Dog afraid of walking with harness

sophie229

Hello everyone. I am really hoping someone can help me with this problem. I have a chihuahua. She is 2 years old and is scared of a lot of things. We tried a training class but that didn't really work. I could have socialized her better when she was a puppy, but I didn't realize how important it was then.

One problem I would really like to correct is her being afraid to go for a walk. Whenever I put the harness on her, she freezes. Her tail will still wag but she does not want to walk. It is even worse with the leash on. She's not really too afraid of it when she sees it.

The past couple days, I've been taking her out and trying to get her to walk. I have had to pull her some of the way and then usually she starts walking alongside me without me pulling. She still seems very nervous, though. I'm not hurting her when I pull her because its a very soft harness and very wide. I just feel bad for pulling her and making her do something she doesn't want to do but I just don't know any other way of training her to walk. Can anyone help me? Any help is greatly appreciated.

AndwadInLove

Start with the basics; teach her to like wearing the harness.
This is a good video to help you with getting your dog to not be afraid of the harness:YouTube - How to train your dog to love his harness- dog training clicker training

Once you have that down, try getting your dog to walk with the harness and leash on in the house, giving lots of rewards for the behavior you want (walking willingly on the leash) and then slowly progress to outside and going on regular walks. If at any point your dog seems very fearful and backs away from you or runs away, you've pushed the dog too fast and you need to go back a step with the training.

Kikopup on YouTube is a great reference for clicker-training tips of all sorts.

sophie229

That is great! I will definitely try that. But getting it on isn't really the problem, its when shes actually wearing it. Shes so afraid that she wont even move.

AndwadInLove

Then you need to get the harness on, give her treats for having it on, and then get her to take just one step at a time for a while, giving her a treat for each step. Then, when she's taking single steps easily, make it more difficult by having her take two steps for a treat until she's comfortable taking two steps, then three steps for a treat, etc. Work your way up slowly to getting her comfortable with walking in the harness, always making the task a little more difficult as you go once she is comfortable with the current task.

EDIT:
If she's is fearful enough that she won't take a step for a treat, try a treat with higher value. For example, if you're using dry kibble as a treat, try tiny bits of cheese as cheese has a higher value than dry kibble. If you're using cheese, then try tiny bits of meat as meat has a higher value than cheese. Your dog may not think that meat is more valuable than cheese necessarily, but you will have to figure out what treats (or toys even) are of a high enough value to get your dog to overcome the fear of the harness.

fawkese1

that is good advice AndwadInlove... kikopup is awesome, she has several videos on her youtube channel that demonstrate ways to help your dog get over fears.

my suggestion would be to stop taking her for walks for just a bit and work with her in the house, but w/o the leash... maybe put her harness on her and just let her chill out for a bit. give her something tasty to chew on for a bit, or her dinner... don't do anything to pressure her... make just being in her harness a really fun thing for her... do this for a while then move up to clipping on the leash and treat for a while, on and off, and treat... and use high value stuff, then start rewarding her for taking steps, as was suggested... basically make her love the idea that good things happen to her when her harness is on, then start to incorporate the walks...

AndwadInLove

That's good advice, too Fawkese1. :]

Basically, Sophie229, you'll have to try out a few different methods to see what works for your dog specifically.

I do have to bring up the training method of "flooding" (though I have not done research on this method and do not know a whole lot, so don't take my word as fact) since what Fawkese1 suggested about putting the harness on and just letting her wear it for a while is (from what I understand) a type of flooding (which is not necessarily a bad method but has it's chances of being abused if not done correctly).

Flooding is a way to desensitize a dog to something it is fearful of and can do more damage than good if you're not careful and don't know what you're doing. Basically it's like taking someone who is afraid of water out on a boat in the middle of a large lake until they are desensitized to the fear of water and are no longer afraid. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does more damage than good. Putting the harness on your dog and just having her wear it for a while could be a way to train her, though I wouldn't personally suggest it. It could traumatize her unless you associate the harness with good things. Giving her a tasty bone to chew on or a toy she loves when you put the harness on can help her associate the harness with good things, but I think it would be better to take baby steps until you get a good feel of just how fearful your dog is.

Start at the beginning as if you had never put a harness on her before, giving her treats just for being near the harness or for touching it, sniffing it, pawing at it, etc. Then work your way up slowly from there, of course depending on how well your dog responds.

Again, this is only my humble opinion and you should not take my word as fact. My suggestions may not be the best way to train your dog, as every dog is different and responds differently. Give some methods a try and see what works best for your adorable little Chihuahua. :] Just remember not to push her faster than what she can handle, or you will end up doing more damage than good.

fawkese1

what i intended is nothing like flooding (tho i don't believe i was very clear in my first post)i am suggesting that you create a positive experience for the dog while she is wearing the harness without pressuring her for anything else, before you try to take her for a walk, and then systematically desensitize her to the steps of going for a walk... i'm suggesting that the dog be giving rewards and positive experiences while wearing the harness, so that is more like classical conditioning... make just wearing the harness=treats or a favorite game/toy/chewie/dinner, basically whatever she enjoys....
flooding is basically exposing the animal to whatever they fear until they stop reacting to it, like if you are afraid of spiders and you looked at pictures of them over and over and over again... eventually you would start to come to terms with your fears (in theory) the big problem with flooding and dogs/animals, as i see it, is that you have no way to explain to the dog that you are doing something to help them, and no way to help them learn to rationalize whatever they fear... you will sometimes get a dog that responds well, but quite often you get a dog that shuts down (learned helplessness) or becomes more reactive. imo, flooding is not the best way to go most of the time...

as AndwadinLove suggested, you may need to start by just rewarding her for being near the harness, and desensitizing her to having it put on etc (kikopup's video demonstrates this quite well)

it sounds like she might be shutting down after you put it on her, and you definitely want to work well below the level of intensity that gets her to that point and you want to take very small steps (the smaller steps the better and in the big picture, the faster you'll move) the more you set her up to succeed and keep the experience positive for her, the better...

once you are at a point where she is happily wearing her harness inside and following you around for treats, then you could move on to leashing her etc...

i hope that makes more sense then my first post...

i would start with this stuff, and keep track of her progress... you'll know she is ready to move forward when she happily runs over for her harness to be put on... but let her set the pace (very important for fearful dogs

sophie229

Wow, this is GREAT advice. Thank you so much! I think I am going to just start from the beginning. I've probably already traumatized her enough my making her walk without being comfortable with it. I think it will take a long time for her to like it but I really want to try. I have tried making her wear it and I gave her a chew stick which she absolutely loves. But she still seemed quite fearful so I only did that once.

AndwadInLove

I misunderstood your first post, Fawkese1. I'm sorry about that. You're right, what you suggested isn't flooding. :S I just get wary and nervous about that specific training method because I've seen dogs ruined by people who use that method and don't do it properly.

As for your little Sophie, it may take quite some time to get her totally comfortable, but it will be worth it. :] And you never know, she may move quicker than you expect. But like Fawkese1 said, let her set the pace. That's probably the most useful bit of advice right there.

fawkese1

good try tho... sounds like you need to start with the stuff in the video first... anytime she seems uncomfortable with what you are doing, back up a step, keep us posted, and good luck with her!
no need to apologize at all, i happen to agree with you firstly (about flooding), and like i said, i don't think i was very clear in my first post... my apologies to you and my thanks for helping me to clarify...