Does anyone have a dog that won’t go for a walk?

[Snooks1971]

I’ve posted before, sorry, bullet points:
rescue 5 years old, female not spayed yet til end Jan
Old Tyme English Bulldog
Gets very excited when seeing her harness and lead. Can’t wait to leave the house.
Brakes go on when we are outside
Any advice please?

Try making your dog do by giving him some motivation?or maybe just a lazy dog like what Im seeing on social media?XD

Can you go out the back door or a side door?

How secure is your front garden
Could you close the gate
Let her off lead and do lots of treats in the front garden and go back in
Maybe leave the front door open too
Do that a few times
Then try get a bit further?

Or just not try to walk but do some other training in the front garden
Practice sitting settling
Running in n out the house etc

My dog is not very food motivated but will do almost anything for a tiny bite of hot dog..

Tis simple, get another dog 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Our cockapoo is like this. He’s really anxious and I think sometimes the big wide world is just too overwhelming. Our dog trainer suggested throwing small pieces of treat a few steps ahead. This makes him walk because he’s concentrating on the treat rather than everything around him. We also practice walking to heel when he’s reluctant to walk, so he focuses on us and gets a treat every few steps.

Do you have a friend/neighbour with a dog you could try and walk them together and encourage her to follow?

Or even a group of 4/5 dogs and hopefully the excitement will make her follow and join in

Exactly this. Ours was fear of fireworks which then generalised to any noise at all.
Behaviourist has us change the harness, drive him to unfamiliar places to get past the brakes at the front door. Gradually better but he still won’t go unless there’s two of us and won’t go if the weather is wrong or if it’s dark or if he’s heard something.....dozy twat he is

Our old spaniel is like this. He is 14, half deaf, failing sight, aching joints. He has a wee and a poo before the end of the road. If you try to take him any further he puts the brakes on and looks longingly at the house

Oh wow so many other dogs who don’t like walks!!

When she was still at the rescue centre we would walk her every weekend and the only time the brakes went on would be if it was raining.

When she came to live with us (mid October) she would walk just fine, we had some lovely walks! Gradually these have dwindled because it takes me and DH to gently encourage her with treats and much praise and it’s got harder and harder. Her brakes have got stronger and she’s strong too (30kg?) plus we don’t want to force her of course.

Some great advice on this thread huge thanks. Sorry I haven’t name checked everyone, but many of you have kind of reinforced what we thought might help ie going out front and just letting her “be” with no pressure to leave our garden. Unfortunately the front garden isn’t fenced off and whilst she doesn’t seem to be a bolter I get angsty if she’s outside without a lead. She came out the front last week when DH was washing the car and was happily hanging around (no brakes) but I don’t trust her recall yet. Maybe that’s the way to go though - hanging out the front with games, relaxed, no pressure, just sniffing etc.

This might be useful if your front garden is not fenced, Pets at Home sell them, you stick it in the ground so your dog is secure but I would only use it whilst you were outside with them in case they got tangled up.

@BettyBooJustDoinTheDoo that’s a great idea, even if we are outside for only 5 mins with her I could relax more! Thank you!

If she stops at a certain area of the front garden e.g she gets half way to end of drive and that's when stops etc
Try feeding her meals just before that spot and then you can slowly move it or you can throw a few bits just past that point and when she gets them and eats them lots of fuss and reward (works best if food motivated if not find what does motivate the most)
Definitely advise seeing a dog trainer/behaviourist to get their help
If your in West Yorkshire I cover that area if not a good place to look is on the IMDT (institute of modern dog trainers) website on look for a trainer and you can put post code in and it will bring up trainers. The IMDT is positive only and force free trainers that have all undergone assesments to become a member

Ours will occasionally turn himself into a 17kg puddle on the pavement if I start to go towards one walk when he's decided he wants to go a different way. He can normally be got moving again with a few treats. He much prefers to be driven to his destination, though, and will refuse to budge if the car's in the drive and I try to walk past it. We have been known to ask DH to drive us to the end of our road on his way to work, after which he will trot off happily, having got his way and had his little ride. He has us well trained!

@remz thank you - I’ve looked on the IMDT site and bizarrely there is a trainer very close to our village. They are very gun dog based though, don’t know if that matters?? but will give them a call to see if they can advise.

