Our 1 year old choc lab Charlie has recently started refusing to walk any further when we're on the way home from his walk. He lays down on some grass and does not budge for a while, and then gets up and continues his walk and then does it again. He even lays down on some grass just 20 feet from our house. Is this because he's tired or because he doesn't want to go home just yet? I'm not sure if it's the heat, he's been doing this when it's quite warm and also when it's quite mild and raining (last night for example, it was quite mild and rain was pouring down heavily, and still Charlie laid stopped 3 times before we got home). I would think for a 1 year old dog he wouldn't be too tired, our walks only last 30-45 minutes.
Our last lab (Cocoa) was similar. She would work out when we started to head home and get progressively slower. She'd stop to sniff the same blade of grass for several minutes. If we turned around and walked away from the house she would perk up again. Maybe you could try the same trick. On the way home when Charlie starts to slow down try walking away from home and see if he suddenly finds some new energy.
Every post on the forum today seems to have me saying 'Ripple does that' . This is something Ripple does on occasions - sometimes he's had a long walk and I think it's that, sometimes I think he's not ready to go home yet. No idea really why he does it - perhaps someone on the forum will be able to come up with some reasons .
Quinn does this on our way home too, and we finally figured out that it is at the houses that she has "friends" - people that when they see her make a fuss and come pet her. She has "friends" I didn't know about from when she is out with OH and vice versa! She will lay down or sometimes sit on their front lawns and refuse to budge for a couple minutes - I guess hoping someone will come out and pet her!
Snowie will often sit on the corner where we must turn to go home and will not budge. He wants to go down to the park. A trick I use is to do a small circle to get him up on all four feet so that he keeps walking, and then I use momentum and lots of excitement to get home. There are times when I'm just standing there, holding my ground, refusing to give into him. I don't pull him -- he'll only pull back. If I'm in a hurry, I go behind him and herd him home! If I had my wits about me when I left home, I'd carry some treats so that I could deal easily with this behaviour. But I only really wake up after we've already started our morning walk!
Tilly often will not walk with us at our cabin, unless we bring a tennis ball. We will start out with both dogs, and Tilly will go back and sit by the front door until we get a ball for her. I'm a little surprised that she cares that much since Cooper being faster normally gets the ball, and often knocks Tilly out the way to get it.
Monty does does this albeit at any point on the walk not just heading home, he just stops and won't budge or he does what I call the 'slink' - no amount of enticing will get him to move until he's ready !
Gunnar will be 5 months next Tuesday. I have a collection of sticks next to his harness and leash, and I always take one with on our daily walks. He also sits or lays in the same yard each time! I usually end up tossing the stick to get him going again.
Some years ago we were dogsitting a friends older small Samoyed (almost Eskimo size) We took her for a dog walk with our Lab and another Sammy, and at a certain point she just sat down and said I'm done, this is as far as I go. We had to walk back home with her. We got a little further the next day. but she just did not want to walk with us even though she had done many long hikes in her recent past.
Thanks for the replies. I'm glad it's not just him hah. I've tried walking back to the field and even walking around him and he just doesn't budge. The other night he did it 6 times before we got home, the 6th time was 30 feet from our house.
I remember our rescued family lab cross collie doing this. Had no idea why. I think sometimes he just didn't want to go home when he knew the walk was over. He was a funny dog though. When we first got him (he was about 18m old) he jumped out of an upstairs window and went on a long run. He also used to pull like crazy when we first got him. I was about 13 and I used to have to run to keep up with him dragging me along haha, until he calmed down a bit. He passed away in 2011 when he was aged about 13, soon after my son was born. He was called Patch, I will always miss him
