You lot're but out with your dog, enjoying a walk then SCREECH!… iii blocks from domicile, she puts on the brakes and refuses to take even one step further.
Why? Why does this happen?

Here are 10 possibilities:

  1. Young dogs take an instinct to stick close to home. It is a genetic safety measure that keeps puppies from wandering off (just like the following instinct they have at this age). As they become more mature and contained they are more willing to get further from domicile base. A young dog may not really understand walking on a leash yet. (That staying close instinct seems to go away overnight! This is why letting dogs off-leash is dangerous until a recall is very strong.)
  2. Dogs that are fearful, stressed, or anxious tin can use stopping every bit a way of avoiding scary things.
  3. Your canis familiaris may be putting the breaks on because they know the walk is going to end soon.
  4. It may be your walking/training strategy. Often anchoring on walks is a event of our response to the canis familiaris'south attending-seeking behavior. Luring, bribing, pleading, or negotiating with the domestic dog creates a hard cycle to break. You do non want to teach your canis familiaris to terminate mid-walk for a treat.
    What do you do when your dog puts on the brakes?
  5. There could be a condolement upshot or health issue that is causing your canis familiaris to stop walking such every bit:
    1. Sore hips, backs, and muscles crusade pain, and this can cause your domestic dog to stop walking. Check with your vet if you suspect this.
    2. Growing pains. If you lot have a young, fast-growing, big breed domestic dog, this is very probable.
    3. Some dogs will stop because the harness used to walk them is uncomfortable, ill-plumbing fixtures, or has rubbed raw places at the armpit. See if your dog stops less when using a neckband vs. harness.
    4. Concrete discomfort: Dogs that are too hot, too cold, who have an injured nail or a paw pad burned by hot asphalt or snow and ice volition stop on walks.
  6. Did you know animals are superstitious? Is your canis familiaris stopping at the same spot every time? It could be a spot where something wondrous has happened such as finding a half-eaten biscuit on the basis. It might happen again.
  7. It could also be something as simple as wanting to smell the bush every other dog in the neighborhood has peed on. Or squirrels hang-out nearby.
  8. Some dogs just don't feel similar a walk. I'k looking at you, bulldogs.
  9. Over-do. Mayhap your dog is just plain dog-tired.
  10. Your dog wants to greet another dog or person and will not move until immune to do so. It's part of his mayoral campaign.

It's often more nuanced and a combination of the above. You'll probable need to exercise some pet detective piece of work to sort this i out.

Here are 10 things you tin can try to go your domestic dog up and moving again:

  1. Sit with your domestic dog if she'due south worried. Permit her work out her environment for a minute and exist patient with her. Give her a little pep talk.
  2. Reverse the usual walk route or mix it upwardly a little.
  3. Walking around the dog and marking/rewarding the butt coming up, treating in one case the dog is walking (not earlier!). This is how to gear up a learned behavior without necessarily finding the cause.
  4. It'south a perfect opportunity to reinforce the "stay" and teach a release cue. Reward your canis familiaris only when they are moving to you.
  5. Just leave. (OK, non actually.) Tie the leash to something sturdy and simply walk off and leave the dog as if you don't care what they exercise. You do need someone else for this to watch and make sure the canis familiaris is okay while yous are gone. Y'all can even accept the other person be the one to accept the leash and stand up there like a post when you walk away. The idea evidently hither is to motivate the dog to want to go with you and non be left backside. It besides surprises them when you do this!
  6. Yous could get out your phone and talk to someone (or pretend to). Dogs empathise that this means you accept attending elsewhere and their beliefs isn't equally important. It takes the pressure off.
  7. Teach your dog to "Touch" (hand to the nose) and ask your canis familiaris to touch to get her to move. Advantage by tossing the treat in the direction you lot want to walk. By rewarding the "Touch," y'all are not reinforcing the anchoring.
  8. Wait effectually. Maybe get out a volume? When your dog finally moves, mark, and toss a treat in the direction you want to walk.
  9. Teach "Permit's Go" by saying information technology merely before your dog is about to walk anyway. Mark and advantage with treats or a favorite toy. A good one for worried dogs!
  10. Try this niggling exercise:
    • Go to the end of the leash and kneel facing your canis familiaris. You lot can have a care for or toy or not but this may help the process. Confront her and encourage her to come up to you.
    • Usually, the canis familiaris volition come up forwards when yous are in this "new" kneeling position. All they have to do is move forward that short distance and they get a reward.
    • When she comes to you in the kneeling position, immediately move back to the terminate of the leash once again and repeat. This turns into a game speedily and she volition keep moving forward only that ternion length to get their reward.
    • When your dog is easily moving forward, begin to kneel sideways instead of facing her and start to walk slowly along, rewarding every bit you go. If she stalls out, go back to the first.

Tips!

  • Don't pull with abiding pressure on the dog. That but causes your canis familiaris to dig in, or go the contrary way.
  • Don't pull out a treat to lure your dog forward. That may be how yous got here, to begin with.
  • Longer walks should be done when y'all have the fourth dimension to anticipate this beliefs, otherwise, the need to rush volition exacerbate frustration.
  • For success, practise these techniques earlier you demand them!
  • If you have a dog who is stopping on their walks due to fear, get in touch. We can work on this together.