My husband and I brought home an 11 week old puppy yesterday. While I've trained puppies before, I've never seen one this disinterested in the world around it, and food. I have a vet appointment scheduled for her monday morning, but until then I was going to try and get her some socialization, as her only exposure before that was to her parents/siblings, and the older couple who bred her.
However, we've run into one huge problem. She does this thing my husband refers to as the "Dogloaf" whenever we try to get her to go anywhere. On leash or off (in this case, I mean "someone holding the end of her leash or not") if you try and encourage her to come to you, even with treats, she will immediately lay down with her head all the way to the ground, and refuse to move. She will not go for food or treats she has to walk to. She wont 'walk' at all if she thinks someone is paying attention to her. My husband and I have pretended to be distracted (letting her be in the bedroom while we're on our computers watching her) and she'll walk around, chew her toys, flop on the floor, what have you. The second one of us makes a move to interact with her -- DOGLOAF. I try to hold the end of her leash -- DOGLOAF. I try to encourage her with treats - she wont eat them if i don't put them DIRECTLY in her mouth. (which, is great, I mean, I dropped a few slices of bacon last night and she ignored them from 18" away, but still...) I take her outside to potty - DOGLOAF. We come back in and I set her on the floor (that's right, I have to carry her up and down the stairs every time we take her out) - DOGLOAF, followed by running to the bedroom when I step away, then pooping on the bedroom carpet. Literally right after being outside for 20 mins. So we clean it up (she DOGLOAFs when we enter the room, and has to be carried down the stairs and outside) then DOGLOAFs in the grass. I wouldn't mind carrying her if she wasn't a Newfoundland, and while I am capable of lifting her now, I don't know how much longer I will be. And I feel like it sets a bad precedent.
Has anyone encountered this behavior before? And if so, how did you fix it?
UPDATE: After being very frustrated with trying to train her, I decided to take her off the leash completely while my husband and I watched a movie in the living room. As soon as the leash came off she became a different dog. She immediately attempted to get up on the couch and snuggle with us through a movie AND game of thrones (of course we let her. Dogs on couch are okay with us.) After that she came and bugged me when she needed to go potty, running between me and the back door repeatedly. I still had to carry her down the stairs, but she let me set her down on concrete and took care of her business before rolling around in the grass for a bit and trying to get me to play. My only regret is that I didn't try to bond with her without it sooner. We've got a date to go to the park tomorrow and play without the leash. Maybe we can try walking along the paths to get used to concrete. Also, her favorite treat is apparently crumbled bacon, for now.
However, we've run into one huge problem. She does this thing my husband refers to as the "Dogloaf" whenever we try to get her to go anywhere. On leash or off (in this case, I mean "someone holding the end of her leash or not") if you try and encourage her to come to you, even with treats, she will immediately lay down with her head all the way to the ground, and refuse to move. She will not go for food or treats she has to walk to. She wont 'walk' at all if she thinks someone is paying attention to her. My husband and I have pretended to be distracted (letting her be in the bedroom while we're on our computers watching her) and she'll walk around, chew her toys, flop on the floor, what have you. The second one of us makes a move to interact with her -- DOGLOAF. I try to hold the end of her leash -- DOGLOAF. I try to encourage her with treats - she wont eat them if i don't put them DIRECTLY in her mouth. (which, is great, I mean, I dropped a few slices of bacon last night and she ignored them from 18" away, but still...) I take her outside to potty - DOGLOAF. We come back in and I set her on the floor (that's right, I have to carry her up and down the stairs every time we take her out) - DOGLOAF, followed by running to the bedroom when I step away, then pooping on the bedroom carpet. Literally right after being outside for 20 mins. So we clean it up (she DOGLOAFs when we enter the room, and has to be carried down the stairs and outside) then DOGLOAFs in the grass. I wouldn't mind carrying her if she wasn't a Newfoundland, and while I am capable of lifting her now, I don't know how much longer I will be. And I feel like it sets a bad precedent.
Has anyone encountered this behavior before? And if so, how did you fix it?
UPDATE: After being very frustrated with trying to train her, I decided to take her off the leash completely while my husband and I watched a movie in the living room. As soon as the leash came off she became a different dog. She immediately attempted to get up on the couch and snuggle with us through a movie AND game of thrones (of course we let her. Dogs on couch are okay with us.) After that she came and bugged me when she needed to go potty, running between me and the back door repeatedly. I still had to carry her down the stairs, but she let me set her down on concrete and took care of her business before rolling around in the grass for a bit and trying to get me to play. My only regret is that I didn't try to bond with her without it sooner. We've got a date to go to the park tomorrow and play without the leash. Maybe we can try walking along the paths to get used to concrete. Also, her favorite treat is apparently crumbled bacon, for now.