MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Arry the dawg, has been with us for 4 months now, shes a rescue Collie/whippet cross around 18 months old,training is going well,and shes a confident fun loving pooch.most of the time.A new issue has arrisen, we are lucky to have miles of riverside walks,right on our doorstep,which up to now she loved to walk
But recently she will not get out of our street, without refusing to walk and just laying down terrified.If we go anywhere in the car she, will happily walk for hours,when we get there.she can be nervous of loud noises and does the same laying down refusing to shift. We have no clue why this  issue, has cropped up now.It is getting a problem as we have another dog too.they get on fairly well together.
Question is an Adaptil collar an idea to help her chill a little on walks from home? Any experiance of using them or the deffuser? Or is it just Snake oil ?
Or any other suggestions please👍🏼
We had a sort of similar situation when we took on our cocker spaniel, re-homing him from another family. A confident 4 month old dog, however after a week or so simply refused to go for a walk not far past our driveway! It was clear that he was not happy and scared of something.
It took us about 8 weeks to get him able to walk from the front door, but we persevered and used various techniques. The best one that worked to start with was to drive out somewhere and walk back to the house, whilst at the same time making the walk the most fun thing in the world - lots of games, tug-of-war, treats, praise for even just walking alongisde etc. We had to create the mindset that a walk was going to be super fun and safe. Once the confidence grew, we started walking from the house, and constantly mixed up the routes whilst keeping up the praise, treats etc.
One mistake we did make to start with was using an extendable lead, in the hope that giving him a bit of freedom to roam wound help. It didn't and it actually made things worse. By switching to a normal lead and keeping him fairly close, making lots of fuss and giving treats just for walking by us allowed him to build that trust in us and the walk.
It's a bit snake oil in my experience, as it presented zero demonstrable use with a previous dog's nervousness around the house and general agitation when being driven anywhere.
But, might have a placebo effect on the owner. As in, you fit the collar, you believe everything's golden, you set off with a bounce in your stride, dog detects this and goes with it.
We also had a car diffuser. My MIL claimed it made her sleepy on several occasions as well as the dog being better behaved. I didn't tell her it had run out by the time she was using it.
We used Adaptil plugins for our previous, very old, dog, who's general anxiety level grew as he got older and his dementia worsened. We found the spray worked in the car too. We tried the collar but it was useless.
Sounds like you have a behavioural issue that needs addressing though. Interestingly, speaking to the dog trainer about our new (rescue)d og, she said that rescue dogs tend to go through stages of settling in at roughly three days, three weeks and three months. Sounds like you're at the three month stage, and this is one of those issues that's manifesting. I'd give a local dog trainer/behaviourist a ring and ask for advice.
We tried adaptil, but didn't notice much behavioural change. Didn't they get criticised recently by the ASA for making unsubstantaited claims in their adverts?
Try not to set her up to fail. In other words positive for everything she does right but don't force or cajole her past were she won't go. Absolutely try but don't push it.
A treat in a cupped hand, like heal training? Car out walk back.
Everything has to be positive and nothing should be a "fight". All training should be rewarding the positive and building on it.
Just like kids in school.
Snake oil by the sounds,weve stopped using the harness from this mornings walk,and reverted back to collar.The driving then walking back sounds like it could be worth a try too.
Shes going to a friend of the MIL who has 3 collies and trains them, this w/e Expect a new dog when we get back😆