Fearful & Anxious 9 month BC

[LabRat32]

Hi All,

 

I have been watching for a while and thought I would post to get some assistance.

 

I have a 9 month old entire BC that I have had since 8 weeks. He is soft natured and I have done as much as I can to socialise him. He is pretty good on our daily walk and good with other dogs. Recently he had a couple of trips to the vet for a minor surgery and scans. I have noticed that he has been increasing more fearful, some of the behaviours I have seen are:

* Wont walk in crowded places, alley ways etc

* Barking to stranger- especially those that come close to our property

* We went to get some alternate therapy and he was really scared, shaking and wouldn't come out from underneath my feet for a consult. 

 

He has shown some sign of timidness but the recent month have been a lot worse.

 

I have received various advice on how to handle this, some says it is a phase, some says to ignore and not indulge him too much. 

 

It seem to be fear of particular situations as if we stick to open street, bushland, ovals he seems to be relatively comfortable. 

 

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

[persephone]

Hi
how was he socialised /trained to accept crowded places/alleyways etc ? 
is he walked on a body harness, head harness or neck collar? 
What is his body language when he barks at strangers? tail up/down..hackles up/down ? standing firm/moving with the person/going backwards?
 

[Tassie]

Following on from what @persephonehas said, it might be useful for you to do some fairly serious record keeping .. noting things like activities, time of day, particular behaviours noted, possible triggers noted .. that sort of thing.    Then as a general principle, you would be concentrating on staying within the pup's comfort zone, and making distance for him away from things he might find concerning.

 

As we can't see your pup, we are basically only suggesting possibilities.  9 months of age can be a time when pups can go through a fear period, so it is really important for the next few weeks not to put him in situations that he finds stressful or worrying.    At the same time you can concentrate on building up pup's confidence by using reward based methods and teaching him tricks for instance, or setting up scent puzzles for him .... treats hidden in boxes,  and making a big happy fuss of him when hne gets things right or even nearly right.

 

There plenty of tricks online  ... have a look at The Wonderdogs, and at Kikopup on Youtube.    ANd you mnight find some interesting information and ideas in Susan Garrett's podcast series ... you can find them at www.dogsthat.com/podcast.    This one might give you some ideas for some fun exercising in lockdown time.  Episode 32: 20 Easy Ways to Exercise Your Dog at Home - DogsThat