Walking on a leash

[LittleLucyLoo]

Hi,
I am having a lot of trouble taking Lucy who is now 4 months old for a walk. We are using a harness which I prefer, but I'm really not sure what I should do. Our walks have been very frustrating, whe wants to stop and sniff everything which doesn't bother me that much and I can get her to get going again most of the time pretty quickly. My bigger frustration is she'll decide to lay down and not get up. We're not going on really long walks, only about 10 to 15 minutes while I try to train her but this behaviour seems to be getting worse. I am using treats to get her to go and praising her that she's a good girl but a few feet later, she does it again not to mention trying to grab the leash and taking a roll in the grass mid stride which has she does more often than not. This behaviour usually really starts about half way through our walk and last night I even had to pick her up and carry her a few feet because she refused to get up.

Has anyone else experienced this? I really don't know what to do.

[Oscar & Margo]

My pup does this too. I'll be interested to see what everyone says as well. Margo will be 5 months here shortly. We generally take about the same 10-15 min walks and she lays down too. I think she just gets really tired, really fast. I usually just pick her up and carry her for a few minutes and then she will start grunting at me to let me know she wants back down. (She's a bit spoiled.)

I also have an issue with her refusing to go down stairs. I have to eventually pick her up and carry her. She knows how to conquer the stairs, I think she is just a princess!

[JoanneN]

They are still puppies! They will catch on, but they are babies. As for the stairs, my Dora never liked stairs, and of I picked her up and carried her down them she tensed up like a board. Going up wasn't a problem, just going down.