My 8-year-old dog suddenly doesn’t want to go on walks anymore — has anyone experienced this?

I have an 8-year-old Golden Retriever/Pekingese mix female dog, Harmi, and a 10-year-old Chihuahua/Terrier mix boy, Nod. They have been with me since they were about 9–10 months old. They are my dearest babies — they grew up with my kids and have been my walking buddies for so many years.

Harmi is a very shy big girl. She weighs about 73 lbs and is a little overweight according to our vet. She has always been a bit of a couch potato and isn't naturally very active, but for the past 8 years she has happily walked 1–2 miles with me almost every day. The three of us have explored our neighborhood and community together for many, many years.

A couple of months ago, I started noticing that Harmi didn't seem to want to walk longer distances anymore. At first, I thought she was just being lazy. There were a couple of times when I encouraged/pulled her to keep going, but even those walks were only around a mile.

Then, about a month ago, she pretty much stopped wanting to go on walks altogether.

Now she will happily circle our house two or three times, but once we reach a certain distance from home, she stops and wants to turn around. So now I take Harmi and Nod around the house a few times, bring Harmi home, and then continue walking with Nod. Nod is actually very happy with this arrangement because he gets to explore all kinds of different places with me. :)

I'm okay with letting Harmi decide how far she wants to go. My concern is that if she doesn't get enough activity, she may gain even more weight.

The interesting thing is that otherwise Harmi seems completely normal. She eats well and behaves normally at home. If she hears people walking by our house (we live on a corner), she will happily bark and RUN around the backyard. She has also become even more attached to me lately and wants to stay close to me most of the time.

There is one other interesting observation: if my daughter and I walk both dogs together at night, my daughter holds Harmi's leash while I walk ahead with Nod. Harmi may initially try to pull my daughter back toward home, but when she sees Nod and me continuing ahead, she will change her mind, catch up with us, and usually complete the walk.

So she can walk farther — she just seems to really prefer staying close to home unless she sees Nod and me continuing without her.

Has anyone experienced something similar as their dog got older?

Could this simply be age-related — maybe walking has become less comfortable or more tiring for her even though she still seems active at home? Or did you later discover something like arthritis, joint pain, anxiety, or another issue?

I don't want to force her to walk if she's uncomfortable, but I also want to keep her healthy and active.

I really miss the days when Harmi, Nod, and I could all explore the neighborhood together. ❤️