Hi all,
We are looking for some advice with our relatively new grey who we adopted 4 months ago. She is an ex racer and 4 years old. She's been very good and settled quickly but is very shy - more so than we first realised.
The big problem we are having is that she will not go for a walk with only one person. This was not an issue at the very beginning but soon after she would only go the green right outside our house and not walk any further than that. The other quirk she has (which could be linked) is she will not go in our garden. Again this was fine in the first few days but we made the mistake of shutting the door one night for 5 minutes whilst she was out there to encourage her to toilet and she got panicked. Since then it is almost impossible to get her out there. The only time she has gone is when she had an upset stomach. She is a clean girl so clearly thought needs must on that occassion!
Because of the garden problem, she got used to being taken to the green outside in the morning, at night and at dinner. She'd then get at least one, sometimes two walks with both of us to the local park. She is perfectly happy to walk with both of us and wags her tail constantly with both of us there. Unfortunately now we are no longer in lockdown only one of us is home during the day and she simply refuses to walk with one person. She will go to the green outside to toilet but after that refuses to move unless it's to go back to the house. Despite being happy when her lead comes out, she is visibly nervous if you try to continue walking past her green and can see her legs shaking if you try to wait it out. You would think it was a different dog compared to when she is out with two people!
If I take her in the car to another local place it is 50/50 as to whether or not she will walk or statue.
My feeling is when she has one person she associates this with just a quick toilet break but struggling to break her out of this.
She loves food indoors, but when she's nervous with one person outdoors she doesn't care for it much and haven't been able to use this as a motivator.
Any other similar stories out there or thoughts on how we can break this habit?
Thanks
James