Refusing Walks

[Guest mhvoth]

We've had 2 year old Shortcake for about two months now. One major hurdle we are still trying to clear is to take her on walks. She just doesn't seem to like walking on a leash. I know how important exercise is and I don't feel that Shortcake is getting adequate physical activity. Some days we are lucky to get her to walk to the end of the driveway. We typically try taking her on 3-4 walks per days, but the total distance may just be a 100 meters or so.

 

What usually happens is we'll walk out the front door, take a few steps, and Shortcake freezes. Something always distracts her, maybe a car, another dog across the street, or leaves rustling. She may eventually start walking again until something new catches her attention. When we are on the move we make sure that we keep a steady pace and that we are always in front of Shortcake leading the pack.

 

I'm not sure that she is scared because we can usually sense her fear by the position of her tail. On walks, her tail hangs normally and isn't between her legs (unless she starts sniffing where other dogs mark). We try rewarding her with treats when she does walk, but we are careful not to use treats as lures, only as rewards. We have also tried going on walks with our friends and their greyhound. Shortcake definitely does better walking with another grey, but the walks are still very much stop-and-go.

 

It's not that she doesn't like being outside because she likes playing in the backyard. However, even in the backyard, as soon as we put the leash on she gets stubborn.

 

Any advice? We really want to be able to take Shortcake on walks and runs with us.

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

Well I would start by getting a "training" leash, maybe get one that is 15' long. Then I would leash her in the back yard, getting her used to the leash outside. I would keep shortening the leash every so often when she acts normal, pull in a foot or so, then monitor her behavior. Keep this up until you can move back to the normal 6' leash in the yard. Then when you have that, try the walks again. Just a thought.

 

Chad

[Guest Greytluv]

Wow, I've never heard of a Greyhound who doesn't like to go for a walk I think the training leash sounds good.

 

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[TheFullHouse]

If she's at all food motivated you can carry little snacks with you and when she stops, hold out a snack in front of her, far enough so she'll have to take a couple of steps to get it. Then keep walking when she takes it. It will get you moving forward and she'll learn good things come with walking. Soon she should be walking willingly without the treats.

 

Forgot to add, once you get her walking, a short leash works best so she'll have to stay right by your side when walking.

[KahluasMagic]

Bella wouldn't walk for the first year I had her. The vet said be patient and I tried to be. One day Pepper & I started out and she ran to the door. She walked 2 miles that day. Now if she wants to join us she does, if not she stays home. It seems to work for her ! She does prefer walking in the cold weather, she hated the heat this summer.

[Guest IrskasMom]

At this time of Year , I would not press the Issue . I don't know where you live , but we have super cold Weather with Windgust's up to 40 mph . If she is happy to go in the Backyard and runs a few Circles it's ok. Come Spring she might be more settled and want's to go very eager on Walks .

This all beeing said : WELCOME to GT and of course , this is the Place to come for Help and Advice . There is just one more Thing. We love to see Pictures of Shortcake

Edited January 2, 2010 by IrskasMom

[Teensy]

I thought this freezing/statuing behavior was really common with greyhounds, actually. There are threads about it here, and lots of info on my adoption group's yahoo group. Irene still does it sometimes.

 

From what I can tell the correct thing to do is to be as patient as you can possibly be, and try everything that anyone suggests. We tried: just waiting her out, sitting down (this completely freaked her out), luring her along with hot dogs (when we really needed to get somewhere), crouching down and whistling/calling her, randomly reinforcing normal walking with kibble and treats, walking her with other dogs, walking back behind her and coming up on the other side, walking back behind her and taking little jogging steps along side her. Sometimes we would just have to wait for another dog to pass by. She doesn't do it as much as she used to, but she still does it once in a while.

 

The thing that worked best for me was crouching down and whistling to her. Sometimes I would have to do it a few times in a row to get her past whatever she was fixated on. The thing that works best for my husband is just ignoring her and continuing to walk. That doesn't work with me though. She just becomes an anchor. Both of my friends who recently adopted greyhounds have had the same trouble, and solved it in different ways.

 

I can tell you this much, she has never statued when I was walking two dogs at once.

