hello there, I am posting this on behalf of my mother who hasn't got a computer but needs some advice.
She has a 7 1/2 year old Cav bitch which is just lovely. She has never recieved any form of training, but is so relaxed in the house and as good as gold with people, especially children. The thing is though, as soon as you take her out for a walk (especially if there is more than one person walking her), she startes wining and screaming if you stop walking. It is so bad that my mother has stopped taking her when she meets up with her friends to go hiking. The dog is just totally on edge. If you walk her on your own and don't stop walking, she is totally fine. This behaviour happens if she's on the lead as well as off lead. If she's off lead, she'll never walk far away from you. Her recall has always been very good (even though she has never really been trained...). Now that she is older, she has become deaf, so working on her issues is more difficult I guess. I should add that she has ALWAYS been wining on walks, so it can't be connected to her loss of hearing....
Is she too old now to start working with her on these issues? I would like to believe that old dogs can learn new tricks, and I'd love to see her enjoying herself more on walks with more than one person.
Any help or advice would be very much appreciated!
Thank you.

perhaps she doesn't like stopping and just enjoys her walks.

My springer doesn't like it if we stop to talk to people - he is off lead so could just sniff around but he jumps up at us as if to say 'come on lets go'

I can understand her whining when your mum stops to talk to people, although I like a natter whilst walking I don't tend to just stand still too much, but prefer to walk and talk, often dogs do get bored, and to be honest some owners I know will stand stationarily gossiping for upto half an hour, if I were their dogs I'd be off on my own or complaining like mad too, after all it is the dog that is supposed to be getting the walk. :-D

If I were to bump into someone who was going the opposite way and I wanted a chat with I would make sure that I carried a ball or something in my pocket so that my girl was not ignored and play with her whilst talking.

Perhaps your mum's Cav has learnt that when other humans are around she is ignored, being on her own she has no other dogs to communicate or go off and play with so feels left out and bored, which is why she vocalises her upset about the situation, or has learnt if she complains her owner will move on so is used to this habit.

All I can suggest is involving her Cav in a game that she can play whilst your mum is with other human couterparts, her hiking friends should be fun as they should be walking and not standing around, but your mum's Cav sounds to me as though she wants attention, she could practise the shush command with a treat everytime she obeys, you could teach her that!  But it does not get to the problem of why she does it, which needs to be the main focus.

Being a Cav I may even be tempted to pick her up and be giving her lots of fuss whilst chatting to people to see if that helps too.  Playing the ignore game which as a pup may be recommended I wouldn't bother with now at her age she is 7.5 years and to me just wants attention, she is not trained to command, and to be honest her demands aren't unreasonble.  I would just concentrate on keeping her occupied one way or another. :-)

I feel that establishing who is in charge of the walk seems to be the issue. The dog, or the owner. Shame for the Cav as what lovlier exercise than hiking? Maybe ignoring the whining and the dog altogether, turning unexpectedly left then right without warning would help. Down, Stay for one one minue extending to 5 then increasing with a tasty treat on a release command may help, but with no whining. Whining means no treats and no eye contact.(Maybe get her checked by Vet too, that she can do this amount of exercise. Is her heart OK, or is she trying to tell you something hurts?)

If one wants to stop and chat for one minute or for 30 minutes, or have a cup of tea on a bench, or anything else they choose to do, the dog should not be telling the owner what to do. And its true, we all meet up with people whose dogs are barking when they stop, or get possessive if 'their' owner touches someone else's dogs, or the dog doesn't allow another to approach 'their' owner for a friendly pat.

For the best time I prefer to walk alone, but I certainly have the choice as to natter or not. Good Luck because that little Cav will miss out on great walks. Hope all is well at the Vets.

Thank you all for your suggestions. She has recently been to the vets and he gave her a clean bill of health.
When I haven taken her out on a walk yesterday, I deliberately stopped more often, and tried to do commands as sit, stay and so on, which seemed to work. She was distracted and forgot her whining then. It's more difficult however when there are more people around. In the afternoon I took my children with me, and she was whining a lot even though we didn't stop walking much. It seems to me she suffers from seperation anxiety? Well, I will let my mum know all of your kind comments, and hopefully we can sort it out.