# Discontent when leashed



## Mr Percy (Mar 31, 2016)

Our Cockapoo is now 5 and is a highly strung, demanding, but also generally a well behaved and responsive dog. Recall and fetch / sit / heel / leave commands are all acted on very well. These were achieved by positive training. 

But there is an issue which seems to be getting worse. On regular route walks all is "normal" he tends to pull a lot in excitement at the beginning. No amount of lead control training seems to be able to work on this (stopping / going in the opposite direction when he doesn't respond etc) but he settles down after 3/4 minutes and walks fine. Not perfect, tends to be pretty sniff / territory marking obsessed whilst walking, but not too bad. However, when we take him in the car for a walk somewhere he simply does not settle down from the beginning of the walk. He pulls continually, tail tucked between legs, very unsettled. Its as though he can't contain himself. He looks to us and slows momentarily but then is off pulling again. Unsettled and twitchy. It seems to be a deeply in built "trait". Certainly we have noticed this in other Cockapoos / Spaniels but he is in the "worst" 10% of these and it is at odds with his otherwise responsive obedience. We considered he was unhappy with the environment but this doesn't seem to hold true - he's the same on a quiet beach as in a crowded market or pavement with traffic close. We don't think traffic noise helps (as we live in a quite area) but it doesn't seem to be a root cause. 

Our thinking is that walks which originate in the car mean lots of off-lead time at the beach / on the moor / ball retrieval and he is getting too excited (and is naturally highly strung) and reverting to some sort of "work" mode. We are going to keep him on lead in these scenarios to see if this breaks the pattern of expectation in him. He heels and recalls well from distance even in excitable scenarios (rewarded with treats) and we have tried extending this to his on lead response but it doesn't seem to be working very well. Neither is constantly firming up the leash so he can't pull and saying "NO PULLING". Have others had this problem or suggestions to correct the behaviour?


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

I would book a one to one session with a good reward based trainer to see what is actually going on and come up with some methods to help you. In the UK I would look at the APDT to find a local trainer.


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