mini schnauzer sits while walking

[khauser]

I have a 14-year-old healthy mini white schnauzer. Recently he continually stopped while walking. There is no injury to his hips.
Before the walk: he is excited and anticipates the walk
After the walk, he gets excited runs around the house expecting his treats.
After a bath: he gets super excited and runs around the house, jumps on the furniture waiting for me to give him a treat.
His stopping can be inappropriate as we cross a street.
I asked the groomer if she suspects a hip problem, and she said no; he is a healthy dog and fit (no excess weight).

He can be stubborn, and I adopted my behavior to accommodate his stubbornness. Any/all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[zeta1454]

Hi Kevin and welcome to the Forum

You could take your mini schnauzer for a general health check at the vets if he has not been recently as it can be useful for a senior dog to have a check just to see that all is well even if he seems fine. As dogs get older some of their senses may not be as good as when they were younger so they may not hear as well or see as well as they did before and their joints may be less supple.

A fit young dog will be continually assessing their environment when they out even if we are not aware of it using their excellent hearing and sense of smell but, if these become less keen with age, the dog may stop periodically to try and absorb the scent or analyse the sound whereas before they did not need to do this.
Indoors and when a dog is excited to go out or when they are expecting a treat, the adrenaline rush of happiness will override any pain they may be feeling and, with an older dog, this may mean that painful joints or bones are not at all evident at these times but may affect the same dog when he is out on a walk and he will stop for a while to rest as a result.

These are just suggestions of possible reasons for your dog stopping while walking but it would be useful to have him checked by a vet as a groomer is not likely to be qualified to make this kind of health assessment.

Older dogs do need exercise but will often go at a gentler pace and may just want to rest every so often in the same way that an older person may like to sit on a bench or rest while on a walk. It may mean that you need to try and avoid taking him to places where there are many ‘inappropriate’ places to stop such as crossing roads and walk more in areas where it will not matter if you have to wait every so often for him to have a rest