# Ep 111 Why Your Dog Dislikes Walks & The Key Advice Most People Miss

An episode of [Help! My Dog: The Podcast. Dog Behaviour & Training Strategies that Work!](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1721245241), 14 Jan 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2287608/episodes/18370223-ep-111-why-your-dog-dislikes-walks-the-key-advice-most-people-miss.mp3

Are dogs born liking walks? Perhaps you’ve asked yourself this question, wondering why your dog doesn’t seem to enjoy walks at all, or why they act like their lead or harness is their mortal enemy? While going out for walks seems like an obvious thing all dogs love to do, for some dogs, the experience can be frightening, overwhelming or just a little too much. It can be upsetting or worrying for us humans when this happens, and it seems like your dog may not be getting enough exercise or enrichment as a result. By changing the channel on our emotional radio and tuning into how our dog is feeling before their lead or harness even appears, during their time outside, and after they’ve returned home, we can create action plans to keep them happy and comfortable every step of the way. We’ll also cover some easy games that you can play with your dog to build their confidence and make them feel like a walking superhero, all perfect for rescue dogs or those from difficult backgrounds. Sounds good? Tune in now! ................ Whether your dog is unpredictable with other dogs or predictably bad… Whether it looks like freezing, barking, lunging or running away… Whether you are just starting out on your dog-owning journey or your dog has been labelled as having a “behaviour problem”… … this episode is for you and is going to give you huge insights! Want to join the Help! My Dog Online HUB? Here's the link: www.helpmydog.com/hub Dr Tom Mitchell is a world-renowned veterinarian, behaviourist and dog trainer and director of the Behavet behaviour clinic (rated Excellent on Trustpilot), which sees over 400 pet behaviour consultations each and every month no matter where you are in the world. In 2023, he founded Help! My Dog, an online dog behaviour learning platform to help even more owners all over the world and show that dog behaviour transformation is not only possible but it's FUN, with the right know-how! Make sure to subscribe/follow the podcast for the free weekly episodes! Useful Links: Follow Help! My Dog on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helpmydogofficial/ Schedule a Consultation with Behavet: https://www.beha.vet/ Follow Behavet on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/behavet

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: She's not asking where's the danger, where's the threat, where's the thing to worry about, when's the sky gonna fall?
[0:04] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[0:05] SPEAKER_00: Um and what we've done is we've one changed the way that she moves and how she feels, but we've also changed the question that her brain is asking itself when she goes into that environment.
[0:17] SPEAKER_00: Before we dive in, a warning.
[0:20] SPEAKER_00: The content of this podcast may not be appropriate for some young listeners.
[0:25] SPEAKER_00: This is real life, and that means that sometimes it can be a little bit graphic, so listen on at your own peril.
[0:32] SPEAKER_00: As a veterinarian, dog behaviourist, best-selling author and trainer, over the past decade I've had an obsession with transforming the behaviour of dogs.
[0:41] SPEAKER_00: Understanding their brains and creating practical strategies that you can implement easily at home.
[0:47] SPEAKER_00: I know all too well when the dream you imagined when you first got your dog is far from your daily reality.
[0:54] SPEAKER_00: In fact, out of the blue, a few months ago, my little dog Gorse was bitten by a dog 20 times her size.
[1:00] SPEAKER_00: And suddenly our life of stress-free walks, a calm and cuddly household, and being teammates was replaced with reactivity, anxiety, and worrying about what's around the next corner.
[1:11] SPEAKER_00: I'm Dr.
[1:12] SPEAKER_00: Tom, this is the Help My Dog Podcast, and this is me documenting that journey of transformation, sharing my knowledge and experience with you and having a few laughs along the way.
[1:23] SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to this episode of the Help My Dog Podcast, and today we're covering a listener's question.
[1:30] SPEAKER_00: And the listener's question is this I have a Romanian rescue that is too scared to come for walks with me.
[1:37] SPEAKER_00: She isn't getting enough exercise except for a run in the garden.
[1:41] SPEAKER_00: What do I do?
[1:43] SPEAKER_00: Alright, so what I'm going to talk about is what to do to kind of prep for a walk before the walk.
[1:51] SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there's lots of details to this that I don't know, and yet I think there's massive value from me talking about actually what do we do so that our dogs can go into their walks as confident and joyful and as present as they can be, right?
[2:09] SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, that's gonna help this uh this Romanian rescue dog, and then that will be the foundation for then being able to build walks on it, right?
[2:21] SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that this starts at home.
[2:25] SPEAKER_00: No amount of forcing her to go for a walk is going to, she's suddenly gonna go, oh, walks are good.
[2:32] SPEAKER_00: That's not how it works, okay?
[2:34] SPEAKER_00: Um, and so instead we need to think about all the pieces that lead up to that walk that we can do something about.
