Picture it! You are on a walk with your dog in Central Park, New York and all of a sudden he refuses to cooperate. He lies down flat on his belly with his legs splayed out behind him. You try and encourage him by dragging him along for a couple of feet but there’s no change to his behaviour. People gather around; highly amused. They take photographs with their smart phones. Someone is making a viral video somewhere all of a sudden. And it’s thanks to you and your dog.
I can’t find the video but it doesn’t matter because the point of this article is that it is not unusual for dogs to refuse to walk. Perhaps sometimes we think that all dogs like to go for a walk. We envisage them becoming animated and excited when their owner grabs their lead in the hallway. They jump around desperate to get through that front door to go to the local park.
The default situation appears to be that we don’t give dogs enough opportunities to go for a walk which is why it is funny when they refuse to cooperate when going for a walk. And it is particularly funny when the dog in question lies flat on his belly with his hind legs splayed out behind him. The amusement in the image is appreciated by passers-by as you can see in the photograph.
The man in question, the dog’s caregiver, pulls his dog along the ground for a short distance to emphasise how obstructive his dog has suddenly become. There is an abject refusal to cooperate.
Obviously, you can’t just drag your dog along. It is likely that your dog will become more obstinate and dig in their heels. There are videos on YouTube which explain how you can successfully encourage your dog to recommence walking if they decide to stop.
The best way, as usual, is positive reinforcement. You gently encourage with words and deeds and then you offer a treat. Perhaps you throw the treat on the ground about 2 yards from the dog. The combination gets them going again. I have included one of the videos below in case you’re interested.
Note: This is a video from another website which is embedded here. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
