Dog refusing to go into house

mrsrobertson

Has anyone had eny experience of a dog suddenly refusing to go into someones house?

I have a 2 year old male German Shepherd / Japanese Akita cross - my husband and i both work full time so my mother in law comes to get him everyday at about 11am, takes him to her house and lets him run around with her two collie / labrador crosses and brings him home at 6pm once we're home.

All was fine until last week when he suddenly decided he didn't want to go into the house with her anymore. He'll go in fine with me or my husband, but when mother in law takes him out the car on his lead he just spreads his paws, sits on the gravel and refuses to budge!! He ends up sitting in the car on his own all day, which defeats the purpose really - he'd be as well just staying in my house on his own.

He is a big wimp, so we first thought he was maybe scared of her rabbits who live in a hutch in the kitchen in the winter but that wouldn't explain why he runs straight in when i take him.

He gets on fine with her dogs and there has been no incidents that we know of to trigger the sudden change in behaviour.

Anyone have any tips?

Thanks,
MrsR

mee1973

Either he isn't happy going into the house or is being stubborn as he wants to go home lol

I'd try getting him out of the car and instead of walking straight into the house walk around the car, up and down the road getting him to focus on the handler for treats, as he takes more interest in the handler walk up and down the garden path until he is happy to walk into the house, praising the whole time he is walking with you.

Once in the house you could try settling him down with a kong and something tasty inside, so he starts to associate the house with a great place to be

krlyr

He may be fine with you because he feels comfortable with you, but with others he feels a bit more wary. It's fairly common for dogs, especially of his breeds, to form strong bonds with one person and act differently with others.

I think one of my first ports of call would be the vets to rule out a problem. My GSD started acting strange like this at the start of her hip pain from hip dysplasia. And my current GSDxRottie started some strange behaviour this year that turned out to be the start of hypothyroidism. Medical conditions can cause some seemingly random behavioural symptoms so definately worth ruling out with some thorough investigations (the thyroid issue, for example, required specific thyroid based blood panels to spot/diagnose).

Once/if he gets the all-clear, you can do lots of desensitization work with him to get him happy to enter the house without forcing him, e.g. as mee says, don't get straight out of the car and try to walk to the door but set your sights lower - reward him for a single step towards the house, then before he gets scared, walk away, so you now can ask him to take a step back towards the house and so on. Then two steps, three, four, etc. at his own pace. Lots of rewards when he gets inside to make it a pleasant experience
You could consider some calmatives to help him relax too, like an Adaptil collar, Zylkene or Calmex (oral supplements for stress), a Thundershirt and so on.

dizziblonde

Flooring? One of my dogs suddenly started trying to avoid our kitchen - thinking back it had been wet recently which I think had made the floor slippier and she'd had a slip on it... put a couple of mats down and she's back to normal with it.

Sally_A

This might sound daft, but your dog wants to rip into the kitchen living bunnies, but knows it's wrong - so is choosing not to be put in that situation.

I've had dogs that have flatly refused to get into a situation where the temptation to do something, perceived as wrong by us humans, is too strong. (Intelligent dog you have there ).

Ask your mum to move them to a back bedroom on a couple of occasions and see if that changes things.