Eggbert's scary encounter
Bert is usually pretty good on a leash, although we are still working out a few kinks. The only problems tend to be when we encounter something "brand new" like when a pair of sheep  in a neighbors yard frightened him a few weeks ago...
Today the "scary" thing was a little girl on a sled. Bert loves kids, and he had met this particular little girl before, but the sled just totally freaked him out! 
Even after she got off of it, and approached us without it, he acted like she was the most terrifying thing he'd ever encountered! He backed up into a snowbank, peed, and refused to move! I finally had to ask the little girl to please move on down the road, so that I could get him calmed down. I know that the best thing to do when your dog is scared, is not to make a big deal out of it, and keep going with what you were doing, but how can I do that if a large & heavy dog has decided he's NOT MOVING?  |
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| Oh, poor Eggbert! Nine months is still a puppy and they go thru this "scared" stage. Something scared him...maybe the sled? Has he ever seen the sled before? You might want to introduce him to one slowly. Let him sniff it and give him a treat telling him how great he is...But don't force him towards it. let him venture to it on his own slowly.
How do you get him to move? How about luring him towards you with a treat and when he starts walking, telling him how great he is and giving him treats as he comes along? Maybe make it like its a fun thing..."Good boy eggbert, c'mon that's a good boy" La di da...in a nice praising voice? Not sure if that'll help but that's what I would do... |
I tried a treat...he acted like he'd never seen one of THOSE before either! 
He came along very willingly, once the kid and her sled were out of sight...  |
| The wondow of socializing a puppy is from 5 to 20 weeks. During that time if a puppy is intorduced to as many things, people, noises etc as possible it lessens that number of things that will trggier a negative reasction when he is older.
Anything new that a dog runs into after that will generally cause a fearful reaction. Barking, trying to run away, or bite etc. Then it is a case of re-habilitation. We should never force our dog to approach something he is reacting to fearfully. They need to approach on thier own, developing their own confidence. Dogs also do not generalize well. I'm sure we have all had the time when our dog acted like they did not know us....For example, running into us late at nite, in the dark, or in a new hair cut or coat, or "dancing in the living room"...that type of thing. Just because they know someone in a particular situtation, they can be very easily thrown off if the scenerio is different. And a dog that normally responds to treats is very stressed if the treats don't work. You need to get your dog to a lower level of stress in order to make that work, and then the association afterwards. Working at over the dog's threshold will not produce anything and the dog cannot learn. So, you have a dog who was frightened by a sled because he never saw or heard one before, was unable to recognize the young lady under the circumstances, and was not responding to a reward because he was over the limit. Hope this explains what happened and why. If this was going to be a common occurance and you want to reduce his stress at those times you can use counter-conditioning and desensitisation excercises to resolve that. |
| Maggie was a real scaredydog when I got her and still is sometimes. I highly recommend the books by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson for dealing with this issue. They offer very practical steps for handling these situations. My favorites include:
Good Owner Great Dog Metro Dog My Smart Puppy Hope Ron will put in the Amazon links. Note that no one is too old for the My Smart Puppy techniques. That book absolutely did wonders for Maggie. If I were just choosing one, I would choose that one. It makes training into fun games that provide easy wins for the dog (which provides incentives for them based on success). |
| hehehe, definitely sounds like a puppy!
I think all the dogs I've had have been like that when they run into something new. Some worse than others. My maltese had to pass a pole while we were on a walk, and I swear she almost had a heart attack!  Now she's 100X better.
Yuki is skiddish too when something is moving too fast (like a kid playing basketball). Once she is given a chance to sniff it, she's ready to play!!!! |
| Laurel,
Someone that worked with Fred told me that you shouldn't force the dog to approach something if he is being timid, you should allow him/her to sense a situation out for themself. This person suggested the same should go for approaching new people. The dog is going to read your comfort level with a situation and then make his own assesment about how to proceed. I go through the same thing with Fred frequently; he sits down and doesn't want to move. During Christmas time my neighborhood was cluttered with garrish overdecoration. Fred was terrified of the animated decorations; there were moving polar bears that really upset him.(for me they were visually upsetting) I usually give him some time to adjust and then if he is still uncomfortable I give him other options/directions we could walk. If you keep doing the same walk over time he will adjust, his confidence will grow and he will be comfortable approaching the girl on the sled. Bosley's Mom: My dog trainer friend suggested to me that overexposing your dog to things that are frightening at a really young age can do a tremendous amount of damage to his confidence; I tend to agree with this idea. I do think it's a good idea to get your dog out and about to meet other dogs. I just think that you need to be prudent with regard to who (the canine residents) in your neighborhood you are exposing him to. If a dog has one bad experience it could truly effect him negatively in the longrun. Just my .02 |
| Panda was terrified of different floor surfaces when I got her. A dark floor seemed to really bother her, she would freeze and refuse to move.
It didn't take long for her to adjust though.... |
My first sheepie was also afraid of certain floor surfaces. We had wall to wall carpeting when we brought him home...the I moved and we had white ceramic tile...he would stay in the living room and peek his head around but not step on the floor...didn't take long for him to realize he could walk on it without anything happening...but I just let him do it at his own pace...and it was great keeping that floor clean in the meantime  |
| Harry was a MESS when we brought him home at six months - he had been on a farm and we relocated him to the "Big City" He was terrified of everything! But taking him out often and exposing him to lots of things worked to help him grow his confidence. Now if encounters something "scary" I only have to tell him "It's okay" and ask him if he "wants to smell it" then my Old English SheepCHICKEN gets real brave. The funniest thing is the relief after he sniffs something and realizes he is okay. |
ah poor Bert, life is scarey  so far Duch hasn't been scared of anything, just curious |
Miss Ellie thought skateboards were the devil coming to take her away.  She would twist on the end of the leash like a kite in high wind. One day I asked a neighbor to jump off his board and slowly walk toward Ellie, set the board on the ground and standby. I walked Ellie up to the board to sniff it. She gave the boy and board a good once over.
Our next walk, she didn't blink when the kids zoomed by with boards and scooters. |
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