Nervous on Walks

Hi All,

Loki is now 17 months old, we've had him since he was 8 weeks. He comes to work with me everyday and up until a couple of months ago we walked to work and back home every day. A couple of months ago, out of the blue, he refused to cross the road bridge that we have crossed every day. I tried to go a different way but he just lay down on the floor shaking and refused to move until I started heading back home. Since then he has gradually got worse and worse and now I can't even get him to walk to the end of the street.

He is happy to walk on the field next to work but panics if I so much as try to walk around the cars instead of in between the cars on the car park on our way to the field. He leans back on his harness, lifts his leg over his lead and pushes down on his lead and shakes all over. I've tried coaxing him with food and toys but he just lies down still shaking. He won't go for a walk with anyone else unless I am with them so I know nothing obvious has happened whilst walking to make him act this way. If anyone else tries to walk him, as soon as he realises I'm not there he lies down and refuses to move until they turn round and bring him back.

If I put him in the car and drive to a country park or the beach at the weekend he gets excited and enjoys walking there.

He went to puppy classes and then onto dog club and he sees different people every day at work so he is well socialised with people and other dogs. When we are walking to the field we have to cross a road to get there and the passing traffic doesn't seem to bother him.

He went for recall training the other week and I asked the trainer for advice and she suggested that I only take him walking where he is happy to go for a couple weeks as something may have spooked him and hopefully he will forget about it. It's now been 3 weeks and he seems worse than before. He went to the vets last week and I mentioned it to them and they suggested a herbal tablet which will help to calm him down but I was hoping to solve the problem without the help of pills.

So before I resort to the herbal tablets I thought I'd ask for help and advice here.

I'd agree with that advice, don't force him and just take him on walks that he's comfortable with. In a while try introducing him gently to places he appears not to like and if there's any sign of nervousness just back off. Eventually he'll come round to the idea that there's nothing to be afraid of and forget all about it.

Something will have spooked him. Bo is the same age and recently he had something similar happen. A couple of weeks ago he suddenly became afraid of all his toys in the house. Whereas before I'd roll his boomer ball and he'd go mad for it, now he put his ears back and ran and hid behind my legs at the mere sight of it. I figured out what had happened, though. The day before he'd been caught short and peed on the carpet whilst playing with his ball. I didn't scold him or even look at him funny but it must have played on his mind because he then associated his toys with doing something 'bad'. It's only in the last couple of days that he hasn't actually run away from his ball, although he still won't play with it properly. He's coming round, though, slowly, they are weird creatures.

Sound slike something scared him. I'd drive him somewhere else for the exercise. As for walking around the house try to just go a little further each day. When he lies down just let him stay there and pet him. Suki used to be scared of trains so we just let her sit down near the tracks every day and she got used to the noise and was okay

Thanks for the advice.

It's a tricky one, but I'd put him in the car and take him to the park for a real good run. On the way back get dropped off near to where he gets worried and approach it from an unknown direction, if possible.
Another thing could be to have someone walk him and you walk in front.
I wouldn't pet him or show any sympathy towards him, it could be reinforcing the behaviour.
Pete

We had something similar with a lurcher we had a few years back. It started with pigeon scarers but then became more generalised. What was happening was that my lovely OH would let Harley double back, so he'd each time get what he wanted for lying down, and a rather large lurcher lying down is a full stop and a half!

So, we had to a) make lying down not work and b) make walking on nice. When he lay down, we'd just wait, back turned, so he had to think of something else. As soon as he stood up, he got a treat. We then asked for a step forwards, and got a treat.

Millie puppy had a thing about going through the doorway for a few days (it was cold outside), we simply threw a treat outside and she'd go and get it.

I'd go with the trainer's advice of sticking to good places for a while, but then when you go to somewhere that you think might be a bit more difficult, take treats and take a toy. Make the sticky place really nice, do some getting attention work so you have something to reward. If you get a tools down moment, play with the toy, ask for sit or something so you can be positive. This should help you take Loki's mind off whatever is worrying him and turn walks into a positive place.