Help, My Dog Suddenly Refuses to Come Inside After a Walk
A time may come when dogs may find the outdoors extra stimulating and fun.
Why Is My Dog Suddenly Refusing to Come Inside?
"I have a 10-month-old chow who is extremely calm, never barks, is very independent, and spends most of his time doing his own thing. When I take him out, he's lovely, and I don't have any problems, but trying to get him inside after a walk is impossible.
He's always slowed down when he knows he is near the house, but recently, he's started sitting down, biting me, and growling when I go near him to shuffle him back home.
He's way too big to pick up and bring in, but I'm struggling to take him on walks. When he gets near the house, I can’t budge him, and he becomes aggressive.
He isn’t driven by food, and he couldn’t care less about how I treat him. He’s just desperate to stay out.
We have never seen behaviour like this until recently. Once he’s tried to go for me, I go over gently to him, and he’s perfectly fine to stroke, but as soon as he thinks I’m trying to push him inside, he retaliates. I don’t know what else to do!"—Lauren
This Is a Challenging Situation
Hi Lauren, I am sorry to hear that your 10-month-old Chow Chow has recently started refusing to come back inside the home after his walks. This behavior certainly sounds concerning, especially considering the fact that you mentioned him growling and biting in response to your attempts to shuffle him back home.
Something must have contributed to this strong aversion to returning home, and it's important to try to find out what may be going on.
This is a challenging issue considering the fact that you need to get your dog back home, but it's important to do so in the safest and least aversive way possible.
We also need to consider that behavioral changes can sometimes be a sign of deeper issues, so it's therefore important to address them properly and this may require professional intervention.
Recent Onset Behaviors Require Investigation
Sometimes, the pavement may get particularly warm on hot days which can make a dog reluctant to cross a road to go inside.
Why Is My Dog Categorically Refusing to Come Back Inside?
Knowing exactly why a dog refuses to come back inside after a walk can be difficult, considering that interpreting canine behavior is a challenge of its own since dogs cannot communicate with us verbally.
We are often left with just a few clues based on our dogs' body language and their past experiences. Following are several potential causes of dogs refusing to come back inside after a walk.
Medical Problems
When dog behavior abruptly changes out of the blue, it's important to rule out any potential medical problems.
For example, maybe the dog has felt acute pain upon going up a couple of steps (if there are steps by the entrance door) or navigating a slippery floor, or perhaps pulling him with the leash to get him to follow triggered something such as a bout of neck pain.
Any other type of pain or discomfort (like gastrointestinal) that coincided with going back inside may sometimes be the culprit.
Sometimes, the pavement may get particularly warm on hot days, which can make a dog reluctant to cross a road to go inside.
Negative Associations
Dogs are blessed with the uncanny ability to pair one stimulus or event with another. This occurs in humans too, and this type of learning is known as classical conditioning.
Sometimes, a dog may refuse to come back inside if the dog has formed some negative association with the indoors or the immediate entryway.
Maybe the dog has slipped on the entryway floor or the dog heard some loud noise that startled him when approaching the house. Negative experiences such as feeling hot or even just being reprimanded when inside the home/yard may put a dent in a dog's willingness to return home.
In some cases, the issue may be something that happens right after entering the home such as being confined, the owner leaving for work, or the dog being groomed or receiving a bath (if the dog dreads these activities). The possibilities can be many.
A Chow Chow I used to walk would stop in his tracks on walks when he was starting to get hot. He would pant and lie down and refuse to move.
Sometimes, the issue may be the pavement being too hot or the dog putting on the brakes when there is pressure on the leash if the dog hasn't learned how to give in to leash pressure.
Fear of Missing Out
"The walk is over, then the fun is over." This can be an outdoorsy dog's mantra. A dog may, therefore, categorically refuse to come back inside because the great outdoors, along with its stimulus package, makes the indoor transition difficult for the dog.
Some dogs learn that refusing to come inside results in more time spent outside, which ultimately reinforces the refusing-to-come-inside behavior.
In these cases, we need to deeply evaluate why the dog finds the outdoors so enriching and figure out ways to compete with such amenities.
Seeking Attention
Some dogs may learn that when they refuse to come inside they get more attention from their owner, even if it’s attention of the negative type.
The Breed Factor
You are correct in considering how some dog breeds are more independent than others. The American Kennel Club describes the Chow Chow as a dog with an independent spirit and an aura of aloofness.
While Chow Chows are reserved and discerning with strangers, courtesy of their history as protectors and guardians in their native China, their loyalty to their beloved owners is unwavering and profound.
One particular trait worth noticing is the breed's suspiciousness. Sometimes, the presence of any new or unusual objects near the entryway, such as a vacuum cleaner, unfamiliar furniture, or decorations, can create a reluctance to come inside.