[2:41] SPEAKER_00: Now, what is the goal of what is the the goal mindset that our dogs should start a walk in?
[2:52] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[2:52] SPEAKER_00: Um and there are probably a few different pieces to that.
[2:56] SPEAKER_00: We want confidence, we want them to be joyful, we want them to be calm as well.
[3:03] SPEAKER_00: And also, very important, we want them to be present in the moment.
[3:07] SPEAKER_00: Because what we don't want is them hitting fast forward on the on the situation.
[3:12] SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm I I I burst through the door and then I, you know, pull down the road and then I turn the corner, and then they're just going on fast forward.
[3:19] SPEAKER_00: It's not, we want them present in the moment, and that's gonna help a whole host of other struggles as well for those of you listening that don't have this particular struggle.
[3:26] SPEAKER_00: Um, it's gonna be something for everyone.
[3:29] SPEAKER_00: So, first things first, what I would love to think about is well, at what point does she start to anticipate the walk and feel worried about that?
[3:41] SPEAKER_00: That what we want to do is we want to work two steps before that point right now, yeah?
[3:47] SPEAKER_00: So maybe it's that when you put a harness on and you go to get the lead, she starts to feel, you know, look really worried and maybe pancake and like, no, I'm not gonna go for a walk, right?
[3:57] SPEAKER_00: Well, we would then want to start actually before we even pick up the harness.
[4:01] SPEAKER_00: And what we're looking to do is effectively get her to do almost like think of them as like power poses, yeah?
[4:09] SPEAKER_00: Empowering uh movements um that make her feel confident.
[4:15] SPEAKER_00: And that's gonna look a little bit different for each and every dog.
[4:17] SPEAKER_00: For example, for some dogs, that might be sort of chasing bits of food along the floor, right?
[4:23] SPEAKER_00: That might be you know doing a trick like a left spin or a right spin, or you know, whatever it whatever it's gonna look like for her.
[4:31] SPEAKER_00: And you might even need to build one for this purpose, which if you're in the Help My Dog hub, there's an entire area on building confidence and building power poses, and you're gonna have it all in there, right?
[4:41] SPEAKER_00: Um now then um then what we're gonna do is we're gonna work two steps before she starts to be worried, and let's pretend that's when we pick up the harness.
[4:52] SPEAKER_00: And what I wanna see is that at every step on the lead up to the walk, she is able to be confident, calm, joyful, and is present in the moment, not anticipating what's coming next.
[5:04] SPEAKER_00: What does that look like?
[5:06] SPEAKER_00: Pick up the harness, do some power poses, right?
[5:09] SPEAKER_00: Pick up the harness, move in a joyful way.
[5:12] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[5:12] SPEAKER_00: Um, then she might have the harness on, can we do the same thing?
[5:17] SPEAKER_00: Then we might clip the lead on, can we do the same thing?
[5:22] SPEAKER_00: And that's one kind of side of this.
[5:24] SPEAKER_00: The second side of this is that as we're building this up, we need to be really mindful that as we're building each step, that we're not then just bulldozing into going for a walk.
[5:34] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, right, you're fine, off we go for a walk.
[5:36] SPEAKER_00: No.
[5:37] SPEAKER_00: We're gonna put the harness on, we're gonna do power poses, and then the harness comes off, and we just disengage from her and we walk away and we're done.
[5:45] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[5:46] SPEAKER_00: Um, and then maybe we do another session later that day, harness goes on, um, we po we're power posing, we're getting her moving around, she's feeling great, awesome, harness comes off, we're done, we're disengaging from her.
[5:59] SPEAKER_00: What you want to start to see is her go, uh, human, can I have that harness back on, please?
[6:05] SPEAKER_00: Right?
[6:06] SPEAKER_00: And you go, okay, you will put the harness back on.
[6:09] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, harness on, power pose, joy, you know, getting her moving in an empowering way.
[6:15] SPEAKER_00: Harness comes off, you disengage from her, and this time it's absolutely not, you are not having your harness on.
[6:20] SPEAKER_00: Um, you are not so lucky as to have your harness on, right?
[6:24] SPEAKER_00: And then what are we gonna do?
[6:26] SPEAKER_00: Next session, harness goes on.
[6:28] SPEAKER_00: Maybe we clip the lead on, and we're wanting to see power posing and movement.
[6:33] SPEAKER_00: You might need to use high-value food for all of this.
[6:36] SPEAKER_00: Um, and maybe we go out into the garden and we do some power pose and some movement, and then the lead and harness go off and done.
[6:42] SPEAKER_00: And she'll be like, uh, please, can I have that back on?
[6:46] SPEAKER_00: Um, and you can get where I'm going with this.
[6:48] SPEAKER_00: You're building it up so that effectively we she's driving the learning and she's feeling great and she's in control of this.
