My yorkie does NOT like to go for walks! How to change that?
 

Hi all!

My yorkie (male) will be 5 months July 12th. We take him at least once a day for a walk, but he just does not like it. When we mention "let's go for a walk" to him, he lowers his tail and goes and lies in his bed. Nothing negative ever happened during a walk. He's been like this since we got him two months ago. It's a bit annoying. When we are out, we must keep pushing him. Eventually he walks nicely, but doesn't last very long. Anybody know if this could pass with time as he gets older or any other advice?

Thank you all beforehand!

Rosaly

Hi Rosaly,

Denzil, my 14 month old Yorkie, was very reluctant to go out when he was younger - I think he was a bit scared of the world to be honest! I persevered taking him a little further everyday. Now he loves his walkies and we have to spell the word rather than say it as he goes mad! We go for a good hours walk everyday and he hates coming home, I virtually have to drag him along.

Do you use a lead or a harness? Denzil has a Puppia soft harness which he loves (but also has a collar with name tag) Not that I am an expert, but I'm wondering if he has a collar he may prefer the security of a harness.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Tracy and Denzil :aimeeyork

Walking
 

Tate hates to walk
 

My yorkie is a rescue from Oklahoma, he was basically locked in a cage for almost 3 years when I got him from OKYorkieRescue. He is almost normal now, a happy dog except also when it comes to walking. He has a harness but when outside he sits down and will not move. You can stand him up and pull and no matter how hard you pull you will just end up making him slide on his feet which work hard to remain still. Same effect if you push or nudge from the rear. I even tried tying a Beggin Strips bacon treat to a string and dangling it in front of him, with no effect. What I do now is pull him in a red Radio Flyer wagon. Any ideas on what might make him go?

Tia was a bit reluctant to go for walks when she was a puppy too. I would put her little harness on and clip on her lead , open the door and she would just stand there like a statue lol would not budge!
NOW ITS A DIFFERENT STORY , SHE LOVES THE OUTSIDE WORLD.
I think it must be a little scary at first for them.

Pixie hates to walk... but she loves to be carried for walks. I let her walk but but then she stops and waits for me to pick her up and I carry her the rest... yes she is spoiled lol.

I don't mean to laugh but that is the funniest thing I ever heard :p. My little was a rescue also and lived most of her life in a cage. Before I started walking her outside. I walked her in the house with the leash on. Hope that helps.

Time
 

Like I suggested with the other person keep the harness ( and always have ID on baby) and a retractable leash. Take a chair in your yard. Find the quittest place you can. Make sure leash and harness is on good. Seat the chair down and you have a seat. Now while holding on the handle let baby down..if he seats he seats just let him have some time. Try this a couple times a day. Or here is another one get a kennel or playpen. Let him play outside in this (while you watch him) after a while then try the other. Hope this helps!:aimeeyork

I don't have a problem with this with our Tatum so I can't give any advise but it reminded me of my grandparents' dog. When they had to move into a nursing home, my parents took in their dog. No idea why but every time they put a harness and/or leash on that dog, she would hit the ground - all 4 legs splayed out.... would NOT stand up. As soon as you'd take it off, she'd bounce up and walk around. Silly dog. They tried just letting her wear the harness by itself, didn't work. I guess she knew the leash was going to follow.

Good luck with yours!

Give it a few months, Joey was just like this, and we tried to make walks as pleasant as possible, he would just drop his little butt to the ground and no coaxing would move him. I would just pick him up and carry him for a while and set him down a little later. By 8 months, he loved his walks, and even though he's fixed, he loves to do his little marking routine on outside objects. For a while, walks were pretty slow because he had to mark on everything, but at almost 3, he can now out walk me.

Stella does the same thing sometimes (she's finnicky) but I think it might be an age thing, we've been taking her for walks ever since her last puppy shots three weeks ago (she's now five months) and she's getting better slowly. She's still weird in that she now loves when I put her harness and leash on, because she knows she's going for a walk, but I virtually have to drag her out of the door (our air conditioner is right by the door, so I think the noise of that scares her a bit). And while we're on walks, she sometimes decides that a nap in the grass sounds like a good idea. It's taking a while to get her to actually walk, but I take her on a couple "mini" walks every day for about 5-10 minutes and then in the morning when she first gets up (and it's not very hot out yet) we go for a long 20-30 minute walk.

I've found that treats don't work well, she's too nervous to eat on walks, but the more people and other dogs she meets on our walks, the less nervous she seems to get. Just be patient and try sitting in the grass first, then work your way up to walking along the edge of the grass for a few feet. That's what we had to do at first. Eventually, once they're not scared anymore, curiosity gets the best of them and they take off to go check something out.