I have a dog. He’s about 5 years old. We’ve been living at my current home for about 1 1/2 years.
99% of the time, I start my walk going northbound for about a mile, then we turn around and walk home, southbound. I do this because there’s typically broken glass on the sidewalk south of my house. About 50% of the time, 1/8 mile from home, he’ll start to pull, which he almost otherwise never does when on a leash. I always figured it was because he could smell us getting closer to home, and he would get excited.
Last week, I tried walking in the other direction (southbound). He pulled for about 1/8 mile, then walked calmly for the remainder of our southbound trip. After reaching the normal distance (~1 mile), we turned around. Upon nearing our house, he didn’t pull. I tried this several times, and it was repeatable @ ~50%.
So, I’ve concluded that my dog only pulls when walking south bound and only within a radius of ~1/8 mile, about 50% of the time. He otherwise almost never pulls.
We’ve taken thousands of walks, through humid heat, rain, fallen leaves, and snow (I live in the DC area) at all times of day and night. I haven’t noticed any environmental similarities across occurrences (stray cat, dog on a deck, certain plants, or people congregating).
Why might this be?