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Originally Posted by Rocmistro

Hi. My 8 week old bitch, Chloe is doing pretty good all around. She'll follow me outside and "Come" (usually) when I ask her to come. As soon as I put a leash on, she just sits down and doesn't want to do anything.

I have 2 things that I'm trying.

1. First is the advice I've seen on the forum: I put the leash on her and just let her walk around with it on at times to get comfortable with it.

2. I have also (maybe half a dozen times now), when outside, put the leash on and tried to get her to follow. When she refuses, I stretch the leash out as far as it will go, and ask her to "come". When she is stubborn (ie, most of the time) I begin to pull gently and "drag" her along (it's more of a forced walk...I'm not actually dragging her limp body on the ground). She does not like this and resists until she gets to me. She usually starts to cough and choke a little at which point I let up. I do not praise her or scold her during this process, and she gets no treats. When she reaches me, she sits, and I give her a minute to collect herself as I know she does not like it. We usually repeat this 2 more times before heading back inside.

So my question is on point 2, above. I'm doing this as much to let her know that she is NOT in charge, as I am to train her to be good on a leash. Am I accomplishing this or just making her hate being on a leash? I'm trying to break the "rebellious/dominant" spirit, let her know who is Alpha. Obviously, I don't want to her hurt her so I'm a little concerned when she starts choking/coughing but I assume that she'll "get it" soon and will see that following me willingly is clearly the better choice.

Any thoughts? I'm torn (in general) between make the puppy conform and not wanting to raise her to be resentful, so I'm always walking that line between the two.

Thanks.

She is still SO young, and everything needs to be as fun as possible at this point. If it was me, I would not even put a leash on a pup this young. The first couple weeks need to be as fun as possible with a ton of bonding. I want the pup to get the feeling that I am the center of it's fun. I would only go for short fun walks in my yard with PLENTY of treats or favorite toys so that the pup stays close. Leashes aren't even needed at this point yet (in MY opinion). If you are worried about the pup getting away, then you can attach a VERY thin light leash for the pup to drag around, but you don't need to hold the leash unless there is an emergency.