If you've had a dog that freezes, did things improve?

[AcerTop]

Adopted an adult dog 4 months ago & he's great. Problem is when taken on walks he stops & can't get him moving again so need to carry him home. He doesn't seem frightened of the environment or noises or people - just stops & no amount of cajoling gets him going

Anyone recognise this & found a solution?

Mines freezes when on lead, it means she wants the lead off to sniff or do the toilet, she won’t do the toilet on lead. We got her age 6 and we don’t think she was walked much on lead and is much better behaved off lead, the problem we have now is she is 12 and a bit deaf so it’s safer to have her on lead in some places.

This was one of ours. What worked was we took him on the same, fairly short and quiet walk every day. He was totally overwhelmed and this made life a bit more predictable.
For him, it took over a year to build confidence. No treating, cajoling or waiting worked, just time and predictability.
Good work and congrats on your adoption. He’s a lucky dog 😊

If you need to do some carrying, have you tried carrying him to the furthest point and seeing if he will walk all the way home?

I’m afraid ours has never really got better (she’s 10 now), , she does it because she’s objecting to the lead I think. She’s so much better off lead (and good recall), but obviously sometimes they need a be on a lead.

We found changing direction, walking on the road, having higher value treats etc helped. Also, just wait, until they un- freeze, and then lots of praise. Don’t always pick them up, as then they learn that freezing will get them to be carried. Or puck them up and then put them back,down again. Do they always freeze at the same point?

Also changing to a harness- we don’t think he liked pressure on his neck, plus offload walks which built up his confidence ( or long lead ).

We had this with an anxious rescue greyhound. It was a problem until we got her a less anxious brother greyhound. Then she followed him everywhere happily.

It is a known thing with greyhounds. The rescue told me it was called anchoring.
Mine used to do it in a certain lane on the way to the park. She was not even a nervous ex-racer. She was a 4 month old puppy.

My mum's greyhound froze in The Range the other day because one of his paws slipped a tiny bit on the floor. He is 40kg so carrying him out was not an option 😅
We had to wait it out, and kind of pull him out otherwise we would still be there now 😅

Yeah I never go anywhere without treats. A frozen greyhound comes very unstuck if you wave a hot dog around in 90% of the cases!

My dog does this occasionally, normally changing direction gets him going again, he’s only 8kgs though so worse case scenario I pick him up.

Interesting re greyhounds, my friend has a rescue greyhound who does it aa well and picking him up is definitely not an option!!

Our trainer said patience was the key, just wait it out. Longest we’ve waited was 30 minutes….

Still get this with our Weimaraner, it’s usually as we leave the fields and he decides he’s not ready to go home.
so stubborn!
I’ve thrown treats ahead, tried changing directions, pulling him in the direction I want him to go.
nothing works until he accepts he’s not going back into the fields.
Crazy!

Mine does this. Stands there with one paw up and unsure. Freezes.

I could wave steak under her nose and it wouldnt register.

What she wants is her lead on. As soon as i clip it on she starts trotting along .... 😵‍💫🤷🏼‍♀️

Mines the opposite, he will start walking if I take the lead off and start walking away but refuses to move on the lead. If in the countryside that’s fine but no so easy if next to a busy road 🤦‍♀️

I have had two dogs that very occasionally froze on lead. In each it was due to pain or discomfort. One was later thought to have an intermittent cardiac arrhythmia and froze whenever it kicked in. She had a big stroke and died a few months later. I think it is important to make sure there is nothing medical going on.

One of my dogs started doing this and it turned out he had hypothyroidism. He was much better once on medication.

I think it depends why your dog is freezing. Dogs can freeze for a variety of reasons: because they're sore, or tired, because they are anxious or overwhelmed, because they're taking the world in (my rescue did this a lot when I first got him), because they don't want to go home or want to go in another direction (mine does this a lot!), or because something on that walk has spooked them in the past.

I'd take them to the vets to rule out pain or a condition that affects their energy if you haven't done so. I've had a dog who suddenly flops down on walks because of an undiagnosed medical condition that was making him anaemic.

When my dog freezes to take in the world I wait for a few mins for him to have a look & then say off we go. When my dog freezes/anchors because he wants to go a different way or to not go home, I tend to wait looking the way I want to go (~2 min) until he goes urgh ok then, we'll go your way (I've learnt this works for my dog from trial and error). Then I tell him he's a good boy. When my dog freezes because he's decided that one particular road is scary, I walk another way. I've also occassionally used treats as bribes when I've needed to as my dog is very definitely not pick-up-able!