Some Chows may feel a strong urge to patrol or guard the outdoor area, as it's perceived as part of their territory.
Although this breed may appear stubborn, these dogs are quite sensitive. Physical interventions may cause them to react, which may lead to defensive biting. Positive reinforcement is the best approach for this breed (and virtually any breed).
Since Chow Chows, like many other Nordic breeds, have heavy coats, we must also factor in temperature changes that can make this breed dread staying indoors.
The Age Factor
At 10 months, your Chow Chow is in the full adolescent stage. This is an age when dogs become more explorative, independent and interested in their surroundings. This may predispose them to the "end-of-walk-time" blues.
The Sex Factor
If your dog is not neutered, he may have detected a female dog in heat somewhere and he may not want to come back inside because his instincts to reproduce may be kicking in.
Competing with all the interesting sights and smells of walks is key to making the dog more eager to return home.
Photo by owner
When Dogs Raise a White Flag
You mentioned that your dog happens to sit when he halts and refuses to go back inside. Something worth mentioning is that when dogs sit, they are not really trying to be purposefully defiant or stubborn, but rather, they may be attempting to "appease" us.
Norwegian dog expert Turid Rugass, classifies sitting as a calming signal. The dog is basically hoping to avoid conflict as much as they can, but when push comes to shove, the dog may at some point be forced to react if we ignore their communicative efforts.
Sitting can be a dog's way to try to appease us when they feel confused or sense our frustration
Are Dogs Really Not Food Motivated?
You mentioned that your Chow isn’t driven by food and couldn’t care less what you have to treat him. In these cases, it's important to carefully evaluate why your dog is not food-motivated because oftentimes, this is a sign of a broader issue. Let's take a closer look at some possible issues.
A Sign of a Medical Problem
Firstly, it's important to rule out medical causes, as not being very interested in food may stem from underlying health issues ranging from mouth issues to digestive issues, pain, and systemic diseases.
Once medical reasons are ruled out, then several other potential causes for dogs being finicky around food can be considered.
A History of Free Feeding
Free-feeding, in other words, the practice where food is left out all of the day so that dog eats how much and when he wants, is a notorious recipe for creating finicky eaters. You can read more about the dynamics occurring when dogs are free-fed here: Should you leave food out for your dog all day?
Suspiciousness Around Food
The misuse of food to get dogs to perform desirable behaviors may quickly backfire and lead to a dog who develops a deep mistrust of any food being offered by hand.
If you have used food to get your dog to approach something scary or endure an unpleasant experience, such as getting a nail trim in the past, it could be that food has been perceived as a "trap," leading to what is technically known as "poisoning."
Just as there are poisoned cues, there are also poisoned lures, which take place when food is offered as an incentive to draw a dog closer to something scary or endure something unpleasant and therefore becomes a predictor of bad things.
Repeated occurrences of “food followed immediately by an aversive stimulus” will teach the dog to distrust and even avoid food. This is the real reason behind many cases in which the handler says, “But my dog isn’t motivated by food.”
— Kathy Sdao, applied animal behaviorist
How to Persuade a Dog to Come Back Inside After a Walk
There are several strategies that can be used to persuade a dog to come back inside after a walk, but every case is different, and therefore may require a different approach based on the underlying cause. In many cases, a multi-pronged approach is needed. Following are some general tips/ideas.
Start With a Vet Exam
A good place to start, especially when dealing with puzzling behaviors that pop up out of the blue, is a veterinary visit. Your vet can screen your dog for any potential medical issues that may trigger abrupt changes in behavior as well as a reluctance to readily eat. If no medical issues are found, other potential causes for the behaviors can be investigated.
Address Any Anxiety/Fear
Address any past negative experiences. For example, if your Chow is spooked by an object placed by the entryway, remove it.
If your dog's reluctance is driven by previously slipping on the entryway floor, place a non-slip mat there and reward him with a favorite treat given upon stepping on it.
If the issue is placing pressure on the leash to get the dog to walk, make sure to teach him how to give in to leash pressure.
Provide Environmental Enrichment
Make great things happen in the house. Feed food puzzles, organize treasure hunts and make sure your Chow is provided with sufficient daily exercise and mental stimulation. Here are some ideas: 17 ways to keep your dog mentally stimulated.
Too Little or Too Much Exercise
It's possible that your dog struggles to go home because he is still full of energy and wishes the walk would be longer.
A longer walk may also help in some cases. Getting him to be tired, a little hot and thirsty can help build some anticipation to get to a cool, shaded place with his bowl of fresh water waiting for him.
If your dog instead is struggling ending the walk because he's too hot or tired, it may help to experiment with shorter walks.
Avoid Physical Interventions
Generally, the more you try to forcibly pull or push a dog, the more he will resist. This response is simply a dog's resistance to being thrown off balance or the dog is reacting to being pressured.
