Is anyone else's dog scared of their own road?

[Hipitydop]

He's a 5 year old rescue lurcher type, been with us 5 months. We knew he had some issues when we rehomed him and most are now in past as we've given him space and kindness and comfort so now has a good life.

Only real problem is he gets very worried when out in our road. Always excited to go out the door but after a couple of minutes he's stopping, ears, back, reversing though this can be in different places. It's a quiet residential road and he doesn't appear frightened of occasional passing cars and is interested in any people he sees but he's clearly not happy in our road. If we take him to the park he's much more relaxed though not totally and this can happen their too.

Anyone had this? Have any insights and can offer any guidance?

Yes, we got a dog trainer who basically said be patient. With ours it’s more she much prefers the kind off lead walk she gets if she goes in the car. So would just point blank refuse to walk round the block. She got us to stand there, putting some very gentle resistance on the lead the way we wanted to go and just wait it out. She said our dog wasn’t the longest she’d had to wait but nearly. It was 20 minutes of standing there till the dog eventually moved a bit the way we were wanting to go. We had to keep at it, it’s dull and slow but we were basically teaching lead walking…..she’s much better now.

Not exactly, but one of my dogs (had from a puppy) can whine and want to go in a different direction occasionally - and I believe he is reacting to a scent, and/or "events" that happened before.

He is an anxious dog on a lead anyway, he prefers running in the fields, but he gets very worked up and tense when he can smell or sense a dog that I can't see or hear. There is a spot in our village where he whines, barks or tries to spin around, and I was baffled until I eventually saw a dog being walked out of a nearby gate - it's a local dog know to be aggressive and intimidating, I had no idea it lived there but my dog knew!

I can't speak for why your dog reacts similarly at a dog park, but maybe he's getting a similar sense of unease if he's not very confident.

It sounds like a lack of confidence to me - what was his life like before you? Had he ever lived in a home or residential area? Was he walked and socialised properly?

I walk a rescue terrier who was terrified of everything outside of the house for a good two years - gates, branches, bins, lorries, road signs - you name it, he hated it!

Have you tried counter conditioning?

It helps to change the dog's emotional responses to scary things.

sunflowersandsunsets the rescue didnt have much information on him but he wasn't housetrained and seemed unfamiliar with a lead.