elderly retriever - walkies advice

[BookWitch]

My old lady is around 12. We got her as a rescue three years ago, so her age is an estimate by the vet and we never knew her as a young dog.

She has never been overkeen on walking, but would plod along with us.

She is now becoming reluctant to go at all, but I try to take her for a short, slow paced walk about every other day. She is getting now so she just won't go at all - literally stops dead and refuses to move after about 25metres (she is happy and waggy when the lead goes on) . If we turn around and walk back towards home, she goes quite happily.

The question is, should I keep trying to make her go? Will stop going for walks means she declines quickly? (I am fully realistic about how long we might have her - we knew this when we took her)

She eats well (obviously - she is a retriever!)
She still likes her toys, will play pull with us and "chase" plod after them if we throw them for her
She LOVES sitting by the rat cage and watching them run around
She is on Previcox for her joints and is on Eukanaba Senior Dog food.

Any advice?

When we had elderly dogs in the past we asked them if they wanted to go each day - if they appeared at the call of "walkies" they went, and if not they didn't.

However, I wonder if your dog would benefit from a doggy pushchair (or a lift in the car if you have one and parking is available) to get her out and about and still reaching the park (ie the best bit) without the street based plodding.

My retriever would stop on walks when she was done, and we would go home. Does she like to swim? If she does an indoor dog pool may be a good solution, swimming is great for older dogs as it's exercise without the pressure on their joints.
Our last retriever would go for weekly swims and he loved it, it would knock him out all day. But he would try and get into the pool without his life jacket on every time he would go!

Thanks for your replies and suggestions

She doesn't like water at all, walks around puddles! So I don't think swimming is going to happen, but it's a shame because that would have been great.

She is better when there is more than one person walking with her , so might stick to times when DD is home.

We will keep offering her walkies but we won't make her go anymore.