It is therefore best to not use any physical interventions if possible especially considering how they may lead to potentially defensive behaviors such as growling, snapping or biting.
It's best to avoid engaging in a battle of wills. Instead, the next time your dog happens to sit or lie down, you can make the event extra boring. Ignore him. Pull your phone out and start checking emails. Wait him out. Each time, his protests may last less and less because there's really no point.
Make Returns Memorable
A strategy that has helped me in a similar case was placing a very valuable food on the ground right by the door that you both exit when going on a walk. As you and your dog walk past this food treasure with your dog on leash, make sure that he notices it, but don't let him access it.
Then go on your walk as usual. Once back inside, open the door, snap the leash off, and let your dog immediately access the food as you're praising him lavishly. You want to make him feel as if he has won the lottery. The goal is to leave a very strong impression on him.
After he eats the food, you can further enhance the saliency of the return home by playing with him some favorite games so that your dog doesn't perceive going back inside with the end of all the fun. Organize a treasure hunt, let him play with a flirt pole, give him something edible to chew on. The goal is to make walks feel boring in comparison to all the indoor fun.
Day after day, your dog may start looking forward to returning more and more because coming back inside becomes a predictor of great things.
The Power of Back Chaining
Back chaining is a method where we make the final part of a behavior chain extra reinforcing so that the dog looks forward to performing the front parts of the chain.
This method is not used very commonly, but it may be worth a try.
In your case, imagine coming back home from a walk as a chain with each link made of various behaviors connecting one to another. The end of the chain in this case is entering your property. Prior to that, it is walking closer and closer towards your property.
In back chaining, you would, therefore, work on heavily reinforcing the last part of the chain, which is entering your property, and then gradually adding in the earlier segments. You may skip walks for a few days as you want to start from basics and build up a strong, positive rehearsal history.
The process may look like this:
- Open the door and head with your dog on the leash outside as if starting a walk. Then return immediately back inside and feed a rainfall of treats. Repeat several times until you notice the onset of a positive conditioned emotional response with your dog eagerly stepping back inside in anticipation of the treats.
- Open the door and head with your dog on leash outside and take two steps forward. Then return back inside and again feed a rainfall of treats. Repeat several times until you notice your dog eagerly stepping back inside.
- Open the door and head with your dog on leash outside and take five steps forward. Then return back inside and feed a rainfall of treats. Repeat several times until you notice your dog eagerly stepping back inside.
- Open the door and head with your dog on leash outside and take 10 steps forward. Then return back inside and feed a rainfall of treats. Repeat several times until you notice your dog eagerly walking back home.
- Open the door and head with your dog on leash outside and take 15 steps forward. Then return back inside and feed a rainfall of treats. Repeat several times until you notice your dog eagerly walking back home.
- Open the door and head with your dog on leash outside and walk up to where your dog typically slows down on walking on your return from a walk.
This area may be more challenging to deal with, considering that it may have a strong rehearsal history. It is best to do as much as possible to preempt any slowing down/sitting by keeping your dog's attention on you, possibly by walking faster or doing several steps of attention heeling (this is explained a few paragraphs down).
Then return back inside and feed a rainfall of treats. Repeat several times until you notice your dog eagerly walking back home.
The hope here is that once you go on an entire walk, your dog recognizes this pattern of reinforcement and becomes eager to go back home, similar to horses who can't wait to go back to their stables to be fed.
Work On Your Dog's Appetite
"Picky eaters are made, not born," goes the saying. Yes, this means that it is possible to train a dog to become finicky.
It is often forgotten that eating is ultimately a behavior that is linked to survival and that all dogs will eat eventually. Oftentimes, food is refused when dogs are sick, too over the threshold, or when the presentation of food is met with suspicion.
In these cases, it's important to gain back a dog's ability to take food eagerly and quickly. The rehabilitation process may entail stopping free-feeding the dog, teaching the dog to work for his food (discover the power of contrafreeloading).
If hand-feeding food is met with suspicion, you may find it worth tossing tasty foods to the ground for your dog to chase and catch and see if your dog takes them.
Finding what foods/treats your dog likes may involve some trialing. You can try to provide a sampling of various treats/foods so as to see which ones he values the most. My female Rottweiler went bonkers on baked calf liver and stinky green tripe treats.
Building value in food is crucial as it gives us the necessary tools for effective behavior modification and training.
Food is how large marine mammals are trained to perform amazing tricks and complete important husbandry tasks (imagine cleaning a walrus's teeth; it would not be possible without the use of some incentives).
Train Helpful Responses
It's also helpful to teach dogs how to give in to different forms of pressure rather than resist them.
These skills need to be taught out of the problematic context at first so as to attain a very reliable response before expecting the behavior to transfer to the problematic context (end of walks).