[6:57] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[6:57] SPEAKER_00: Now, rather than this happening to her, this is happening because of her.
[7:02] SPEAKER_00: Now, instead of feeling worried and disempowered and internalizing, she's actually powering up.
[7:10] SPEAKER_00: She's feeling empowered, she's feeling confident, she's feeling joyful.
[7:14] SPEAKER_00: And I know some of you might be thinking, this doesn't sound especially calm.
[7:17] SPEAKER_00: It's a it's easier to teach the calmness once we've got the confidence, right?
[7:24] SPEAKER_00: Because the point is, is calmness, we're thinking probably less movement.
[7:28] SPEAKER_00: Calmness, we're probably thinking more stillness.
[7:31] SPEAKER_00: But the challenge is, is she's already saying she doesn't want to go for a walk.
[7:35] SPEAKER_00: She's already saying she doesn't want to move.
[7:36] SPEAKER_00: She's already like, if we try to promote more stillness in that, we get more fear.
[7:42] SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
[7:43] SPEAKER_00: She'd feel worse because she's internalizing even more.
[7:47] SPEAKER_00: Um, where and what we need to do is get moving.
[7:49] SPEAKER_00: When when dogs get moving in a fluid-flowing way, they feel better.
[7:53] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[7:54] SPEAKER_00: And so that's why that's why we do that.
[7:55] SPEAKER_00: We can add the calmness in, um, add the calmness in later.
[7:59] SPEAKER_00: Now, the next layer of this training that I think will be really powerful for your Romanian rescue is hey guys, I just want to take a moment to answer a question that has been coming in in literally 10 emails today, and that is, how can we help you with your dog's behavior struggle, whether that be reactivity, separation, anxiety, resource guarding, maybe you've got multi-dog household struggle right now, maybe your dog's just so overaroused on a walk that they just can't listen to you and they're chasing everything inside.
[8:27] SPEAKER_00: Like, can I get Tom's help?
[8:29] SPEAKER_00: Um, and the answer is that actually you can, and you can do that by booking a behavet behavior consultation.
[8:37] SPEAKER_00: That's where literally my team give you the plan on how to transform your struggle and get you to that dream that that made you get a dog in the first place, right?
[8:47] SPEAKER_00: Your world's got smaller and smaller and smaller, and actually it doesn't need to be that way.
[8:51] SPEAKER_00: You just need to reach out for help.
[8:53] SPEAKER_00: Now, a couple of things to say on that.
[8:55] SPEAKER_00: First of all, if you're insured, if your dog's insured with Pet Plan, Kennel Club, Agria, or many pets, we actually do direct claims with them, which means that that's covered by your insurance.
[9:05] SPEAKER_00: So you don't pay out of your pocket, your insurance covers that.
[9:09] SPEAKER_00: And the second thing to say is that we have loads of options if you're insured with another provider, or if your dog's not insured at all, that's also totally fine.
[9:17] SPEAKER_00: We have loads of options that we've developed to make this so accessible for you.
[9:22] SPEAKER_00: Um because we're aware that you've already invested a load of time and a load of money in getting your dog, looking after your dog, caring for your dog.
[9:29] SPEAKER_00: But the last thing we want is for you to have done all that and still not be living the life that you deserve with your dog.
[9:34] SPEAKER_00: And we know we can get you there.
[9:35] SPEAKER_00: So all you need to do is go to the Behave Vet website, and the way to do that is go B E H A.V-E-T.
[9:45] SPEAKER_00: That's behotvet, and it will take you there.
[9:49] SPEAKER_00: Or just Google Behave Vet, right?
[9:51] SPEAKER_00: Um, and you can get scheduled in and we can literally get you booked in for a consultation as soon as possible.
[9:58] SPEAKER_00: We normally can accommodate it within a week, right?
[10:00] SPEAKER_00: So that you can be getting to your dream ASAP.
[10:03] SPEAKER_00: Now, the next layer of this training that I think will be really powerful for your Romanian rescue is I want to teach her a way to control the world.
[10:13] SPEAKER_00: Okay?
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: I know.
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to teach her a way to control the world, and um that way is I want you to find some an object big enough, not too big, because she's gonna need to carry it around.
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: Something like a yoga block or a book that you don't want to read anymore, and you're gonna put it on the floor, and you're gonna lure her with a piece of food to put her front feet on the object.
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna then lure her off and lure her back on so that she gets the idea that when she puts her front feet on the object, you release the piece of food from your hand.
[10:43] SPEAKER_00: So lure on, feet go on, piece of food goes from your hand into her mouth, lure on, feet on the object, piece of food goes into the mouth, and so on, right?
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: Until she starts to offer of her own accord putting her feet on the object.
[10:58] SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna do?
[10:59] SPEAKER_00: Feeder.
[11:00] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[11:00] SPEAKER_00: Feet on object, feed, feet on object, feed, right?
