My 5 year old dog has suddenly become reluctant to go for a walk. At first I thought it was the dark nights that was causing the problem but he's now started to do it during the day.

The strange thing is once I finally get him to the bottom of our cul-de-sac he's fine and is quite happy to continue with his walk. However I have to virtually drag him from the front door to the end of the road. Nothing has ever scared him from the front door to the end of the road, so I'm at a loss as to why he's so frightened.

Does anyone have an idea what could be causing this?

Perhaps he doesn't like the cold, but once he gets warmed up a bit then he's ok to go on. If he has any joint pain he will be sore and stiff when he starts walking and the cold will make it worse. Just speculating though, maybe he has just become a bit lazy now he is getting older!

When my dow was a pup he would go outside then literally lie down and refuse to move. After a bit of thinking we realised it was because the gritter had been out gritting the roads/pavements. Once the better weather came in he was quite happy to go out walkies again. During the winter we just took him down the beach which he totally loved.

Could he be afraid of something close to home, mine are reluctant to go down our road since we had a nasty incident with a neighbours dog, so we start out in the car and they happily walk round the woods etc.

Perhaps it is the cold. He had a bad sprain a couple of months ago, and over the past couple of days when it's been milder he hasn't been as bad but still reluctant though.

"Dragging" him/her is NOT the thing to be doing.

Their is obviously something they do not like and may be something they have become scared off.

You need to get to know him/her so you can work out what is happening. You need to bond with him/her, otherwise your not going to help them to be honest.

an example of how dogs work ..

When dogs become affraid of thunder, it's nearly always the fault of the 'owner'. Doggies are VERY observant and VERY easily pick up on the owners own fear of lightening - which always gets transferred to the poor dog.

It could be that he/she doesn't like rain and such like.

the house possibly just seems more comfortable to him, or there's someone in the house he'd rather be with

our old dog was like this, we had to carry her up to the top of the street, otherwise she'd turn round & go back after having a wee. once she was at the top of the street though, then she's walk on as happy as anything

That's exactly what he does.

are you leaving someone behind in the house when you go?

Miss was fussy, most days she'd happily go for a walk if my mum was taking her, but there were a few days when if i was staying home, she'd be reluctant to go
unless i walked down the garden path as if i was going out too, then she'd trot off up the street
if my mum was in the house though, usually she would flat out refuse to leave!

My Jack Russell, for the past 3 days, will not go outside the front door. He lets me put his harness on but when we get to the door, he stops dead. There were workmen a few doors down earlier in the week with a conveyor belt lifting tiles to a roof, so I thought it must be that, but theyve not been there for 3 days now, so I dont know why this is happening. He does have a sore back leg which was operated on a few years ago, but usually this is ok walking, but plays him up if he lays around too much. He is almost 8, so Im not sure what to do, he is more than happy to go out the back garden or walk around the house. Any suggestions?