04/08/2024
Ex racing greyhounds often freeze on walks soon after adoption, leaving their new owners perplexed. This post explains all perfectly.
FROZEN HOUND FRIDAY
Along the same line as our recent Wednesday Wisdom regarding how very easy it is to over exercise your greyhound, particularly in the initial weeks of having the home, today we wanted to discuss one of the main difficulties owners have in walking their greyhounds...freezing!
Freezing, in essence is a fear response. It is where the greyhound is under stress, is overstimulated and anxious and they get stuck between flight or fight, leading them to physically stop. And there is no moving them, its like having a lead attached to a lamp post!
If you take into consideration that the greyhounds have only ever known rural or semi-rural settings, moving to a town or city can be very scary and massively overwhelming, but really no matter the setting, it is a novel environment that they aren’t familiar with and need to learn. Add in the fact they have such excellent vision (they can see clearly up to ½ mile away!) they can get overwhelmed scared trying to take it all in.
While it is often misinterpreted as being stubborn, or naughty, it is a very common coping mechanism for greyhounds and one that is largely unavoidable.
While freezing it is a prime example of being over exercised in the initial days, it can happen both in the settling in period in response to numerous stimuli or even further into home life in going to new places, changing their established walking route or as a direct response to a fearful situation.
However, what the dog considers to be scary can be as simple as a kid going by on a scooter or a car back firing...and that’s enough for them to refuse to walk down that section of road because of the negative associations.
They’re precious souls...they really are! But from their point of view, they’re trying to cope and come to understand this strange new land they’ve found themselves in, so freezing is bound to happen.
However, it can be frustrating, as an owner. Goodness knows we’ve heard plenty owners call up saying how the dog was all eager and excited to go for walks and would go for miles for the first few days...but then suddenly, despite having the pre-walk ‘excitement’, they put on the brakes every time you get them out the driveway.
But the problem is that the pre-walk zoomies, happy tappy feet and jumping around doesn’t always mean they want to go.
It is literally impossible to tell (annoyingly) until you get out the door and they freeze, but the happy genuine excitement and zoomie madness is identical to the sudden release of anxious/stress energy a dog gets when they are scared to go for a walk! So, this can’t be used as an indicator on whether they actually want to go...they are just dispensing the stress, they don’t actually want to go!
Forcing them on gains you nothing, if you try to pull them, they are going to pull back. As mentioned, they turn into lamp posts! You might encourage them on another 50 feet only for them to stop again, and again and eventually just give up and go home to try again later.
But how do you combat it? Greyhounds need time, patience and understanding as they adjust to all the new sights, sounds and smells. Positive reinforcement and treat based training can be very beneficial but most newly adopted hounds won’t accept treats on walks as they’re too overwhelmed and often don’t feel comfortable taking treats from the hand.
One of the best things you can do if your hound is freezing is give them a break! You are not a bad dog parent if you don’t walk your dog.
Having a rest from walking gives them time to decompress and think more clearly. If you have been walking your dog every day, 2-3 times a day, they haven’t had a moments rest to come to terms with everything going on. Cortisol, the stress hormone, takes up to 72 hours to return to normal levels after it’s spiked...which when they’re freezing, it’s pretty up there! You need to give them a few days to let the cortisol levels return to normal and then reintroduce walks when they are calmer and more able to think clearly.
When a dog is stressed, they are unable to access their higher cognitive function...in other words their brains go out the window! Just like how we don’t think clearly when we’re overwhelmed, it’s the same for dogs. So, they act and respond to stimuli on their base instincts, hence the freezing!
Obviously if you aren’t walking your dog, you need to substitute some other forms of activity and stimulation for them while they are not going out for walks such as enrichment, games, playtime and zoomies in the garden and even doing training or focus ques with them.
Alternatively, or in addition to this, you can till exercise them but in more comfortable and familiar surrounds. Put them in the car and take them out to a country park, rural space or rental field and let them go on a calm, sniff filled, dog led walk where they can properly enjoy being a ‘dog’ without the societal pressures and stressors.
These types of walks can be massively mentally beneficial to your dog and let them decompress in a more natural way.
But when it comes time to walking your normal route again, know your dogs’ limits. You don’t want to go straight into a full-blown walk and have them immediately freeze up again.
Introduce it all slowly and positively. Even just start by sitting on the doorstep and let them just look at the world with lots of praise and reward whenever something ‘scary’ happens such as a bus going by or a group of kids.
