My Puppy Freaks Out On Walks...help

[iluvmypup]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here. We have an 8 month old Siberian Husky female.

I have just swapped over from a harness to a normal collar and lead. We are doing really well with it. We have started off in the back yard and moved to the front hard and I can easily hold her attention with the treats and she walks right by my side and is very obedient.

We start to walk down the road a little bit from our house and she's good but then we get a little further and it seems every single noise freaks her out and she wants to bolt. Whether it's someone in their garden or a bus going past or a child out the front of their house being noisy or a loud car or even wind in the tree's seems to freak her out. She won't have a bar of the treats and when I try and coax her to keep going she runs past me then wants to run in every direction. She spends the whole time constantly looking around anxiously at everything and she's really tense.

I'm not sure if this is just a phase she's going through as she didn't used to do this before. Can anyone give us some advice on what to do to overcome this or to help her overcome it more importantly.

Thanks heaps

[cassie]

Hi and welcome to the forums

At 8 months old it is likely that your pup is going through what's commonly known as a fear period. It is not unusual for her to be scared of everything. One thing though, when she is acting like this make sure you are NOT offering her treats, as then she will think she is being rewarded for acting paranoid. I believe the best thing to do is ignore them when they get scared like that.

That is only a very basic start, I'm sure you'll get much more advice from here also Good luck!

[iluvmypup]

Thank you for replying cassie

[Paganman]

Sounds a bit extreme for just a fear period if she freaking out at everything even the wind in the trees.Sorry I dont have any advice but theres quite a few experts on this forum and Im sure one of them will be able to help

[iluvmypup]

We have palm trees out the front when the wind blows alot she'll sit at the door and get a bit weird.

The loud noises are the main concern though. I leave the front door open so she can investigate things she hears outside. When the bin man comes she can hear the truck and she runs around the house and out the back and around the yard then back inside. I casually go to the door, look out and she'll look from afar but won't get too close.

Thanks Paganman

[matty]

My dog - a lab x staffy used to be the same. I could not get her out past the front of the house before she started crying, refusing to walk, walking so slow so she wouldn't get too far from the house. I just kept on walking. Going further and further away from the house each time. The only time she walked quickly is when we turned around to go home.

I enrolled her in puppy school - got her out and about and socialising. She blitzed puppy school and over time became more confident when out of the confines of the backyard. She is fine now with all situations - it was perserverence i guess in getting her out and about and out of her comfort zone.

Sorry, I can't provide anything useful other than what i did above worked for me.