Molly has stopped walking

[mollad]

We rehomed Molly in December and I have had no problems, she has settled in and is part of the family. Every day without fail we go for our walk which she looks forward to. The past three days have been disturbing as she is excited about going but as soon as we are 10 yards from the house she just stands and will not move. Could somebody please give me some advice ? 

[barbaranixon]

Is this the same, whichever direction you go ?

We once had a springer, who suddenly decided that, on entering the park, she would not go in a cetain direction. However, she was quite happy to walk along that path going out of the park.

[Glenn]

Hi,

I had this same problem with egor. He would be more than happy to walk certain paths but the one day one that we had been down plenty of times before he decided he wouldnt walk down.

I found that taking a few treats in my pocket and encouraging him to walk and then letting him have a treat helped. I gave him a big fuss. I tried not to give in and just turn around.

I also started using other walks and just occasionally went down the path he didnt like (after all it could have been a smell or something that was scaring him). We then started using the path again but getting on at a different point.

He now walks fine up and down just fine!

I think with Egor something had spooked him so i tried to make it as nice as possible for him so he knew he had nothing to be scared of. We never found out what it was but he is fine now!

Hope this helps!!!

[Deleted]

Have a good look round where she stops - has anything changed? A new road sign maybe? Even the strong sunlight we're (finally!) seeing can throw different shadows. I know it sounds barmy, but try kneeling down to her height to see if anything gives you a clue.

From a completely different viewpoint, I would also check her feet as if she still wants to walk but stops so soon, she could have something sore. It's unlikely but possible.

Can you get her moving at all after stopping? If she really won't move, is putting her in the car an option? Try just driving her a few yards past where she stops and then try again - or drive to the park maybe so she has grass and sniffs more quickly. As Barbara has suggested, is there any difference if you turn the opposite way from your gate?

To be honest, there are so many things that could be causing it, it's hard to guess. Certainly luring with treats is worth a try but you need to make sure you stay calm and relaxed - if Molly thinks you're worried it will worry her more.

Lovely that she's settled so quickly with you, hope it resolves itself quickly.

[loopylou]

Are you anywhere near fields. The Bird scareres are still going off but are intermitent now which really spooks Tia.

[barbaranixon]

One of the Caravan Club sites is near to an ancient Scottish battle field and sevral members reported that their dogs refused to turn in that direction, when leaving the field, though they were happy enough to go in the opposite direction.

[mollad]

Thanks very much for all your views I will try encouraging her with treats because I have tried all directions with her.I was actually thinking of putting her in the car and driving to a nearby walk and see if she will walk.By the way I like the photo of the squashed greyhounds.

[barbaranixon]

Dogs can be weird creatures.

My one-time obedience trainer had a large sheltie, who worked at a high level, but one day, in class, he decided that he wasn't going to walk towards radiators. No apparent reason.

[julies]

Definitely a good idea to take her somewhere quieter and preferably in the country where there are loads of nice distracting smells and no off lead dogs or cars or anything else a grey hasn't met before My grey would suddenly freeze and I eventually sussed it was car headlights that were scaring her .... I use a harness and a horses lunge line to give my naughty greyhound more freedom

Julie x

[ritab]

In our local park they carved a toadstool out of a small tree trunk and our previous dog noticed straight away and was really spooked about it. Other spooky things have been a cardboard box left in the middle of the park, one of those little posts with details of underground services (which had been there all the time by the way), Christmas decorations on a lampshade.

You never can tell!!!