Speaking of dogs, we have a weird dog behavioral issue.

[conuly]

Moonpie likes to go on walks. She really does! So long as the weather is reasonably clement and there's no unexpected loud noises, she enjoys her walks. Her tail wags, she sniffs all over, she runs around, it's great.

But she doesn't like the part where she actually has to leave the house. If she thinks it's walk time she hides. She sits on people's laps and buries her head. If you leash her she refuses to move, and if you put her on the floor she just slides along until you give up and carry her to the door. Once she's out the door, she's fine - but she doesn't want to walk to the door to go outside. You cannot bribe her with treats, she will not be bribed.

I don't think she was like this before last year's bout of terrible fireworks (omg never again plz).

It's more of an amusing hassle than a real problem, because of course she doesn't weigh much, but it must be upsetting for her.

Comments

[adafrog]

Weird.

[archangelbeth]

Can you put your hand over her eyes like she was a spooky horse? ...after a short walk, sit on the porch near the door with her, maybe with the door open a bit, so the transition is less scary?

Poor pupper.

[conuly]

She's fine sitting on the porch with us, or going out into the yard and not going on a walk. Indeed, we still can't trust her around the open door - she bolted out to the sidewalk just a couple weeks ago, a chihuahua making a bold break for freedom and the open road! (Or possibly just running to find out where I'd gone. We never can quite tell what goes on in her head.)

That's part of what's so flipping weird about it. It's not the going outside part. It's not the walk part. It's specifically the part where she has to go outside... to go on a walk.

[archangelbeth]

Belated me... (...I may have thought about answering and, um, why doesn't that just translate to a post?)

Poor pupper and y'all! (...maybe a different collar/harness? Would break the association of the fireworks? Because felt different? Ugh, no clue. Good luck...)

[hudebnik]

We have something sorta similar. Luna, our 13-year-old greyhound, is frequently the one to tell us it's walk-time, and once we're outside she lobbies at every choice point for taking the direction away from the house to make the walk longer (especially at bed time). But when I go out to the (enclosed) porch to deal with leashes, coats, face-masks, etc., she's reluctant to cross the threshold from living room to porch, and needs multiple invitations to do it. She's crossed that threshold several times a day for nine years, but has mysteriously gotten spooky about it in recent months.

At the end of the walk, we usually drop a poop-sack in the trash barrel in the back yard, then walk between the houses to the front door, and she stops dead just before turning the corner from the inter-house passageway to the front steps.

The front steps may be the problem: she's getting old, and has more trouble going up and down them than before. Or maybe she just really doesn't like the porch.

[loligo]

My dog loves walks, but runs away from the leash when we go to put it on him. My theory is that maybe the click of hooking it on is too loud for his ears? Then he sits there like a lump if you try to tug on the leash, but if you drop the leash and head to the door, he happily follows. So weird.

[pwcorgigirl]

Our Lily Dog hates to get wet and for a while we had to carry her outside if it was sprinkling rain or had rained. She did finally get over it, but we have to step outside the back door to get her to go outside on her own. This is a big improvement over having to carry her outside. She's a dachshund-chihuahua mix, but the chihuahua had little to say about her size: she's built more like a standard dachshund and weighs a muscular 20 pounds. It was really developing my forearm muscles to pick her up and cart her outside.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

You are describing me. I'm fine once I leave the house, but I will stay inside for days on end because something about the act of stepping through that door is so undesirable and anxiety-inducing that it's preferable to just not think about leaving.

[conuly]

Moonpie cannot stay inside for days on end. I assume you, at least, have options other than "pee on the floor".