The dog that doesn’t like going for walks

Badger, a retired racing greyhound joined our family 15 months ago. His transition from being a kennelled, racing dog to a domestic pet went well and he quickly began to enjoy the benefits of retirement. Like many greyhounds he walked really well on the lead and enjoyed being taken out by different family members. In fact whenever his lead appeared he would start spinning around with excitement – this was a greyhound who liked his walks!

After about 11 months, seemingly out of the blue Badger started to refuse to walk with anyone but me. We tried all sorts of things to reassure and encourage him but he simply wouldn’t move. A handful of chicken, liver or sausage held under his nose didn’t help nor did a wilful tug at his lead as this would result in him squealing and crying. My poor husband spent many hours trying to coax him out but Badger just dug his heels in and refused to budge. The furthest he got him in 4 months was about 10 yards! The situation quickly became problematic as I was not always available to do the walks and Badger had decided that no else would do.

We were at the end of our tether – my husband was despondent, I was run ragged and Badger was getting upset every time anyone (but me) tried to take him out.

A friend suggested we contact Colin. Thank goodness we did.

He arranged to do a home visit so he could see exactly what was going on. We were immediately impressed with how fully he explored the problem. He was very calm and gentle with Badger and also helped to reassure us.

On that visit we were quite astounded when Colin succeeded in getting Badger out the front door and round the block without any drama or fuss.

He then proceeded to show us how to break the cycle. He gave us very manageable homework tasks and some ideas for how we could change not only Badger’s behaviour but ours too.

We actually didn’t need to see Colin again. After about a week of homework, Badger got it! As did we! He’s now back to happily trotting out with my husband which is quite incredible considering how entrenched the problem had become.

Thank you to Colin for helping to sort this out.