Dog Suddenly Refusing to Walk / Anxiety Walking

[Esme]

One of our dogs (we have 2) has suddenly, since just before Christmas, been planting and refusing to walk around the village.

He's 10 now, we've had him since a rescue pup and while he's always been prone to a bit of anxiety this normally presents in his general demeanour and behaviour rather than only when walking.

Generally you can get him to the end of the road but whichever way you turn from that point he will get a few hundreds yards and flatly plant. No amount of coaxing, pulling, pushing, ignoring him etc. will work. Sometimes you can get a little further by changing direction instead of turning round, but that will only be 30 seconds further before he stops again!

We have tried driving him to a field in the village where we have always walked (enclosed so it's their fun off-lead walk!) but after a couple of minutes he was back by the gate waiting to go home and the second time we tried this he wouldn't even leave the car!

If we drive to another walk entirely he has a brilliant time off lead and thoroughly enjoys a good play and a chase. Sadly another regular walk that we used to drive to had shooting in the distance a couple of weeks ago and he now won't leave the car there either.

He has seen the regular physio (our other dog has it for an old injury so he gets a check up too!) and she is fab at picking up the smallest changes but found nothing wrong. We have taken him to the vets who could also find nothing wrong physically and no virus/nothing showing in bloods.

We've tried various diffusers, sprays and natural calmers (and the doggy calming cookies) but to no avail. Obviously we really don't want to resort to fully sedating him every day for a walk around the village!

As I said, he's absolutely fine in himself and has plenty of energy in the house when he's not had a walk. Needless to say there was no perceptible (to us!) incident that set this off, like shooting nearby or a bad experience, one day he was fine and the next he wasn't.

Has anyone had anything similar? As the vets are at a loss too I was hoping someone might have anecdotal tips!

Thanks in advance

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

Left field, but it seems as though you have tried every go to answer, would be CBD oil perhaps? My neighbour has an agoraphobic Beagle that benefits from it.

 

[Esme]

Left field, but it seems as though you have tried every go to answer, would be CBD oil perhaps? My neighbour has an agoraphobic Beagle that benefits from it.

Thank you! Hadn't thought of that, definitely worth a try. Do you know if there's a particular brand they use or recommend?

 

[deb_l222]

I was going to suggest another trip to the vets to get his eyesight check until I noticed your sentence about the alternate walk where there was shooting.

One of mine (Rufus) suddenly became very intolerant of shooting season and I used to have a terrible time getting him out on a walk. He would shiver, shake, wouldn't walk and generally be miserable. This came totally out of the blue one day. Bizarrely he was still OK with fireworks.

I used to pop cotton wool balls in his ears, to muffle the sound, when we set off on a walk and it worked a treat. Eventually he was fine and tolerated shooting again - don't know why though.

I mentioned this in passing to my friend, who has working spaniels and she had known working dogs of many years standing suddenly get phobic around guns. The theory was, as the dog gets older, they become less tolerant of loud noises, just like we do. Eventually they go deaf (just like us) and it's not a problem anymore

 

[misst]

He is 10 so not young (not ancient either I know) but I would be looking at eyesight - my old terrier would plant/not walk in bright sunlight especially in the winter if it was glaring. She turned out to have cataracts. She also developed dementia and I wonder, looking back, if the walking thing was the beginning of this as well. She just used to randomly not want to walk. Analgesia made no difference. She would take herself home (we live on a common) or back to the car if we were out. I have a photo of her in my granddaughters pushchair with 18 month granddaughter walking next to her on the common. She was perfectly happy in the pushchair! She would refuse to leave the house or car some days. We just let her call the shots in the end. We had another dog who was fine at the time and there had been no obvious "trigger" for her behaviour.
It sounds behavioural rather pain related? I would get a vet check.
For the record Tilly was about 12 when this started and I lost her to dementia at 14.

 

[Esme]

Thanks for all your help! He had a trip back to the vets today and was given the all clear for glaucoma and cataracts, so that was good news.
He also LOVES the snow (from under 3 coats) so has had some fab walks this week. It’s so nice to see him enjoying himself again and hoping it might even break the cycle of anxiety... If not, we will try CBD and the vet recommended an ex-colleague turned behaviourist so we have been in contact with him too.

Very interesting re the deafness and cotton wool! He’s funny about his ears being touched but we did have success on bonfire night with a thick sock over his head & ears (LOL!) like a snood, so will give it a try!

 

[jumbyjack]

You could be describing how my little dog behaves, every day is different with her and her panic attacks are ledgendary! A doggie pram has helped it's her safe place when the panic hits and it's like throwing a switch when she pops in. She makes her own decisions as to in or out of the pram. Could be difficult with a huge dog though. I too would be interested in the CBD oil, non of the vast amount of calmers have been any use at all!

 

[dogatemysalad]

My Border Terrier is getting old and thinks his seniority gives him the right to refuse walks that he finds boring. However, the main issue with him, is extremes of weather. He now has a coat, which he's seemingly very proud of, but I think it's mostly his paws that suffer when its frosty or icy, yet he doesn't like boots. He now chooses whether he joins me on the first walk of the day, but like your dog, if we drive somewhere new, he's up and running like a puppy.