First post, but I've been lurking for a while.
My wife and I got our puppy about 6 weeks ago. He was 11 weeks old when we got him and he was about 80% paper trained. Living in the city, we initially didn't want to take him out to the street until his vaccinations were complete, so we decided to paper train him 100%. We also have a fairly large terrace, so after he was reliably paper trained, we started taking him out on the terrace. This was great - whenever he had to go, he would walk to the terrace door and stare outside.
Our puppy is 4 months old now and is finished with his shots, so we've been taking him to the street for bathroom/walks for about a week. We previously had no issue putting his leash on and walking him out of the apartment, into the elevator, and down to the street. We only did this periodically when he had to go to the vet, puppy class, etc. Now that he's going down regularly for bathroom breaks, he's refusing to leave the apartment.
He'll walk around the apartment on leash fine, but once we start getting close to the front door, he backs away. With some coaxing, we can get him into the hallway, but before we even get to the elevator, he'll pee somewhere in the hallway. When I catch him doing this, I'll go to pick him up and he will try sprinting back into the apartment. I usually grab him and carry him the rest of the way out. Now we've just resorted to carrying him out every single time and not risking trying to walk him down.
Not sure what to do. A lot of sites/people recommend carrying the puppy down, but I don't want him to get used to this. We also take him out quite frequently - never more than 3 hours between trips outside. He won't go to the bathroom in the apartment, but the next milestone is actually getting him to the street accident free.
Any advice? Our trainer from puppy class said that when the dog refuses to walk, put light pressure on the leash and reward any forward movement. We do that, but once he's in the hallway, he just stops whenever he wants and pees. After I take him out and he has an empty bladder, I work on walking him up and down the hallway without much of a problem. It's almost as if the more he has to go, the less he wants to actually walk.
My wife and I got our puppy about 6 weeks ago. He was 11 weeks old when we got him and he was about 80% paper trained. Living in the city, we initially didn't want to take him out to the street until his vaccinations were complete, so we decided to paper train him 100%. We also have a fairly large terrace, so after he was reliably paper trained, we started taking him out on the terrace. This was great - whenever he had to go, he would walk to the terrace door and stare outside.
Our puppy is 4 months old now and is finished with his shots, so we've been taking him to the street for bathroom/walks for about a week. We previously had no issue putting his leash on and walking him out of the apartment, into the elevator, and down to the street. We only did this periodically when he had to go to the vet, puppy class, etc. Now that he's going down regularly for bathroom breaks, he's refusing to leave the apartment.
He'll walk around the apartment on leash fine, but once we start getting close to the front door, he backs away. With some coaxing, we can get him into the hallway, but before we even get to the elevator, he'll pee somewhere in the hallway. When I catch him doing this, I'll go to pick him up and he will try sprinting back into the apartment. I usually grab him and carry him the rest of the way out. Now we've just resorted to carrying him out every single time and not risking trying to walk him down.
Not sure what to do. A lot of sites/people recommend carrying the puppy down, but I don't want him to get used to this. We also take him out quite frequently - never more than 3 hours between trips outside. He won't go to the bathroom in the apartment, but the next milestone is actually getting him to the street accident free.
Any advice? Our trainer from puppy class said that when the dog refuses to walk, put light pressure on the leash and reward any forward movement. We do that, but once he's in the hallway, he just stops whenever he wants and pees. After I take him out and he has an empty bladder, I work on walking him up and down the hallway without much of a problem. It's almost as if the more he has to go, the less he wants to actually walk.