Labrador refusing to walk - should I change time?

[Doboopedoo]

We have a lovely, mostly chilled 5.5 month old lab pup. We had a lot of issues with pulling and refusing to walk in the early days - thought we had worked through them, but she’s started refusing to walk certain directions with me on our 5pm walk. Just plonks herself down and doesn’t move, even for treats. We are walking to woods and local park, and she used to love it. She’s fine on lunchtime walk, we usually go further afield for this.

Any tips for how to encourage her to keep walking? Also, what time of day do people usually walk their dogs - we usually do lunchtime just before her lunch, and 5pm just before her dinner. Wondering if time change may help?

How long is each walk?

At 5.5 months the morning/pre lunch is probably enough. Is she a good weight?

Mine usually get 2 walks. The first is at least an hour with off lead time. The 2nd is a pavement walk in the neighbourhood, possibly 25 minutes. Though if either gets dropped for any reason they're happy to play in the garden instead.

Would she like a play in the garden instead of that 2nd walk?

Forgot to add the time. 1st walk is around 11am. 2nd is just before their dinner so around 4pm.

it may be that she is associating finishing the walk with getting fed - so is keen to finish and get fed?

Try reversing it. Feed first, then wait an hour (to minimize the risk of bloat), and then do a walk.

Mine get fed first thing - 6;30am ATM, out in the garden for a wee, then back to bed with a cup of tea for me and a snooze for them. Then we walk mid-morning for about 1.5hrs (all adults, we've been working up to this with the youngest who is just 2). They have their evening meal at 4pm. They spend a lot of the day chasing each other round the garden so I dont do an evening walk, unless it's a particularly gorgeous evening. Pre Covid we had training 2 evenings a week.

Thanks all! Walks are about 30 minutes each, sometimes a bit longer (currently shorter at night due to this issue!) We walk at 12 and 5 as fits in with working day, she also goes with dog Walker twice a week too. We do garden time as well.
She’s fairly docile in the evenings - has a post dinner nap, wakes up for about 30-45 minutes then is fully snoozing again by 9.
She is a good weight, and is eating just fine (obviously means anything she can get - typical lab!)

We have labs, we walk 7am 30mins, 10am 60mins, 3pm 60 mins. Final 10mins at 11 ish. One of mine does this too just sits if he wants to go in a different direction. I just put some pressure on the lead and wait it out. It is just stubbornness. So if I am walking passed where he wants to, he just stops and I either turn around and go in the other direction or just wait it out without eye contact. Longest standoff is about 5 mins then he just gets bored and comes.

Think I might need to do this @breadfortea, thank you, good to hear ignoring will work. I’ve been getting in the bad habit of just going another way but obviously that can’t always be the case!

We walk in the mornings with an occasional lunchtime walk (maybe twice a week). I never walk in the evenings unless we happen to be out anyway, as I didn't want him to get into the habit of needing an evening walk in order to settle down.

It's never been an issue and he's normally fast asleep by 8pm and will easily sleep through until 9am given the chance - he's three now but this has been the case since he was about 18 months.

Op you have a 5.5 month old puppy so no I doubt that the exercise is too tiring for him

However if he is very docile and low energy I would get a vet check.

Some dogs (goldies in particular) do lie down and refuse to move always to the frustration of the owners. Do not offer treats if the dog is lying down only offer treats when the dog is moving. So if your dog is walking along happily treat them. If they lie down dont treat them to get them moving. Life is boring so just sit it out - this can take time and can do your head in! so avoiding it by treating movement and avoiding the areas where you know it can happen are a good plan.

I would go the way the dog wants to go (if safe and no reason why not) If I really did not want to go that way I would avoid that area and walk somewhere else so the situation does not occur.

This is more than likely the beginning of teenage times when calm exterior is required to deal with the lovely new behaviours the teenage dog throws at you This too will pass.

Also worth thinking about is that we think dogs need walks but to them they can be pretty boring. So if you add fun to the walks this can help as well.

Encourage sniffing, dont just drag them past the great smells.

Encourage eye contact and checking in with you and reward with toy or treat

Alter the pace, some slow and a bit of trotting (only a bit if young)

Hide a toy and let them sniff it out

Let them look at new things to help with confidence

Have one walk a day at least which is the dogs walk and let them choose direction and pace

My little dick head is not a puppy. He is a stubborn sod. He will refuse to move on a walk for the following reasons:
A) don’t wanna go this way, wanna go that way!
B) don’t wanna go home yet
C) don’t wanna go back to the car
D) it’s nice and sunny out here, wanna lie and watch the world go by for a bit
E) we walked a loooong way yesterday and my feet’s are tired today, wanna go home
F) you turned the stupid wet stuff on again, not going for a walk in this!

I often let him choose so will go along with A, E and F and change route or head home. If it’s a nice day and he picked a good spot sometimes I’ll sit next to him when it’s D.

It’s taken a while to really be able to tell straight off which reason he has for being a dick this time!

We walk in the morning as she prefers to poo on a walk, and after tea.