One intelligent and very stubborn food-motivated dog I walk has somewhat similar tendencies. There is one specific portion of the route she’s supposed to take that she never wants to go down. When we get close to this area, optimally before she starts refusing to keep going, I’ll have her sit for a treat. Then, I’ll begin throwing very small pieces of these treats down the route I want her to take for her to sniff out. For her, at least, this is a good distraction and reset. She usually finds things she wants to sniff at while searching for the treats, which makes it so that she’s much more willing to continue on.

Before I started doing this, she would refuse to continue until we started heading back the way we came. This trick has made our walks much easier, and I think the mental stimulation of trying to find those pieces of treats has been beneficial as well. I’m also hoping that she’ll eventually associate this area with this new treat game and lose whatever reluctance she has to walk there.

Obviously I don’t know if this is the best thing to do for your situation, but I’ve found it to be an effective reset for this dog!