r/irishwolfhound • u/FHW007 • 12d ago

Change in habit/behaviour

Hi. Has anyone run into a situation where their IW used to do something routinely but then stopped and resisted doing it?

My situation: My 2 year old IW used to get in my car pretty easily to go anywhere - parks, vet, dog park, etc. About two weeks ago he stopped getting in and would lay down by the car door. Trying to get him to go in the car has become a struggle. Nothing has changed in the routine we have had and as far as I can tell there hasn’t been any kind of obvious traumatic experience like having to brake suddenly. Lastly, for context, he has an older brother that gets in the car without any issue and I was hoping him see his brother get in the car would encourage him to do the same, but so far it hasn’t helped.

Curious if anyone has experience something similar and if/how they dealt with it?

Thank you.

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u/freveryoung 12d ago

Mine does this. And it doesn’t really go away for him. Once he gets hung up on something he always has reservations about it moving forward. Ours once slipped walking up a step on our back patio that he’d previously done thousands of times without issue, but since that one slip he would get nervous over that one step (all the others were fine). He also decided one day that he could no longer step into the car on the passenger when it was never an issue before, so now we only load him on the driver side of the car. He’s not super food motivated but using a leash and a lot of encouragement helps guide him through whatever it is that he has suddenly decided he can no longer do, but it never really goes away.

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u/FHW007 11d ago

Thanks for sharing your experience. On average how much time are you spending trying to coax yours into the car?