Here is a puzzle that I hope someone can help me out with. The day Molly showed up in our yard we walked the neighborhood looking for her previous owners. When we turned down one street, she suddenly cowered and refused to go any further. Even dragging her would not convince her to move. There is what looks like an oil stain on the sidewalk. It’s a sidewalk that is maybe 50 to 100 yards long. She will walk on the ends of it, if she can go across the street to get past it, but will not walk on that area for anything. She becomes paralyzed. Normally, I take her to the park or the city lake for walks, but when we walked the neighborhood today, I noticed she had the same reaction. I had to forceably grab her by the collar and pull her in the other direction, so she knew we were not going that way, after all. After which, she walked along just as she had before, with no hesitation. When I got home, I asked my son if she reacted this way when he walked her around the neighborhood. He said, she does. Again, only that spot. Our old dog never had any problem with that area.
Hmm, that is strange! Some dogs have a thing about walking on strange textures. Maybe it just smells repulsive to her; it could be that someone once slathered her in oil to get rid of fleas. That’s enough to give a dog serious issues with car oil.
Maybe she doesn’t know what it is....cookies can lure her close enough to check things out and see they are safe....maybe one person holding Molly as close as she feels comfortable to get to the stain and another trusted person standing at the stain with a yummy treat. Once she sees it safe she might be okay.
Just don’t pet or try and sooth her with words while she is acting afraid or frozen this will only reinforces that behavior. Sometimes thats all it takes.