excited and once i put it on her and pick up the lead she grabs the lead in her mouth and violently shakes her head from side to side while growling... Im sure this is over excitement but this continues until we are about 50 yards down the road and then it completely stops for the rest of the walk. She just loves going for walks. While this is happening, Nothing will distract her.. I have tried treats, i have tried not moving until she stops... Nothing seems to work...

Im pregnant at the moment and due our first baby in 3 weeks and i really want Penny to be able to walk alongside the buggy when the baby arrives. It is going to be very difficult to deal with this excitement and a buggy at the same time, So any advise would be appreciated...

Thanks a million,

Murph.
 
Bobo, does the same thing I think it is excitment, once we get outside he walks normaly.Maybe someone else has a solution to this I'll watch this posting. congratulations on your baby.
 
Firstly, Good Luck with the baby!

Ok, try this, Penny is obviously associating seeing her harness with going for a walk, so first of all I would recommend putting the harness on her (minus the lead) and letting her wear it round the house, don't only put it on when you want to take her out, this will "desensitise" her to the harness hopefully. then after a while clip the lead on but don't take hold of it, she will soon realise that this behaviour will NO LONGER get your attention. Cavaliers are very much people dogs and thrive on human contact and attention, make it clear to her that when this behaviour starts you don;t want to know her, it may take a little while but the results will be worth it in the end!

Hope this is of help?
 
That's good advice Cathryn about putting on the harness but not taking her anywhere.

I also ask my 2 to sit before putting on their harnesses and will only put it on when they are sitting and have calmed down. It's natural that they will get excited going for a walk but you definitely don't want them over excited. Bella still chews her lead once or twice before she goes out the door. I say "no" when she does this but secretely I think it's very cute :D
 
I like Cathryn's suggestion. Make it so the harness doesn't necessarily mean a walk. My two must sit and wait until I invite them to go on a walk. But it's taken a lot of work to get them to that point. If they come out the door before I say "okay" they have to go back inside and start all over again. And Jake gives me his little snorts to let me know "fine, but I'm not liking it"
 
Every one of my dogs does a doggie dance that makes a break dancer look geriatric 90 year old when they think it is their turn to go out.
 
Cathryn said:
Firstly, Good Luck with the baby!

Ok, try this, Penny is obviously associating seeing her harness with going for a walk, so first of all I would recommend putting the harness on her (minus the lead) and letting her wear it round the house, don't only put it on when you want to take her out, this will "desensitise" her to the harness hopefully.
Click to expand...

You took the words right out of my mouth (isn't there a song that goes like that).

:xctly:
 
Thanks Guys,

I have started letting her wear the harness around the house, She still goes crazy once i attach it to the lead and pick it up... Bless her... Im still trying though... Hopefully in the next few weeks it will click with her... I'll just keep trying.

thanks again for your advise...

Murph xx
 
Good on you. This is a good start. When it comes time to take her for a walk, ask her to sit & stay while you clip her lead on. If she starts getting crazy, just put the lead down & ignore her for a few minutes & then try again a bit later. She will soon realise that going nuts isn't going to get her out that door. It might not happen in a day but you'll get there. :)
 
Hi Guys,

Well, this mornings walk was more successfull.... It took me 15 minutes to get out of the house, but it worked eventually... each time she went nuts i dropped the lead and said No... I think it clicked with her after a while because she just walked!! Ill keep it up every day and hopefully by the time the baby arrives she will be calmer when going for walks... That will mean lots of walks for all of us..

Thanks for all your help,

Murph xxx
 
I've only just seen this post today. Firstly good luck with the baby and congrats, let us when when it arrives whether you have a son or daughter. :D Secondly well done with Penny! It sounds like you've made an excellent start in getting her a bit calmer.
 
We had this problem with our last dog who got terribly excited when he went out. He used to jump up and bite his lead and often bark. It was all terribly embarrassing.

Nothing worked until we were told in a pet shop that the dog was trying to show his dominance by thinking he was 'boss'. We were sold some bitter spray to spray on the lead which did the trick regarding the biting. Regarding the jumping up and bad behaviour, we were told not to walk anywhere and make the dog sit still until he calmed down. We had to show him we were leaders of the pack, not him.

It worked!! :)
 
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