Appreciate about the food motivation - a few weeks ago when we could still coax her out, I would be in front with treats/bit of her normal food in my hand, it would take approx 100m of stopping/starting, a bit of a treat, then she would walk and be snuffling the treat in my hand with her wet jowls we would eventually get going and have a lovely walk.

The brakes have come on more and more frequently and she won’t budge for food anymore.

@spiderlight yes! She has always been car boot or car back door obsessed, we don’t know her history of exactly why. She seems to favour white vehicles, a few weeks ago my heart would sink if we had to pass a parked up white van.

We took her out the front yesterday on a long retractable lead just so she wouldn’t feel the pressure of a lead. She tried to get into the boot of the car for about a minute, we just stood and quietly didn’t do much, then she started doing full body shaking and trembling. Oh god!

If we take her out in the car she refuses to get out of the boot!

The longer we’ve had her, the more reluctant she is to walk. It’s been a steady decline. We’ve had her since October.

She is gorgeous and so loved by all of us and we don’t want to upset her.

Our dog will try and jump in any car boot we pass because in her previous home they went for twice daily walks via the car, 5 years on she still thinks getting in any car boot = being taken somewhere for a walk!!

I wonder if your dog was dumped somewhere

@RandomMess thanks so much for all your posts, I truly wish she could talk!
All we know is:
She was used for breeding by first owner
“Rescued” by her next owner who was pretty ignorant, left her alone for 9 hours a day so her claws were massively overgrown
She was never walked, in hindsight we wonder if they didn’t walk her because she didn’t like it; or she doesn’t like it because she was never walked. Chicken and egg!

Hmmm you collected by car so that is a good thing to her?

Mine is like this. He was a rescue, he was locked outside in a yard and pretty much ignored. Hates tall men. He will go out if we all go (4 of us), but otherwise no chance. We all took him out the other day and he walked for a good 2 hours, but 3 of us tried the day after and he wouldn't budge. He's terrified of loud noises. I've tried adaptil and a thunder coat, he has medication for anxiety. Interestingly, my dad comes round when I'm at work and he'll have a little walk round the block with him.

@Snooks1971 - mine is terribly interested in vans as well (he's a rescue as well and I've wondered whether he went to work with his previous owner). He will make to get into any vehicle we pass with an open door. We can arrive at his favourite walk all excited, but if the people three cars along are leaving, he'll pull towards their car to get in with them. I don't dare let him off the lead anywhere near a car park because he'd be so easy to steal. Mind you, he could give someone the fright of their life - they'd be driving off perfectly innocently and then they'd glance in the mirror and see this in their back seat!

My dog was just like this! What helped him out a lot was persistence, reward and reassurance. We started with a short walk around our road, keeping him close, if he stopped or lied down, wed sit with him for a short while then, pick him up by his armpits (all 40kgs of him!) and reward him after couple more steps forward with some treats, then we'd go home, and repeat the same thing again a couple of times again. I'd also recommend finding another, older, more confident dog to walk with your dog! Having another dog can reassure them that it's all gonna be alright. It's not gonna be a quick fix, but I assure you, its 100% worth it. Its taken about a year for our dog to get over his fear of the outside, but seeing him enjoying his walks now is so rewarding :) 💕

Mine was like this. We rescued another dog who loved walks and wasn't anxious. It's worked a treat, old dog now loves walks with the new dog.

@Snooks1971 it's very clear you just need to get a 2nd dog 🤷🏽‍♀️😂

My lovely EBT used to do this all the time! Sometimes she would just stop in the middle of a walk, lie down and refuse to go on. Often she'd get outside the door and turn back round to face it! It used to really frustrate me, but now she's gone, I miss her quirks like crazy.

Get a dog push chair, take her out to the park, put her on the ground. Hopefully she will start to enjoy it. But make her go out one way or another you must.

www.amazon.co.uk/FoxHunter-Stroller-Traveling-Disabled-Pushchair/dp/B009WQQW7I/ref=sr_1_25?s=pet-supplies&keywords=pet+stroller&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1578594046&sr=1-25

@RandomMess would if we could! It took bloody ages to find a rescue who could live with a cat - we have a very spoilt 14/15 yr old cat queen and her needs were paramount!