Rupert ..Sacha’s owner was having a small problem with his 6 year old St. Bernard dog, in the fact that she would not go for a walk. Rupert had run this problem past his vet who had recommended that he give me a ring.
You might be thinking….well that’s not much of a problem, but believe me….when you have a 80 kg dog on the end of a lead that’s saying….I’m not going , it’s a fairly big problem!!!
I met up with Rupert and Sacha at their home and first impressions of Sacha…. lovely, friendly, relaxed dog. We put the collar and lead on, tail wagging as she left the house…all good. Then Sacha slammed on the brakes and she was not going anywhere, slight problem because you couldn’t pick this one up and pop it under your arm. Ok…apply a bit of pressure….and Sacha throws herself to the ground , now we have dead weight…even harder!!
Time to put the Dog Psychologist hat on….what dog does not want to go for a nice walk?? A dog that has probably spooked itself at some stage and is in fear of the same thing happening again the minute it sets it’s paws outside the house .
To cut a long story short, we did actually go for a lovely walk in the end ,but because I have come across this problem before with dogs….as well as horses!! It was very much an educational talk to Rupert on what was best for Sacha, how to achieve this and giving off a good energy to Sacha to desensitise her from her fear.
Walk 1…. Accomplished.
I now await Rupert’s updated on the next few walks!!
Yes, Sacha has progressively improved, not without the odd stumble, but she takes a walk every day. Sometimes with a little pulling, sometimes without any. I’m sure the trend is good . Thank you so much. (Not bad for a dog that hadn’t been out for a walk away from the house for 1 month)