Dog refusing to go out for walks

[Luci07]

No honestly and it is now becoming a real problem. So Blaze, 3 1/2 year old staffie has been confined to lead work as he hurt his shoulder. He then started to refuse to leave the house if I was there when the dog walker turned up. Then he started to refuse if I had taken him and Tara out to the yard early. Now he won't go out at all with the dog walker regardless of whether I am there or not. He greets her happily, plays in the garden, but gets really anxious if asked to leave the house - he starts to hyper ventilate. It is definately not the DW who is lovely. My staffie bitch completely loses the plot when she arrives and Tara is normally quite restrained. Now this has filtered through to me and he won't leave the house with me on a lead. Nothing funny about trying to carry a wriggling staffie up the road at 5.45 in the morning when as soon as you put him down, he is trying to get home.

Now he gets in the car very happily - because that means being up at the yard, no leads, knows it very well so we are playing a LOT at the yard so he gets a leg stretch. I have "conned" him by taking him in the car to the nearby football ground on a lead extender - we made it about 10 minutes round and then he was pulling like a wotsit to get back to the car.

so background - he is a rescue, was in Croydon in a flat. I have had him for 2 years in August. Is he just downing tools because of objecting to being on a lead or should I be more concerned at how anxious he gets. He was always happy to be on a lead extender for exploring walks but I don't want to stress him out now... thoughts?

 

[CorvusCorax]

Could it be pain related? Is he on a harness or a collar? It could be hurting his shoulder if he strains against it, so he could be relating the lead to the pain/ache.
If he is a sensitive dog he might have had a fright on a lead walk (who knows, scary noise, car backfiring etc)

He's obviously stressed about something, I have an agoraphobic-type dog, she lags behind on walks, rushes to the car, will take herself out of the field and put herself away (!) etc but I just won't have it and in the latter case, she gets taken back out, even a few milimetres more than she is comfortable with, so that she knows buggering off and running home is not good, she cannot evade me to get what she wants and she is praised, the braver she gets.

If a pain issue is ruled out, make the car journeys shorter and shorter until you literally drive around the corner and take him out.

It is very important not to over fuss him, even if he looks scared and wretched, as it will reinforce that he was right to be scared in the first place, be firm and fair and lavish praise on him with every step he takes out of his comfort zone.
Don't praise, reward or indulge fear and panic, praise confidence.

Take an armful of treats and his favourite toy and if you have to, fast him and feed him from your hand to make him more keen to be with you, wherever you go...his fears may abate if he is hungry and you have the food, but won't give it to him until he is walking along with you.

 

[Luci07]

thank you - I will try and put this into place. He is 200% when up at the yard - no problem in greeting all his friends or racing down the fields with me so your thought that he has hurt himself/frightened himself on a lead might well be the factor. I might back off until I know his shoulder is completely OK and then try again - go for walks with his ball etc. I am pretty sure he is sensitive and has probably been yelled or hit as when I first got him, if I shouted at Tara (who is pretty unrepentant), he would disappear and hide in my bedroom shaking. If I yell at Tara, then I have to turn to him quickly and tell him he is good so he stays put.

thank you - you are enormously helpful and thanks for coming to the rescue again!

 

[CorvusCorax]

No worries. Also try attaching a little short lead without a handle (so he doesn't get caught in it, attach a short piece of line to his collar, then after a while, a heavier, longer piece of line once he is happy) and let him trail it around in the house and garden, when he is feeding etc so that he knows that the lead is a fun thing to have around and won't hurt him.

Maybe even the noise of the ratchet or shape and colour of the extendy lead may have reminded him of something. Or like I said pain, the more he pulls, the more pain he would cause, but he doesn't know that, so is pulling to get away from the thing that is causing him pain, but he is attached to it, silly billy!

Have you tried him with any other kind of lead or line or just the one he 'knows'?

 

[Luci07]

the dog walker takes him out on a normal lead, I take him out on an extender so he and Tara can both have a wander. I will try a lead rope on him so it doesn't catch and see how he reacts to that..

and the end result is a highly exuberant dog doing the wall of death around my house..shoulder isn't improving (no suprise) so he will have to go back to the vet and see what they suggest now. I really think it is something high in his shoulder/neck now..