Local Walk Fears

[Katpickles]

Hello lovelies! I'm hopping all greyt parents in Irmas wake are safe and sound.

I'm now officially the fur parent to our Foxy! Fostering period over, adoption complete 😍

Our couch ornament/cuddle machine/play bowing ball chaser is doing well in all areas of adjusting to pet life. She's responsive to name, learned how to use the dog door, happily sleeps or self entertains during the work day, copes with nail clipping and grooming by a stranger and me stealing her treats and re-hiding them.

Foxy happily comes on morning and evening walks (over 40 mins each - active girl she is!), is learning how to interact with other breeds, has met lots of new people and acclimatised to short people flapping their arms and squealing (kids). So her generally lovely and cheeky awesomeness is on track with the exception of one thing...

 

She will only walk in green areas. I have to drive her a couple of kms away for us to walk each morning/evening. Foxy just doesn't want a bar of our direct streets. Similar suburbs and she's fine, just not our street?!?

 

I think it's due to the level of traffic near our place, she's really not a fan, the cats and trucks go by at a fair speed. I really need to get her out of this habit/reaction. Not being able to walk her in our direct area is causing me some issues, it's too dark for me to walk her in the parks etc when I get home from work, and I would like to get her used to having a walker in the event my other half is away and I can't get home before dark.

 

Any tips / thoughts on how I can get her moving in our local area. The waiting it out works for around 200m from the front door, having us both go, with one walking ahead works for half a block, but it just doesn't seem to be progressing. She'll hit her 'no more point' turn and pull to go home. She doesn't pull or skit on our other walks unless we find an aggressive barking dog.

 

Your advice would be greatly appreciated!

[JohnF]

Possibly your dog has corns, or may have a memory of having had burned pads on solid surfaces in the summer heat. But you said similar suburbs were OK... is the only difference the traffic? Is the environment in yours more urban than suburban (less greenery)? Are there other dog territories in your street? Greys can be very particular about that, but would have already been trained to walk nicely on a lead where necessary.

[greysmom]

You'll need to start from scratch in making her local walks a really good thing.

 

Get a really super awesome smelly treat - something she really loves and will always eat - and only use it for this purpose (if she's not food motivated a squeaky toy or other thing she loves can be used as a reward). Take her out as usual, and just before you get to her stopping place, begin giving her small bits of this treat while walking. Keep going. If she stops, use the treat to lure her forward. Once she's walking well, keep giving treats and go a little ways beyond where she usually stops, then turn around and go home with lots of praising and fun times.

 

Repeat this a couple times an hour until she's really excited to go for walks on her own street - short repetitions, lots of treats and praise. You want the walks to be fun fun fun! Gradually stretch out the length of the walk and the tiime between repetitions.

 

As she becomes more confident you can discontinue the treat use gradually. Make sure you reduce her normal food amount to account for the number of treats she will be getting.

 

If she has a general sort of anxiousness about traffic and business on your street, try just sitting with her on your front porch or lawn in short increments, and using the treats to help her understand it's not that scary.