[11:05] SPEAKER_00: So that she learns.
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: Huh.
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: So hold on a second.
[11:09] SPEAKER_00: Life is like a vending machine.
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: If I do certain things, then I get positive outcomes.
[11:14] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: And what you're gonna start to do with this object is you're gonna start to pick it up and walk around with it, pop it down.
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: Feet go on, feed, feed, feed, pick it up, walk around with it, pop it down, feed, feed, feed.
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: What you'll see is a dog who's following you asking the question, when are they gonna put that object down so that I can do my vending machine thing?
[11:33] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[11:33] SPEAKER_00: And that is a really cool question for your Romanian rescue to be asking herself.
[11:39] SPEAKER_00: Because previously, what she was asking herself when going for a walk was where's the danger, where's the threat, where's the bad thing that's gonna happen to me?
[11:46] SPEAKER_00: What if now her harness goes on, her lead goes on, we're doing our power poses, she's feeling joyful, she's feeling great, we pick up our object and we step out of the front door and she follows us, asking herself the question, when are they gonna put that object down so that I can do my vending machine thing?
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: She's not asking, where's the danger, where's the threat, where's the thing to worry about, when's the sky gonna fall?
[12:10] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[12:11] SPEAKER_00: Um and what we've done is we've one changed the way that she moves and how she feels, but we've also changed the question that her brain is asking itself when she goes into that environment.
[12:22] SPEAKER_00: And all you're gonna do with that learning is then build that out to um a bigger walk.
[12:28] SPEAKER_00: You know, you'd be able to get rid of the object in no time.
[12:31] SPEAKER_00: Um and um and ultimately what you create is a dog that believes that they are moving forward in the walk because they want to move forward in the walk, right?
[12:41] SPEAKER_00: Not because it is happening to them.
[12:43] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's happening for them, it's happening by them.
[12:46] SPEAKER_00: Way more empowering beliefs for them to have.
[12:48] SPEAKER_00: And ultimately that unlocks confidence and that unlocks a dog that then can enjoy their walks more.
[12:53] SPEAKER_00: Now, the cool thing is everything that I've just described also works for if your dog is very overexcited on walks or very um, for example, uh brain in next week on a walk where they're constantly in a state of prediction.
[13:08] SPEAKER_00: Because what the object does is actually grounds them and centers them and makes them present.
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: What the object does is changes their question to where's my object?
[13:16] SPEAKER_00: From where's the dog to bark at?
[13:18] SPEAKER_00: Where's the person to bark at?
[13:20] SPEAKER_00: What, you know, what's where's the cat to chase?
[13:23] SPEAKER_00: No, where's your object?
[13:24] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[13:25] SPEAKER_00: And that then allows you to have a more meaningful conversation with them.
[13:29] SPEAKER_00: Um now, what I would say, listener, is that I would love for you to get help that that is very tailored to what is is happening with your dog.
[13:40] SPEAKER_00: Um, I would love you to get help that is gonna probably there's probably not just this going on, I imagine.
[13:46] SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, your dog is in a state of survive when they could be in a state of thrive.
[13:51] SPEAKER_00: And so what I would recommend is that you schedule a consultation with the Behave Vet team, which is our team of behaviorists that do one-to-one consultations with owners all over the world, all day, every day.
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: We do it on um Zoom because we discovered we used to do in-person as well, and we discovered that our remote clients were actually getting better results than our in-person clients.
[14:09] SPEAKER_00: And it makes sense because owners can concentrate, dogs aren't stressed, um, and they're you know they're in their home environment, um, and we can really get to know your dog and give you the plan that is going to change all of their behavior, not just this, right?
[14:23] SPEAKER_00: Um, and so um all you need to do to get in touch with that team is www.beha.vet, um, that's www.behey.vet, right?
[14:35] SPEAKER_00: Um, and um you can then just um inquire about a consultation on the website.
[14:40] SPEAKER_00: Um, big news actually on that is that we now work with even more pet insurance companies.
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: So if your dog is insured, then we probably work with with your your pet insurer um so that actually you just um pay your your one-off um your one-off excess fee, which is discounted to£25, and then the rest gets covered by your insurer as part of your policy, which is um which is really helpful.
[15:06] SPEAKER_00: So the pet insurance companies that we definitely work with are Pet Plan, Kennel Club, Agria, Napo, Elvie, Everyport, and also more recently, Sainsbury's is now on that list.
[15:20] SPEAKER_00: And so if your dog is insured of any of those, then definitely get in touch with Behave that will get you scheduled and will get you a plan that's really going to transform your dog's behavior so that they can have a great quality of life, their best quality of life, and you can too.
[15:34] SPEAKER_00: Hope you got value from that listener.
[15:36] SPEAKER_00: I hope that the other listeners got value from it as well, and we will see you next week.

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