# Pulling a lot on walks and more...



## davmar77 (May 5, 2017)

amber was doing pretty well in the loose leash area until she got sick a while back. we let her slack a bit as far as going up on the couch and now she goes up a lot and with me plays a bit rough with some mouthing. she's nearly 14 months by the way. on walks now she pulls as soon as we get outside. we both make her stop and sit but she gets distracted easily. this is probably our fault for letting her get like this when she was sick. that aside, she mostly will do as we ask in the house and will place and stay when the need arises. she's also doing a fair amount of demand barking. when she was younger we attended 3 sets of classes and even had a behaviorist come over which seemed to help. we almost feel like we have to start over but it's disheartening. my wife is a bit frustrated as she feels the walks were more pleasant before. we do think amber needs more exercise and we take her to the dog park when we can. we were wondering if doggie day care a couple of times a week would help.


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## Our3dogs (Apr 3, 2008)

Doggie day care will definitely help give her more exercise. However, you might also just need to take some refresher training courses. I found that most times myself, and the dog, just started getting lazy with training me doing it and them listening. Yes, I could start over at home, but something about going back to the structure of a training class setting helped both of us. Even without a medical issue to set you back, it is very easy to just start relaxing on the training, just because we think the dog gets it by a certain age. Training pretty much goes on their entire life. Over the years I would take our dogs back to training classes, many times, during their lives, just as a refresher. I think they like it as well, and you can tell they are having to put their minds to work during the class exercises. Good luck!


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## Piper_the_goldenpuppy (Aug 26, 2016)

Day care is great to help get some more activity with your dog--although sometimes they can learn bad habits there from the other dogs. Piper started barking when we were going to daycare. It does sound like your pup does need more structured training. Might not be a bad idea to have the trainer come back for a while, and consider getting into another training class. 

It sounds like you have a very confident and energetic GR, so she likely needs more activity. Does she have a retrieving drive? I find retrieving to be the best way of getting my pup some exercise. My dog needed about 2 hours of activity at that age (still does...she just turned two), 45 of which was spent running around retrieving off leash. If you don't have a big yard, I'd take her to a nearby park. Flirt sticks (essentially giant cat wands for dogs), or treat dispensing toys can be helpful for mental stimulation. 

I kind of feel like with dogs, if you give them an inch, they will take a mile . And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Your dog is still very much a puppy/adolescent, so she still needs that structure. Training continues for the rest of a dog's life, to help them remember boundaries.


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