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We have Beti, a Hungarian rescue Dog. She's about 5 years old and we have had her for almost 2. She has always loved going for walks (and trails runs with me at the weekend). One big walk (at least an hour) and 2 small ones (local park at the end of the road to stare at squirrels) nearly every day.
Over the last few weeks she has progressively got worse at going for walks. First wouldn't go with the kids to the park, then wouldn't get out of the car in the woods with me and now not even with my wife (the boss) at her favourite spot. We took her to the vet and she is generally in good health. Her right back knee could be playing up, and we have her on pain killers and anti inflammatories.
If I call 'walkies', she still gets very excited but then won't leave the front garden (tail tucked in, ears back etc). With my wife she'll happily jump in the car to go to woods but won't then get out again once arrived. Body language is of fear.
I'm really worried that his behaviour is going to become entrenched. She loves the woods and is super fit but now she would even leave the garden. Help!
Has she burned her feet on the pavement?
Might associate anything outside home with hurty feet.
Could be she’s in discomfort, legs, hips are abdo.
Might be the recent heat
Could be she doesn’t want kicked by a random Jeremy.
Even before the heat she didn’t want to go. I’ve tried carrying her to local park and she’s just desperate to run home.
No recent runs in with cars / Jeremies etc that we know of.
Has anything happened to scare her - getting lost? Getting hurt or scared on a recent walk? A sudden loud noise?
Can you use super high value treats near the edge of the garden to build up positive associations, then slowly move the treats over the border? Then don't pressure her into a walk just hang around outside the garden building positive vibes with lots of praise and lots of treats
Of course that won't help if she's in pain
Hope you solve it.
just spend some time with her playing in the garden?
get her confidence in you back
Beti is beautiful
Would you like to borrow ours in the meantime? Has about 6 hours in him every day...
In all seriousness, I hope he comes back around again soon. Something has maybe spooked him.
She’s a rescue so has always had a certain amount of baggage. Hates builders van, fire works and gun shots. But any of that would soon be forgotten if there was a squirrel.
Hoping rest and drugs for a week and then rebuild with her favorite spots.
I’ve done my knee in was well so we are well matched at the moment. A bit twitchy…
I’ve done my knee in was well
could be that. She sees your grimace and is worried about you/doesn't rate her chances in a fight with you hobbling on behind 😀
While she is scared of going for walks, stop trying to take her for walks. Play in the garden, make her feel comfortable and happy and don't force something that obviously causes a fear reaction.
The only way this behavour will become intrenched is if you keep putting her in a situation she finds uncomfortable.
As for what to do about it - well that will involve understanding why she is doing what she is. Rarely can such issues be solved effectively on the internet, but a couple of sessions with a good behavourist can usually cut right through to what is wrong and how to help her get over it.
She is super excited at the idea of going for a walk but remembers she doesn’t want to once you arrive at the woods. Still very playful in the house. We’ll give her a week of rest and drugs and hopefully she’ll be more up for it.
She’s not very food driven so treats don’t help much.
Is she toy driven then? You need to find her 'thing'. If toy driven you could focus on playing games in the garden until she's got more confidence and then take the now obsessed toy on the road, save it for only special occasions so it doesnt become boring. We've just ordered a flirt pole and toy for our pup after he had a go at training and loved it.
The thing to remember is that it is us humans that have it programmed into us that dogs must always be walked. It won't do her any harm just chilling at home for a while. We have a reactive dog who really couldn't be arsed if you took him for a walk or not. As long as gets love, food, water, and enough sensorial enrichment, he is happy.
We made the mistake when he was younger of walking every day and including a lot of ball play in those walks. Guess what happened, he became obsessed with ball play, got so incredibly fit we would never physically tire him, and refused to walk if he didn't have a ball. Balls are now banned apart from special occasions, and have been replaced by scent games, 10 minutes of scent work in the garden will have him snoozing for a few hours. 1hr of walking won't even touch the sides.
Sorry, went off on a bit of a tangent there, just quite passionate about mental health in dogs as well as physical health. if your gorgeous pup doesn't fancy a walk then don't worry, give her something to sniff out around the house and have fun at home for a while. You have rescued her, she is so much happier with you than wherever she was in the past.
Doesn’t do toys either. Took us a year before she’d even look at a stick.
I keep telling her she needs a hobby.
Scent games may be worth trying. She’s obsessed with finding the mice in the garden.
Have you tried a walk with both of you? One to 'walk' her, the other to distract/play with her?
Last night we tried a local walk with my wife and I. Only got 30m down the road before Beti was pulling on the lead to come home.
But did one of you try to interact with her though?
Yes. Both of us. Still it was a hard no.
@dogbone, sounds like the biggest challenge would be finding something she wants to hunt unless you have a supply of mice 🙂 Hide and seek using a family member can work, or try something that smells one of you. Also if you haven't heard of it, and want to encourage her to enjoy the outside again, have a see if there are any ManTrailing sessions in your area. I have never seen my dog so focussed as when he was doing that, it is just a shame we have to travel for a 2hr round trip to do it.
Try a new location? Just spend time being annoying in the garden (playing games)...
This may not help and I am not an expert in dog behaviour.
Our previous dog Tilly, as she got older and then had arthritis would quite often refuse to walk, literally sit down and would not budge. Initially quite frustrating as we (like a lot of dog owners I suspect) viewed the school run walk as necessary for her exercise.
There were certain locations near us that she would not walk, for no reason whatsoever, she would literally pull on the lead to go home. At the time, it was a bit weird and I couldn’t figure it out.
After quite a few weeks, it became apparent that she was ok only starting the walk from certain points, would only walk up certain roads, but not down them and some days only wanted to walk down one river road etc. So eventually we let her do her thing, let us know if she wanted to come to school, if she wanted a walk, which way she wanted to go, if she just wanted a ride in the car, if she wanted nothing more than a slow walk sniffing everything in sight (which I now know is a happy thing for a dog to do and tires them out more than a full run).
This worked much better, it was loads more fun and relaxing.
Miss that dog.
Thanks for all the advice and support.
The hardest thing is that she seems a bit lost. She's happy in the garden and still loves exploring the back lane (fox smells etc), but is very restless. Normally by 5 she waiting on the sofa some someone to join her, now she wanders from the kitchen to the garden to upstairs, all a bit lost.
Maybe she just needs a bit of time to readjust.