[Guest mpergolizzi]

We were kind of in the same situation as you, but our 2 year old would walk, then one day the paper man scared her when he threw a newspaper into someones garage door(loud bang). After that day she was scared to go for any walks, she would shake when we pulled the leash out, or open the door, this lasted for a week. I took her to the vet for a check up, after blood, urine tests and $300 everything was fine. As mean as this sounds the vet's advice was to put the leash on her walk out the door don't look back, when she stops or freezes just give a slight tug and say come, don't look back or say it's ok, just a slight tug say come and continue to walk. This worked the 1st time for us. As soon as we came back from the vet I tried it and it worked for us. I know our situation was different than yours, but other suggestions the vet gave us was, to put the leash on inside the house, let her walk around the house with it on, take her for walks inside the house on the leash, and give a lot of praise and treats for good behavior. Good luck I know how frustrating it can be.

[2ndChance]

Ahhh..I'm not alone! I could not wait to go to the reserviour and show off my beautiful greyhound....but that wasn't happening any time soon . I couldn't even take him around my block (still can't b/c there are too many parked cars...he loves them). I rely heavily on the dog park for exercise...but I do go to a neighboring development a minute's drive away. It's annoying to drive over there to walk him, but he walks so much better. He STILL statues...sometimes only once or twice...other times a handful. I tried EVERYTHING here on GT recommended. Barely any of it worked...and I tried it more than once!

 

Here's what I realized....

 

The more I take him, the better he is. Also, the more familiar the area, the better. And here I thought changing it up would bet the way to go. When he does statue....i wait it out. Not too fun when he does it in front of a driveway when the ppl come home and want to pull in!!

 

I let him be stubborn or stare at the road....then I try a sweet "Walk" or "Let's go" and "sometimes" he listens. Most of the time he goes when he's ready. But yes, like some other have said, LOTS AND LOTS of praise when he is walking! I do carry treats...but to give him one when he walks good causes him to stop ...why would i do that??! The praise works for me..and treats at end. Whenever he's walking...I constantly say "Good walk Chance" over and over. I heard it may take a year...maybe longer...for this to get better...and may never be cured. Depends on the hound I guess. I've had Chance 4 months now...he improved the more we went. Still not perfect...but he's allowed to have ONE hang up. He's a terrific dog...

[Guest pennmorgan]

For us, with Olivia, the solution to this problem was not waiting it out, but forcing her to keep walking. She would freeze, and we'd count to 10 and then give her a quick, sharp tug (not a drag, a quick tug) and say "OK, let's go!" Once we saw that this technique got her moving, it took us 2 walks (using this technique 3-5 times per walk) for her to get moving consistently. Honestly, I think she was testing us--basically saying "I'm in charge here, and I don't want to walk," and our tug reinforced that WE were the ones leading this walk, not her. She absolutely loves her three daily walks now--they are the highlight of her day.

[Guest mhvoth]

Lots of great tips here! Thanks to everyone! Its great to know that other greys have had similar issues and were able to work though it.

[Guest rachelee]

Bistro was afraid to walk for a while after we first got him. I think he got spooked by a big truck or a bus. I just kept taking him out in the yard and trying to take longer walks early in the morning or later in the evening when there was less traffic. With patience he began to love walks.

 

Now he'd walk all day!

 

Good luck.

[Guest Energy11]

At this time of Year , I would not press the Issue . I don't know where you live , but we have super cold Weather with Windgust's up to 40 mph . If she is happy to go in the Backyard and runs a few Circles it's ok. Come Spring she might be more settled and want's to go very eager on Walks .

This all beeing said : WELCOME to GT and of course , this is the Place to come for Help and Advice . There is just one more Thing. We love to see Pictures of Shortcake

We have a wind-chill here today in the single digits. I am fine with it, but the dogs, ... NO WAY would they walk, even with their coats. They are bored, but will not venture out in this weather. I would bet yours will be better when it warms up a bit. Good Luck!

[Guest Liz]

Our senior girl does not like to walk especially in the winter, so we don't force her, when we first got her she liked to walk and then she was attacked by a small ankle biter type dog, after that she stopped wanting to go for walks. When the weather is nice and she sees me getting ready for a walk with our other girl and she goes to the door I take her but if she goes to her bed I let her at home, she does not get as much excersise as I think she should but she does have a bad leg so I let her do a little runs in the yard.