Need some advice / experience from any Staffie owners.

My friends staffie is about 3 years old, neutered male, loves his walks, and my friend is dedicated to taking him out for his walks 2 - 3 times a day.
He gets regular field walks free run, very socialable boy,is an only dog, but has regular visits from other friends and family dogs, (mine included).

About a month ago, while out on a walk, he got spooked by a very loud bang very close to him, which also made his owner miss a heart beat! He pulled his owner all the way home with tail between his legs.
Now, on and off he has been not wanting to go for a walk, he is excited to get his lead on, open the front door then he sits and refuses to budge. If his owner manages to get him out the front gate he will continue to sit on his butt, refusing to move, his owner has tried pulling him, calling him, taking him off lead and walking ahead calling him, etc, but nothig seems to make him move!
He will bolt back home given any opportunity, so I have put this down to the loud bang that he is nervous while out on a walk??

Yesteraday, I took one of my confident girls along for a walk with him, he was a little stubborn but walked better then he had ever done in the last few weeks.
Today I went round without one of my dogs, and he was refused to budge out the door, we managed to convince him to enter the woods, but what would have been a 15 minute normal walk for the distance we covered, it to near on 45 mins!

When I was leaving my friends house we let him come out to the front garden and he was very eager so, we allowed him to run around on the green outside my friends house, with no problems!
I have suggested to my friend that I will return tomorrow with my dogs and we shall do a road walk with him, as he does lack confidence with noisey vehicles, and so my dogs should give him more confidence as they are very calm and confident dogs on a road walk.

I have read that Staffies can be quite stubborn at times? Has anyone had a dog / staffie that fears loud noises on a walk? how did you over come this?
Ihave also suggested that we take time with him, sitting on a bench near a busy road to show him that everything is fine, get his confidence back etc:
He has lived with his family since he was a 8 week old puppy, and has never had any 'walk' problems apart from noisey lorries or buses passing him, and he does normally very much love his walks.
Any help / advice I would be so grateful.

Ihave also suggested that we take time with him, sitting on a bench near a busy road to show him that everything is fine, get his confidence back etc:

It's not being stubborn, it's being nervous -just like if you had been bitten by a snake (or mugged, or anything that scares you) outdoors somewhere and then didn't want to walk back to the same area again in case the same thing happened. The breed is really immaterial. You're right in that he needs to get used to things again, but it needs to be done gradually. For some dogs flooding as it is known may work, for others it could make them a lot worse (just as if you were scared of snakes, if you were locked in a room full of thousands of snakes it might cure you of your fear or it might make your fear much worse). Therefore it would be much safer to start with sitting quietly, with your calm dogs and lots of treats, close to a far more quiet road to start with, and gradually build it up to a busy road. I've got a young dog with a severe fear of people (caused by a vet who rough handled him as a pup). We've spent six months now being around just a small group of people, building it up to walking in parks where other people are, but it cannot be more than that yet. (I tried and made things a lot worse -I took him to a car boot sale this summer and walked around in the crowds and he totally freaked out, so scared when he had nowhere to get away to as he was surrounded by people, that he ended up sitting down just shaking with fear. It was a big set back and a big mistake.)  So it's a long slow process. Using your dogs as a good influence is an excellent idea and is exactly what I am doing with my dog as I have a totally bombproof male of the same breed.

> I have read that Staffies can be quite stubborn at times? Has anyone had a dog / staffie that fears loud noises on a walk?

My Mastiff as a pup found it far to frightening to go outside for a walk (he is stubborn too). Pulling them makes matters worse as can be OTT with encouragement. My pup wouldn't even get near the front door (whilst inside the house) so I started by sitting by the front door and chuking treats towards him, gradually getting the treats closer to me. This progressed to both of us sitting on the doorstep with the door open, watching the world go by (lead on) and giving lots of treats for not acting frightened and for any sign of progression (stretching out head to follow a scent/becoming interested at sounds etc..). Then we would sit on the front lawn. It was a case of slowly, slowy.
Again, pulling the dog to make it go outside is really not a good idea, if the dog is frightend of being outside then it's the same as somebody putting spiders on another person that is frightend of spiders.
Once outside and walking, make it short walks with a quick return home, lots of praise on the way for all positive behaviours (no matter how small) and also training can keep them focused.

My dog also has a fear of traffic, sitting him next to a busy road would have given him a nervous breakdown We've made progress by being in view/sound of roads, building up his confidane from a distance and GRADUALLY getting closer to the roads (again, masses of positive reinforcement for all progress/wanted behaviour).
So all in all - back to basics, the stubborn thing really only means you can't rely on force you really have to be patient and stay working within the dogs limits :)

Thank you for your posts, :)
I am off to see the Staffie in a bit with my dogs, the staffie seems to better when around other dogs being able to walk further then if he was the only dog on the walk, so we will work on that.
I do not like the thought of having to 'drag' him along, I feel this is cruel and would not solve the problem but may make it worse.
:)

How does his owner react when he refuses to budge? Just thinking aboiut going back to basics and not reinforcing unwanted behaviour by mollycoddling?

hi, his owner was moddle coddling to begin with, before i was called into help! :) i have been working on the ignore behaviour, for example, when he stops and reduces to walk, stand by his side facing the direction we want to go, command walk on, then walk, this is working really well, as each time he stops, i repeat this, and he walks on! :) we have also been doing walks with my dogs which helps, then the next walk we do just with him. He does walk better with company of the other dogs, but he is certainly improving with patience and calm re training. :)

Sounds like you are doing everything right. Good luck with him x