Hi, everyone.

So, Kingsley is now almost 17 months old and we've started taking him on daily walks for the last month or two. Before, we would take him on a walk *here and there* but never a regular thing.

He's doing two things that are problematic.

1. He gets so excited and gets the zoomies on leash and then bites down on the leash and tugs it as if it's a game.

2. When we tell him "no" and pull in the leash so he has less space to frolic, he jumps up on his hind legs and begins to growl and bare his teeth.

So, wtf is going on. We've had him since he was 2 months old and have NEVER taught or allowed this behavior in the past. Why is he doing it now and why isn't he *getting* that this is not acceptable.

We've tried:

• ignoring it. Maybe he's doing it for attention and us simply ignoring it might make it stop. It didn't.

• stopping the walk. The behavior begins and we stop completely. Bad behavior=stopping the walk. Nope.

• coming down to one knee, forcing eye contact. Saying NO.

• even grabbing the side of his neck and saying NO. I read somewhere on this forum that a couple people recommended this. It doesn't work with K. He just growls even more.

I don't know what's going on. He's only ever done the jumping on hind legs and baring teeth thing when I want him to go outside somewhere he doesn't want to go. So it's almost as if he's telling us that he doesn't want us to pull him in on a shorter leash and get after him for tangling himself up, trying to run in the street, and grabbing at the leash to tug on it. But like, he doesn't get a say so. We're the ones in charge, not him.

It's incredibly frustrating.

As a result, we are discouraged from continuing our 2x/day walks because not only do we feel the need to "punish" him by not taking him out on fun walks, but because it's SO DANGEROUS. With this behavior, he could easily get hurt if he runs into the street. We obviously don't want that to happen (thus, pulling him in to give him a much shorter leash), but then he gets all growly when we do that and f*ck that!

I don't know what to do at this point.

Try exercising him before walking him.. It sounds like he wants to move faster and he's frustrated that you're moving "slow" - which for us is a normal pace! haha Anyways, try draining some of his energy so he's calmer when you go for a walk. You could always try a gentle leader or halt too. They go around the face/back of the head- like a halter for a horse. He won't like it, but he can used to wearing it- and it will give you complete control, esp. when he acts up I know you're frustrated, but hang in there- he's young and it does get better.

Hi! Thanks for your suggestion! He's currently on a WalkYourDogWithLove harness. It connects from the front like you would lead a horse. He's still acts up on it. Sometimes he does GREAT but some days he seems to be more distracted than others.

Any suggestions on how to exercise him before a walk? I don't have a fenced yard.

I don't know if it would work with the harness but you could get him a back pack for walks.

Also you could do an extended training session first work on eye contact and silly tricks have him tired mentally?

Also does anything trigger this behavior? Such as seeing an other dog or cat? Finding that out might help you see what you need to to to fix it.