Yuki has taken again to being reluctant to walk very far with me. Sometimes she hesitates at our gate, sometimes further along and it takes a lot of persuasion and encouragement and 'no, we're not going back' on my part to get her to move on. Once she gets to a certain point she's fine and walks like she's on a mission, but it is exhausting getting her to that point. The annoying thing is that when either of my two sons here walk her she shows no hesitation and happily walks with them from the word go. She is currently in kennels as one of my sons is on vacation and I'm hoping when she returns she'll have settled down again and won't be giving me bother. I am reluctant to use treats as she walks with my sons with no hesitation.

Gillian

Have you had one of your sons go on the walk with you and Yuki? As in you take Yuki for a walk like normal and he just tags along quietly and see what happens. Or visa versa? You just go on a walk with him and Yuki and see how it goes and what he's doing. At this point I'm wondering if you aren't projecting dread for a certain spot in the walk because you know that's the spot she has issues and you are naturally tensing up for the fight and it's actually triggering it. Or if he just walks so fast Yuki doesn't get the chance to hesitate.

I would not hesitate to give treats. You may never figure out why Yuki isn't walking for you, but you can redirect whatever that reason is by using something more motivating.

Cut up pieces of hot dog. They don't need to be big pieces (and you don't want to end up adding too many extra calories to his diet). I cut a hot dog in half- lengthwise- and then half again. Then chop those strips into small 1/4" "treats".

"Lead" Yuki by the nose with a treat in your hand held in front of his nose. Reward him by letting him have the treat when he moves- even if he just moves an inch.

Thank you for your replies. When Yuki came back from the kennels, she (note - 'she') was as bad as ever. She is in kennels again and in the days before she went, she would want to walk in the opposite direction to my intended direction. I don't know if either going with one of my sons or taking treats on a walk with Yuki would work. She gets overexcited when she is aware of another human being in the vicinity and won't go any further. I used to take treats with me, then she started demanding them and wouldn't move until I gave her one, so I stopped bringing them out with me.

Sometimes a bit of gentle persuasion, encouragement and praise works, sometimes it takes a bit of gentle tugging one hop at a time until she decides to walk voluntarily, but once she gets to that point she's fine and walks like she is on a mission.

Yuki gets three walks a day of varying distances - one one-hour walk and two shorter ones to specific destinations. One walk she will go with me on is the shortest one, which is just down to the end of our road and back - about 15 minutes. She did have a fear of farm vehicles - we're in a rural area - but seems to be getting over that now.

I'll keep you informed.

Gillian