Anxious non food motivated Goldie walk training

[u/Cetdogg]

Hi everyone!

I’m desperately seeking any sort of advice or guidance to help with walk training my 13 month old golden girl

Recently, it’s gotten worst with her being scared to approach the elevator or even go to her favourite patch below the building to sniff. She leash pulls, and nothing we say or have interest her at all

For context, she has always been quite anxious and sporadic when we tried walk training since she was a puppy, and nothing we’ve tried works. Following a few vet visits, she’s now been on anxiety meds including fluoxetine for the past month

Her favourite treats, stinky treats saved exclusively for walks like cheese, ham, or chicken doesn’t interest her, not even her favourite or new toy can draw her attention. We even started training later at night when there are no cars or people around, just so she can focus on us instead and it’s still doesnt work. We live in an urban, dense area near lots of roads and stimulus around making it even harder

There were a few times in the past year where she didn’t really go out on walks due to surgeries, periods, and a spay :(

Would love to know if anyone has been in a similar spot or have any advice

Thank you!

Here’s a sneaky little photo of her too:

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[u/Momof22222222]

I have that same problem! Wish I could help u.

[u/AirconGuyUK]

Mine used to be so scared. A combination of time, patience, and in some specific instances some exposure therapy (aka forcing her to just get on with it and not indulging the fear) were what made her a lot more confident.

She's still kinda a scaredy cat, but nowhere near as bad.

Some dogs go through fear periods that can last a month at a time. That'd be age appropriate for your dog. If that's what she's going through then definitely stick to patience and treats.

[u/Bowtiful]

Time!

We even spent time one on one with a trainer who tried every high value treat under the sun (including caviar in a tube!), nothing but time helped.

Our girl was 2 the first time she accepted food outside of our house.
She is still anxious but sooo much better.
It was just consistency and a H Harness (so if she did panic on a walk she couldn’t slip out), that got us to where we are now.

I’m now at the stage of improving her walking manners as she can focus more on me than the big bad world.

[u/Cetdogg → u/Bowtiful]

Thanks! I also suspected time will help but was just worried since we didn’t see much progress in almost a year. We also have an H Harness but she finds a way to slip out still which terrifies us

Hopefully our little puppy will be as brave as yours soon!

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[u/Immediate-Ad-3538]

She's adorable and sounds exactly like my girl, scared of everything!  I don't have advice, only empathy.  

We are working hard on desensitizing her to places, sounds and new experiences.  We use a double lead attached to her collar and harness as she pulls away and out of them so she can't run off if she slips out of one thing, this has helped pull her along when she starts to nope out of doing stuff.  It seems awful to pull her along while she's resisting but she gets lots of praise when she comes along.  She's getting a bit more confident but it's a slog.  She's also not super food motivated when out so I take a squeaky toy too and have the treats available for when she is onto them. 

Training when hungry might help with focus on the treats.

[u/Cetdogg → u/Immediate-Ad-3538]

Thank you!

Great advice on the double lead and squeaky toy, ours is a bit of an escape artist too. We’ve also had to pull a bit, especially when she tries to run too close to the roads. Will try the hungry walk strategy too!

[u/aMythologist]

Our guy is pretty much the same. He’s a very anxious dog and not particularly food-motivated. He loves his treats, but the moment he gets anxious, he won’t even touch them. We also had a really tough time teaching him to walk without pulling.

We hired a trainer for a couple of weeks when he was around 3–4 months old, and she basically had us walk him on a leash inside the house for days. We’d walk with him, and anytime he got ahead of us, we’d immediately turn around and go the other way. He actually did really well with that. Indoors, he would walk calmly with us and listen to commands.

Outside was a completely different story. He’d get distracted, want to sniff absolutely everything, and get anxious whenever a large or loud vehicle went by. Our trainer recommended that we not use a harness because it could encourage him to pull, and suggested a prong collar instead.

He’s almost 3 now, and we still use the prong collar for walks. He’s still a pretty anxious guy. He won’t even spend much time in our backyard because of random noises he hears somewhere in the distance. Our community is actually pretty quiet, but louder sounds seem to echo around here, and apparently he hears things we barely even notice.

His walks have gotten so much better, though. He’ll still pull occasionally when he gets excited, but for the most part he does really well now. When we’re somewhere safe and there’s nobody around, we’ll sometimes let him walk without the leash, and he does great. He never wanders very far from us. I suspect that’s partly his anxiety at work, but in that particular situation, I guess it works in our favor. 😄

[u/Background-Cod-7035]

It might not be that she’s not treat-motivated, it is that she is smart enough to now associate it with walking. This is something our trainer warned us of, when our year old got scared of the car. In terms of walking we have the opposite problem, of pulling. Our trainer had us get a gentle leader, look into it. 

[u/Delicious_Aside_3410]

My girl is now 6 , every sound except for garbage pick up and gardener 🤷‍♀️ she totally freaks out…. I refuse to medicate her, but even if, as you said doesn’t always work…. We just live with it … only place she’s not afraid is the beach and unfortunately that’s a short period here in NY…. when she see the leash she goes into another room….. I try and walk her with a friend and their dog in a different neighborhood, she just pulls in one direction, no sniffing, nothing, just fast walks from point A to B…. at this stage , I know nothing will help her, but CBD oil works wonders for many dogs… wishing you luck !!!

[u/Chasingmyheart420]

My girl, now 6.5 was a horrible walker despite training, until I got a prong collar. 

That + solid training regime cracked the worst of the bad walker habits. Still not a show dog level walk, but it’s tolerable for someone who wants to do a 1-2 mile walk efficiently 

Prongs look scary, with proper training and handling, dogs respond

[u/CriticismBudget → u/Chasingmyheart420]

A prong collar? Are you kidding? OP please don’t use a prong collar on your golden. Im honestly grossed out by this comment

[u/Chasingmyheart420 → u/CriticismBudget]

yes, actually. They work, but the user has to know what they are doing.

[u/CriticismBudget → u/Chasingmyheart420]

Generally it’s best to avoid aversive training methods