Will not walk

[RalphyGrey]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for some advice. We have had our greyhound 2 months now and he seems to be getting progressively worse with walking and anxiety.  
 

When we take him round the block he often freezes and will refuse to walk in either direction and it is so hard to get him to walk again to get home. Seems like people, dogs, the sound of talking, cars, cats, you name it and he is scared of it. He is getting worse by the day. We use lots of treats and encouragement but nothing seems to work. Places where he use to enjoy and walk fine he now doesn’t like. He has not had any bad experiences as far as we are aware. 
 

We have had an animal behaviourist in and nothing has worked. 
 

Our whole family is really stressed with this as we have to walk him in order to get him to go to the toilet. 

Any advise would be warmly welcomed! 

[Time4ANap]

Keep an eye out for corns on the paw pads, or anything that looks like the start of corns.  Petunia was doing this and I'd have to call DW to bring the car to get us. She had corns on multiple feet that weren;t really very visible for a long time, but they were causing her pain.  And she's stubborn. 

[RalphyGrey]

Thanks Time4ANap. He has just been the vets and they said that there isn’t anything physically wrong with him. 

[HeyRunDog]

Greyhounds seem to go through a honeymoon period when you first get them and everything seems fine then they realise they don't understand this strange new world they find themselves in and freeze until they make sense of it. Yours seems to have taken longer than most to get to that stage. They do get over it with time, patience and a sense of humour. Can you take him to a local park when it's quiet so there are fewer noises and people for him to cope with?

Search these forums for for statuing for advice and solutions.

[RalphyGrey]

We have been taking him to some quiet spaces but now when we get there he refuses to walk. This is the only place we have left where we would walk before. He cannot stand parks and becomes very distressed we take him to any park. 
 

At the moment it seems as though we will never get him out of this phase which is concerning us. 

[cleptogrey]

check out the other posts by new owners on this forum. it sorta sounds like some of the dogs going into solo homes might need a lead dog. also behaviorist are a blessing if you find a good one. stay in contact(like now!) with you adoption group and keep them updated. maybe a rep can visit and access the situation. it should not be this difficult. often a dog's personality does not come forward until they leave the group situation at the kennel.

[JohnF]

Contact the adoption group and/ or look on social media for another local dog owner who you can walk your dog with. It is very important that the dog doesn't sense the family bouncing stress from one to the other, because that only tells the dog that he's quite right to be worried about whatever it is which is stressing him. If you see him doing a lot of licking his lips, sniffing the ground and looking away, then he's trying to tell you he's worried. Those signals, when seen by another dog, say something like: "please be nice to me, I'm trying not to cause you any trouble."  If he walks better on grass than on hard surfaces, then he may well have corns. Did you recently walk him on a very hot pavement or road which can burn their pads?   So from now on, have someone  with a tasty treat like a piece of hamburger, walk out of the door first and start the walk, then call you. Then you can go in a happy voice: "Ralphy - let's go walkies!", gently attach the lead and tug the collar, and make your way out (and give a treat as you get to the door). The person outside has made the outside safer already, and you've kind of got his back for anything else. When you catch up with the other person. he gets the high value treat and everyone's happy.

[Feefee147]

On 8/7/2020 at 9:31 PM, RalphyGrey said:

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for some advice. We have had our greyhound 2 months now and he seems to be getting progressively worse with walking and anxiety.  
 

When we take him round the block he often freezes and will refuse to walk in either direction and it is so hard to get him to walk again to get home. Seems like people, dogs, the sound of talking, cars, cats, you name it and he is scared of it. He is getting worse by the day. We use lots of treats and encouragement but nothing seems to work. Places where he use to enjoy and walk fine he now doesn’t like. He has not had any bad experiences as far as we are aware. 
 

We have had an animal behaviourist in and nothing has worked. 
 

Our whole family is really stressed with this as we have to walk him in order to get him to go to the toilet. 

Any advise would be warmly welcomed! 

Aw bless him. Poor thing. He's obviously struggling outdoors. 

Another thing to consider - have you tried all going out together, the whole 'pack' taking him out?

Oddly, I've found (and a few other greyhound people have said the same thing to me) that my boy is much happier and far more relaxed when both my partner and I take him out, rather than just one of us. So we used that to build up his confidence and get him used to routes, sounds..etc. He still statues and startles a bit with just one of us but is gradually improving.

Good luck! Freezing greyhounds are not easy!