Insecure or willful or both?

[Christina Herrmann]

Hello everybody, kind regards from Berlin! Please excuse any mistakes in expressing myself in English. One of the many advantages of this forum is the opportunity to improve my English :-).

My lovely Irish girl Hedy is 20 months old. She is very kind, smart and most of the time a pure joy in my life. Here comes the but... For the last weeks she has shown a strange behaviour on the leash. She wants to decide where to go, stays behind with all her strength and refuses to move. She has managed to get free of her harness which can be dangerous when we are in the streets on our way to the forest where she can run off leash. It is a real fight to get her forward sometimes. Is she testing me out? As of her body language she does not seem scared. She does not have a medical problem, the vet told me. What can I do? Sometimes I have to carry her the last bit to the woods or the park, where she runs happily as always. Thank you for your advice. It will be truly appreciated!! Best regards, Christina

[Laura Kolbach]

is she near her season? girls tend to go really weird before, under and after that!

[Christina Herrmann]

Hello Laura, thank you, no, she is not. Christina

[Laura Kolbach]

then probably just testing you... but i am not an expert. or if it happens at the same place, she might sense / hear something that we humans don't recognise. did you try to get her walk again with treats, etc?

sorry, i am not much of a help :)

[Christina Herrmann]

Thank you, you are! I will watch more closely where her behaviour occurs. Treats did not help, when excited she doesn't show interest in them.

[James Doran]

Hi Christina. I was sorry to read your post about Hedy. I don't have any experience of this personally but I have seen this behaviour a few times in the past and it was with young dogs, and I always wondered what was causing it! I am sorry that I am not in a position to advise, but I sincerely hope that it passes with time and that you continue to have a great life together. Sincerest regards & best wishes.

[rosie beere]

My boy does this sometimes., I often let him choose which way he wants to go within reason. Other times I just walk back the way we've come, turn around and off we go happily. Funny little running steps on the spot almost always work as well. I think it's just in the moment, one time I wanted to go down a track he didn't so I let him go on the other track above the original one I was on and dam me a tree came down on the orginal track we were on. So sometime I have to wonder what do they feel. I just think it's a doggy thing in general there's a lot of breeds that do it. Wouldn't really worry about things like she trying to test you out humans do that not dogs. You could also train on your walk and have some treats to reward so she plops down into sit you ask for a drop reward it make a bit thing about it and say cheerfully off we go. The other thing as long as it's safe to do so take something to read she stops won't move you get comfy and start to read when she gets bored stay a bit longer, then say oh we are going are we ok. Talk to your girl a lot doesn't make complete sense to them but happy cheerful voices works wonders. Good luck.

[Christina Herrmann]

Hello everybody, thank you for your advice. It is very useful. Today I tried a limited slip collar (although in general I am not a fan of these) and it worked just fine. As I live in Berlin Hedy's safety is of high importance to me. In the future I will try and change my behaviour towards a more active one when walking her on the leash ( as I  do when she runs off leash), i.e. getting her attention more and do a little training, as Rosie suggests. I can't wait to try the “happy cheerful voice“. Kind regards, Christina

[Carole Iverson]

You are all awesome. I read these comments and think of my 14 month old, Birdie. What a love. More and more, she is a well behaved sweetheart -- except when she's not, and those times don't last too long. She's become an increasingly mature puppy since her first heat, just a month ago. There's always something, I can see from these posts, but the progress and smartness I see is incredible. I guess we need a lot of patience, focus and love, huh! Thanks to all for these enlightening posts.

[human friend]

Maybe there are some good smells there and your dog wants to investigate. One of my dogs takes my whole body-weight to shift him away from sniffing at something.