For example, as discussed, we can teach dogs to give in to the leash pressure when the leash tightens. In the same way, we can also teach dogs to move in our desired direction when we hold and lead them from their collar, or even by using gentle physical guidance, but I highly suggest doing so exclusively along with a dog behavior professional for safety and to ensure you are not making any costly behavior modification mistakes.
There may also be value in teaching your Chow to do some steps of attention heeling (the dog making eye contact with you as you walk and gaining reinforcement every few steps with high-value treats). This can turn into a fun routine to practice on the way back home, culminating with access to the food treasure contingent upon returning home as discussed earlier.
Avoid This Big Mistake
As discussed earlier, one big mistake is presenting food to entice a dog to move in our desired direction or walk. This makes the food become a predictor that something bad or unpleasant is about to happen.
Instead, food should be presented right after the dog takes a step in the right direction, and I mean this literally. In other words, if we use our leash to gently guide our dog to go from sitting to standing or to take a step forward, we should verbally mark that behavior (yes!) and reinforce that with a treat.
This way the food is used to positively reinforce the step in the right direction. In a nutshell, moving towards the home becomes the predictor of good things.
It's important to work on baby steps to make the process as less stressful as possible by using a training method known as shaping, where successive approximations of the final behavior are reinforced.
Provide Clarity in What You Want
When we are trying to coax our dogs to move or walk in a desired direction, it's tempting to try various approaches and this often ends up confusing dogs.
For example, if we are pushing our dog, getting frustrated and then next we are petting the dog or offering food, the dog may struggle to understand what we are expecting from him. He may worry that any hands coming towards him are an attempt to move him around.
We can help the dog by inculcating into his mind two main concepts:
- Sitting leads to nothing and becomes even more boring.
- Walking back home doesn't mean that all the fun ends and actually leads to reinforcement.
Use the Functional Reward
If walking is the absolute biggest reward for your dog and no high-value treat in the world can compete with it, we can use walking (the functional reward) to our advantage to reinforce desirable behaviors.
For example, if your dog walks home without resistance, immediately reward this behavior by taking him on another short walk. The more walks you offer, the more you will likely satiate his desire to be outside.
Tip: Some dogs also seem to do better being walked in a loop versus going one way and turning. Varying the walks may help too, for example, on your walk turn back early, then walk past your home and keep going rather than always going on the same path.
Work on Relationship Building
While it's true that Chow Chows are quite independent dogs and cat-like, they still have the ability to bond strongly to their owners and are quite loyal dogs by nature.
Sure, at the age of 10 months your Chow Chow is in the full swing adolescent stage, a time where dog owners face many challenges such as increased independence, but it's important during this time to work on building a relationship.
Bonding exercises include making eye contact through positive reinforcement training, clicker training, praising and rewarding every time your dog voluntarily gives you attention and checks-in with you on walks.
Consult With a Professional
Because of the complexity of your case and the need to implement safety measures, it's important to work along with a behavior professional.
The professional can provide in-person guidance on how to effectively train a variety of helpful cues, how to make your dog more motivated, how to build a relationship and how to remedy any potential touch sensitivity. The professional may also suggest muzzle training using a bite-proof muzzle as a safety precaution.
Enlisting the help of a board-certified veterinary behaviorist (DACVB), a certified applied animal behaviorist (CAAB) or a dog trainer/behavior consultant specializing in force-free behavior modification will provide valuable insights and the right plan that is customized for your specific situation. Every case is different and may therefore require a different intervention.
I hope this helps!
Happy training!
Teaching a Dog to Give into Leash Pressure
Teaching a Dog to Accept Collar Grabs and Be Led By the Collar
References
- American Kennel Club: Official Standard of the Chow Chow
- Rothkoff, Liza & Feng, Lynna & Byosiere, Sarah-Elizabeth. (2024). Domestic pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) do not show a preference to contrafreeload, but are willing. Scientific Reports
- Asher L, England GCW, Sommerville R, Harvey ND. Teenage dogs? Evidence for adolescent-phase conflict behaviour and an association between attachment to humans and pubertal timing in the domestic dog. Biol Lett. 2020
- Zilocchi, Marcella & Tagliavini, Zalea & Cianni, Elisa & Gazzano, Angelo. (2016). Effects of physical activity on dog behavior. Dog behavior
- Kathy Sdao: What Not to Pair: The Consequence of Mixing Consequences
If your puppy or dog shows signs of potential aggression (lunging, barking, growling, snapping, biting), please consult with a dog behavior professional for direct in-person guidance. Articles, videos, and general information provided online are not meant to replace in-person training/instruction. By using this service, you are waiving any liability claims or other types of claims related to any of your dogs' behaviors against you or others.
© 2024 Adrienne Farricelli CPDT-KA, Dip.CBST
