[BJSalz]

Sorry for bombarding you all with questions.

This morning was our first walk outside of our own road and yard. We live on a private dr so it is quiet and we have 1 1/2 acres so we taught our pup to walk on leash within the realm of where we live.

I need excerise myself so I'm ready for us both to go for a daily mile walk. This morning when walking near a busy street, Ryder stopped walking every time a car would pass. I'm sure it was strange for him, to be that close to cars driving faster. I had him secure on leash and inside of me, away from the road but he still stopped, watched the car go by and started walking again. Should I be patient or should I not let him stop? Again, this was his first time near a busy street with cars going about 35-45 miles. He did really good other than stopping to watch each car go by.

 

[Nicole74]

Bailey does this exact same thing. I don't know what to do. Bailey use to stop when other dogs would bark too, but has gotten past that. I used treats to coax her, maybe that is what I need to be doing about the cars too.

 

[slip_kid]

He's over four months?
Getting him used to it during the socialization phase would have helped more. At this point just treat him as the cars are going by, that should keep him moving.
Should be fine in a very short period of time.

seems with goldens, when in doubt, use food...

 

[BJSalz]

He's over four months?
Getting him used to it during the socialization phase would have helped more. At this point just treat him as the cars are going by, that should keep him moving.
Should be fine in a very short period of time.

seems with goldens, when in doubt, use food...

He is use to walking on our road but cars only go 10 mph. He likes to go for walks on our street because he knows the other dogs and people that he likes to stop to say hi to. But I think the faster cars wowed him. In all honesty, if I wasn't walking for the exercise for myself I don't know if I would have ever took him to this particular street for socialization purposes. I never thought that faster cars was part of that process but good point!

 

[CaptCooke]

I am no expert but live in the busy summer town of Cape May. I would just let JOY sit by the side of the road with me and watch traffic go by. Then when the big noisy street sweeper would go by Joy would be curious and I would laugh and make fun. She walks well now in traffic except when the Horse Carriages go by and she just sits nicely and stares at the strange creatures.

 

[Elisabeth Kazup]

My instincts tell me that keeping him moving, with treats if they are useful, would be the best thing. You want to encourage the walking, not the stopping.

The thought I had was that if he's stopping to watch them, he expressing too much interest in them. He definitely needs exposure to them as an everyday things, just another moving thing in his life, but I wouldn't go along with his stopping.

If the cars don't come too often, I would have a treat ready and focus his attention on me as soon as I saw the car approaching. That way he doesn't have an opportunity to stop and you don't have to worry about 'correcting'. He will need to be able to focus on you when there are distractions. This would be step 1 in that process.

If it's a constant stream of cars, then you want to be holding a treat all the time for him for focus on. Have him sit every minute or so and give the treat. He's young so probably only 10 minutes of exposure to high traffic volumnes would be sufficient.

 

[BJSalz]

The cars don't go by that often, maybe a total of 4 or 5 this morning. He wasn't scared, he just stopped and looked for about 5 seconds with a look as "do I know them". I'll take treats along for when I see cars coming.

We passed about 6 kids waiting at a bus stop. Maybe I can plan our walk later tomorrow morning so that he can see the bus. He sees buses because I take my kids to school but it would be cool for him to see one up close.

This weekend I took him to my daughters soccer game at a park that allows dogs. He did awesome and we got complimented on how calm and well mannered he is. Funny though, he was sitting nice, straight and proper watching the game and my daughter had the ball as she ran right in front of us. He was so excited, stood up wagging his tail thinking she was coming to him as she kept on going. He was like "Hey". Then he sat back down and kept watching the game. He definetly noticed his girl and it was so cute to watch him watch the game.