We've found we have some problems walking our two dogs on the sidewalk near our house. Once they get a block or two away, all resistance seems to melt. I don't know whether its because they can smell that they are near their territory or what...Sometimes when we put them on their leash, they'll stubbornly just sit or flop down and no amount of cajoling will help.
But we've hit upon a trick that actually works when we come upon this resistance...We simply just drop the leash and walk away. After about 20 or 30 yards of us walking without turning to look back they see we aren't going to wait for them and chase after us. In essence, their pack has moved on and they don't want to be left behind.
What's even more funny is that Charlie will pick up his leash by the handle part with his mouth and chase after us and whimper until we grab the leash. At that point, they've submitted that we're walking and they're following us, regardless of if they come or not. We've only tried this trick where there is very little traffic because we're scared they might walk off onto the road, but it works when its used and they walk really well the majority of the walk later.
They still seem to bob and weave back and forth on the sidewalk, but we have to take this training one step at a time. We always enforce the no-biting rule, and it seems to be working insofar as they have drastically cut down on the fighting between themselves while walking.
Next on the agenda is getting them to walk at our sides so that the two of us can each have a dog on one side of us or behind and be able to walk together.
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