Refusing to walk, then getting boisterous

[fayeth1989]

Hi, 

I need some advice as I am at an absolute loss of what to do with our girl Tess.

We have had her for just over 3 months, she turns 4 next week. She is an amazing dog, so friendly and affectionate... Well, maybe a little too friendly at times.

Tess has had a LOT of issues with walking. When we first got her, we didn’t walk for the first 2 weeks because we couldn’t get past the front door. We have to get in the car and drive to a park, if we try to walk her anywhere else she freezes and we literally can not move her no matter what we do (unless we walk back towards home, most of the time). It seems like it is always one step forward and two back, just when she decides to try something new and we think we are getting somewhere, she’ll suddenly freeze and refuse to move. We’ve had to resort to carrying her at times just to get her home because after 30 minutes of standing still we have little choice. The only thing that will get her going is if a random dog walks past in the direction we need to go, then she starts flipping out and jumping all over the place before walking – sometimes.

3 months on and she walks much more easily now, she’s come a long way. But sometimes she will freeze at the door and will only walk to the car. It is still on her terms and she will still only do the same route at the one park. She walks back to the car with no problems, but again, she decides the route back to the car.

The problem now: when we get to the park, any dog that comes near her she jumps all over the place excitably and barks excessively. It is evidently out of sheer excitement, her tail is wagging and she’s in the “play bow” position, but it is too much for many dogs – she is way to boisterous and often scares them (and their owners). I try to tell them she’s just excited and wants to play but it’s a little embarrassing, I have zero control over her when she’s acting this way, she just will not listen or look at me. Legally, we can’t let her off the lead to let her play (but I wouldn’t trust her not to run off regardless). I don’t want to take her to the dog park because she gets like this and others wonder why I walk her to a dog park and keep her on leash, but it is literally the only walk she will do so I feel like I have no choice.

For the freezing- I have tried getting a behaviourist in, adaptil spray, adaptil collar, walking with other dogs, the “let’s go command”, standing by her and gently pushing her side with my thigh, patting her, talking to her, luring with treats (when she is anxious or over-excited, she flat out refuses to eat so training her feels near impossible). When my partner is with us, she still freezes, but her jumping and barking behaviour towards other dogs seems slightly better (which in itself is frustrating as he doesn’t see what I have to try to manage when alone). Unfortunately he is only able to join us on the evening walk, not the morning walk. We are working on training in the house to build a bond and trust (specifically “find it”, “leave it”, “look at me” and “on your bed”) – she often engages but loses interest very quickly. She has a snuffle mat and kong to keep her mind active when feeding or when we are out.

This morning, she refused to walk back to the car – she didn’t want to leave the park because she wanted to play with other dogs in her usual boisterous manner. Now, this is surely not freezing due to anxiety, she does this walk every day and practically skips back to the car. This I believe was her wanting to stay at the park “playing” with the other dogs- I took her off the park because she was getting too over excited and barking incredibly loudly, and it was only 6am. It took 30minutes to get her moving, when a random man walked past with his dog.

Can anyone offer any advice? Do I just persist with what I am doing, and just avoid the park until she has learned to calm down around other dogs? Any tips to get her walking elsewhere? I don’t know if the next step is a trip to the vets? I’d really rather avoid medication if she doesn’t absolutely need it.

Please make no mistake, she is such an amazing and confident dog in all aspects of life, but outside of the house she becomes this nervous/over-excited maniac, and after this morning I am at my wits end. I want her to be happy and content but I currently spend all of my time worrying about her which is not helping the situation.

Any advice or experience of this would be so appreciated. I know it is early days but I feel like every time she is improving, suddenly we end up back at square one, and I can’t put my finger on what has happened or what is scaring her.

Sorry this is such a long post, if you have got this far, thank you

Faye and Tess

[HeyRunDog]

You could try tempting her with a high value treat like a piece of chicken or sausage when she freezes. Another option is to try the way trainers get the hounds into the traps at races is to put your fingers through her collar and in an action similar to if you were ten pin bowling move her forward and keep walking with the "lets go" command.

[fayeth1989]

20 hours ago, HeyRunDog said:

You could try tempting her with a high value treat like a piece of chicken or sausage when she freezes. Another option is to try the way trainers get the hounds into the traps at races is to put your fingers through her collar and in an action similar to if you were ten pin bowling move her forward and keep walking with the "lets go" command.

Hi,

Thanks so much for the reply. Treats don't really work as she is often so determined not to move that she shows no interest, no matter what's on offer!

However, I tried the bowling ball suggestion this morning. We walked to the park and I then turned around (as she misbehaves on the park sometimes, I have decided to only take her on there in the evening when my partner is with us as she for some reason is much less boisterous/cheeky when he is there). So when I turned around and she froze (as I knew she would because she was determined to go to the park) I did the bowling ball thing with the "let's go" command - she hesitated, but it worked! We had 3 stalls which would usually mean 30 mins lost whilst waiting for her to get moving, now, a few seconds!! 

She's fallen out with me now, she hasn't looked at me since we got home and keeps grunting when I say her name  Oh well, she'll get over it!

Thank you so much!

[Ragsysmum]

When we get new rescue dogs into kennels I clip on and walk so fast they never get chance to freeze!