On our potty walks, Chaka stops suddenly and just looks at me with a sad face. Why?

[Hellas]

Do you have his leash attached to a collar or harness? Pugs should NEVER be leashed by their collar. When you take him out walking on a leash, always have him in a harness, as pugs like to pull and the tugging from their collar could cause damage to their trachea.

Seconded.

[Wally 'n' Leto]

Hate to disagree with that, I know a lot of people don't collar their pugs and I have no issue with that, but we do. However, we were taught to walk them properly using the collar in obedience class, and they have been taught to walk properly on leash and not to pull. They train and are starting to compete in obedience and this cannot be done in a harness. When we harnessed our guys, they pulled like they were going for the Iditarod win, and we had no control. They have both been vetted and they have no tracheal weakness. On the other hand, our foster Roobee cannot be collared because of respiratory issues.

I think the decision to collar or not needs to be made based on the individual dog and their physique and personalities, as well as the intent and activities of the owner.

[Chaka829]

Do you have his leash attached to a collar or harness? Pugs should NEVER be leashed by their collar. When you take him out walking on a leash, always have him in a harness, as pugs like to pull and the tugging from their collar could cause damage to their trachea.

His leash is attached to the harness and he also wears a collar when we go out because it has is tags on it...I was very aware of pugs breathing issues and sensitive tracheas...I did my research before I brought him home...
I would never attach his leash to his collar.

[Chaka829]

This morning when I was walking him, I found out that when he stops...if I walk over to him and circle behind him, he will start walking with me in the direction I am going...who knew??
I am going to try it again when I take him out later and see if he'll continue walking if I do the circle again :)

[Chaka829]

Chaka is your first dog, isn't he? I think you would both benefit greatly from a good obedience class. The point of a good class isn't that you go there to teach the dog commands, but that it teaches you how to build up a good connection with you dog and how to train him on your own. Ideally, the class would contain both practical excercises and theory. Once I understood HOW dogs learn, training my dogs became so much easier. I still make plenty of mistakes of course, but it's made a world of difference.

If I were you, I'd search for a trainer who uses clicker training. That way you will know that the methods are based on positive reinforcement, which is the scientifically proven method. It works incredibly well with pugs. Until you find a class, I think you would be helped by reading a really good book about dogs' learning process and positive training.

Right now, you are teaching Chaka that it is a good idea to stop and look at you because you will reward it with cuddles. Dogs are simple in that they will do what works. As long as you reward a behaviour, they will typically repeat it. So the first thing to do, is to stop giving him what he wants when he stops. The second thing is to try and make the walk - and yourself - more interesting for Chaka. Surprise him with small obedience excercises (like sitting or whatever) several times during the walk and reward. Throw some small treats on the ground and let him use his nose to find them. Shake it up a little bit. Sometimes, reward him just for walking nicely at your side. This way, he'll learn that it is a good idea to pay attention to you and that walks are fun. I've taught my dogs the command "walk". This has come in handy many times. Winston (who I'm sure is Chaka's soul mate) likes to stop too on leash walks. He doesn't enjoy them much. If he's off the leash, he can run for a solid hour and half.

I would actually avoid rewarding him right after he has stopped and started walking again. The reason is that recent research shows that dogs are able to understand the connection between doing an unwanted behaviour - stopping the unwanted behaviour - getting a reward. So he can start doing the unwanted behaviour knowing that it will be rewarded.

That's just my quickie, amateur advice. A class would give you much more to work with.

Great advice. Thank you! Any idea what books are any good? And also where I can get a clicker??

[Wally 'n' Leto]

If you're going to clicker train, please either take a course or read up on it really well first. If not done right, it doesn't work at all and can really confuse the dog. You can get clickers at pet supply stores. Or, you can do what a lot of us do in class, and say 'yes' quietly and without emotion in place of a click. That way t doesn't matter if you forget your clicker, and there aren't a dozen identical clicks in the room at the same time in class.

For those who may not know -- How it works is the yes/click is given at the moment that the dog does the behaviour you want, and then the treat follows. That way, the dog is reinforced with the sound for what he is doing at that moment, not what he's doing 3 seconds later when you produce the treat. That part's easy enough, but the trickier parts are pairing the click with the expectation of the reward, and how to click appropriately -- if you are doing successive approximation for a behaviour that is what to reward and when. A lot of clicker training involves letting the dog figure out what the correct response is, which I've found is a lot less intuitive than it seems like it should be.

Have fun!

[Hellas]

Most of the books I've read are only available in Swedish, but there are lots of books out there. I know that many people recommend a book by Emma Parsons. This webpage also has a lot of books, all describing reward based methods from what I can tell.

You should be able to find a clicker in any decent pet store. They're really cheap, so it's not a big investment. Good luck!

Dog Training Books | Clickertraining.com

[Katie <3 Nano]

This might not be helpful, but our neighbours dog does the same thing on walks. She found out with him it was because he was embarrassed to poop in front of people. He would stop and look at her really sad, and she would stop and look away. Nano and I keep walking, and sure enough he would poop and when it was cleaned up, he would be 100% again.

She said that her dog came from a bad background, so that could be the root of his trouble (I think he was abused for having accidents inside).

I wish I had something more helpful to say, but you seem to have gotten good advice from people already :)