Freezing

[Reebokthedug]

Hi I’ve been fostering a 5 year old ex racing greyhound for 3 weeks. Sometimes when he is on a walk he suddenly freezes and refuses to move. Most of the time it’s when he sees other dogs but some times he does it for no apparent reason. This morning he did it for no apparent reason and refused to budge for 10 mins. Does anyone know why he’s doing this and what’s the best thing to do when he does it. Thanks

[BatterseaBrindl]

Try doing a search for 'statuing' and you may get some replies

[HeyRunDog]

This happens to 99% of greyhound owners so as BatterseaBrindl says put "statuing" in the search box top right of this page and press enter and you'll get lots of advice

[nycgrey218]

We dealt with some pretty intense statuing from our boy (to the point of having to pick him up and carry him home!), and I’m proud to say he’s doing so much better and almost never freezes now. We found it worked best for him to keep him engaged throughout the walk (lots of positive reinforcement in the form of treats when he is walking) and to do little training activities to force him to use his other senses. We suspect he saw something imperceptible that triggered the anxiety and statuing, so we started doing “find it!” where we toss a treat into the grass and he has to use his nose to find it. 
 

For us, it was about keeping him below his anxiety threshold - basically, once he reaches the point of no return, it’s like his brain would shut off and he couldn’t move. So keeping him engaged and focused on us throughout really helped.