If you know that there are certain points on your normal walk that they have historically frozen on, try and avoid walking them there or walk them on the other side of the road.
As you don’t want to power through their limit only to then have problems such as freezing, and other behavioural issues as a result of the overstimulation, most importantly, you need to be able to recognise their mental (and physical) limits. A dog’s body language can be incredibly subtle, and it can be hard to pinpoint when they’ve reached their ‘limit’.
It’ll be small things like they will get more tension in the lines of their face, there may be more of the white of the eye visible or their panting is exposing their gums more. Their ears may have squared off and their tail won’t be up as freely. These signs may present 5 minutes in, 10 minutes in or any time really throughout your walk. But once you are able to identify these signs, you’ll know that that is your dog’s limit, and you should be back at the house by that deadline.
For instance, with my own dog, I know any walk we do that I must be back at the car, or my house, by 40 minutes or she hits her limit, becomes a nightmare on the lead and becomes reactive. But I know this about her, so we keep things nice and short, as going beyond her limit means we have to rest off for a couple days as to go out the next day is a sure-fire way to end up with behavioural issues on the walk whether freezing, pulling or reactivity.
But at the same time, that 40-minute limit isn’t always assured...if we have a really over stimulating walks with lots of off lead dogs, joggers, and cyclists, I know I need to get her home earlier as she reaches her limit much quicker! She really hates a jogger!
But if you miss their limit and you end up with a frozen hound, their little brain cogs are slowly turning, and you have to give them time. While some will say to just drag them out of freezing, spin in circles or otherwise happy baby talk convince the dog to move, this doesn’t actually fix the root problem! Some people just give up and take them home, the dogs then drag them all the way back because they are in essence really anxious and are fleeing to the safety of their home!
It may sound ridiculous, but one of the easiest ways to overcome the frozen hound is not bribery, dancing or spinning around to convince them to walk...it’s waiting. You may look a little odd just standing in the street, but your dog needs to come to the conscious decision to continue on its own. By letting them have that control over the situation, being able to actively make that choice and move past their overwhelmed state naturally you will then find that you have a lot less problems moving forward. But really, you don’t want to get to the frozen stage in the first place!
Because if you think about it from the dog’s perspective, they aren’t walking because they are scared and overwhelmed and by dragging them through it you are forcing them into a decision, they aren’t ready for. If you just wait with them, give them a bit of reassurance, and let them make that conscious decision to continue on, you are giving them control of the situation and boosting their confidence in the process by letting them come to terms with things in their own way.
But on the same hand, some anxious dogs can get into the habit of freezing when you try to back track the way you have come to go home and will just keep ploughing forward, on and on and on, so they don’t have to re-encounter anything that may have made them anxious en route!
You’re then thinking they are enjoying their walk, and you just let them take the lead until you’ve ended up halfway across town!
When this happens, the dog has got itself stuck in an overstimulating vicious cycle and you need to take control of the walks. Rather than trying to turn back on yourself, structure your walks so that you are going in a big loop back to the house so that there are no repeat encounters on the walk. This will prevent freezing and stop them from going too far, where they forget how to get home and don’t know what to do other than charge on!
But basically, if your dog is freezing, it isn’t necessarily that it doesn’t want to walk ever again, they just might need time to decompress.
At the end of the day, if your dog is happy and healthy, runs around the garden and enjoys life without walking 1, 2, 3 times a day. Then you really do not need to walk them 1, 2, 3 times a day. Responsible dog ownership is more than taking your dog out for walks. It is important to do what is best for your dog and their individual personality and needs.
If your dog is comfortable and confident going for two walks a day, every day, you go for it! If what’s best for them is only walking them a couple times a week and using a rental field to blow off steam every weekend (injury dependant!) then that is what you will need to do.
In saying this, please understand we are not telling you never to walk your dog! It is purely individual, case by case, advice! We just ask that you take into consideration your dog’s body language, energy levels and individual needs as to how much exercise they want.
But we promise you that you are not a bad owner if you do not walk your dog 3 times a day!
At the end of the day, walking is for their enjoyment...it shouldn’t cause them unnecessary stress. There are numerous other ways to exercise and mentally stimulate them in the home without the stress of walks...and so long as the dog is happy, don’t let anyone shame you for not walking them!
