Hey Everyone!

My 12-week old puppy will not walk with me on the street. She will walk with me in the yard, on the driveway, into and out of training classes. When I take her onto the street away from the house/yard, she sits, doesn't want to easily walk, and its more like pulling her so that she keeps going. Has anyone else experienced the same thing? How did you train your pup to go on walks?

Train a husky to go on walks? There is a question I never thought I'd see...

Is the surface of the street different than the other surfaces she walks on? It could be that it's not comfortable for her to walk on it, or that it hurts her paws. Rough gravel or asphalt for instance may have lots of rocks that would make it uncomfortable for you to walk on, and the same may go for your pup. Heat could also be an issue. Pavement and asphalt can get very hot in the sun. It could just be a general dislike of the surface too. Ever see a child that's never been in the grass suddenly try to walk...the sensations aren't pleasant and they don't like it. You could try boots or a wax to protect the paws, or simply find a better place to walk. Stick to the side of the road where she can stay in the grass for instance.

What happens if you take her further away from the house before starting the walk. Drive her a few blocks away, then try. I had a ACD that would fight and fight to stay home. He'd pull on his leash to go back and you'd have to drag him away. Once he was out of sight of our house though, he was fine. He just didn't want to leave that comfort zone. After a couple weeks he finally realized that he'd get to come back and could chill out a little. If you test this out and determine this to be the issue, then reward walks. A treat for making it to the end of the block, make sure your walk ends somewhere fun (a park for instance, and have some play time). Try to connect the idea of going for a walk to fun things, she'll get the idea.

We are slowly but surely training ours (6.5months old) to lead walk and use food and praise to constantly get her walking by our side, we started when we first got her at 11 weeks. I'd try to treat her every few steps at first then treat every 10-20 steps etc. as she improves.
Personally I feel it's best to properly lead train them so walks don't turn into pulling matches and we've seen a massive improvement in her lead walking since we have been doing this technique. she now pulls maybe 20% of the walk and the rest is slack lead. It is very time consuming and annoying at times but persistence will pay off good luck!

Hey elledeew4!

I thought I was the only one with the defective husky! When I first got Echo at 8 weeks, it was struggle to walk him as well. He would take a couple of steps, and then sit down, or dig his heals in to stop me from walking. He just loves to sit and stare at everything. I ended up having to pull him and get him to "let's go" every couple of meters. It was annoying.

I started him on a harness, but quickly realized that he used that to his advantage to stop me from walking, so I switched to using a collar only and it was MUCH better. At 3.5 months I transitioned him to a martingale collar and it made it even better. I also had to do hardcore clicker and treat training him to walk. I would lure him out of his sit & stares with treats and clicked every single time he would move when I said "let's go." Also clicked & treated every single time he would walk for more than 30 sec straight. =D

Who knew you had to train a husky to walk and actually pull you on a leash =P. At 5 months now, he walks very well. The one positive thing about this is he's GREAT at lose leash walking. He pulls now only when he sees something that interests him, but otherwise walks great on a lose leash!

So pros and cons, hang in there!

Cheers!