Hello, and thank you for accepting me into your group! I have a 4-year old black lab rescue, Cooper. He has always been a very confident pup, playing like a mad dog with his friends at the park and strutting his stuff, sniffing and peeing all over our neighborhood during our evening walks. There is a pittbull BSL controversy in Montreal right now that has divided the population and I believe it is because of this upcoming law that an idiot threw a firecracker at Cooper in July. It exploded right behind his tail, as we were walking on our street around 9 pm. Cooper has become the most fearful, anxious, stressed out dog since then. Upstairs neighbor walks around or drops something, a Harley drives by, car backfires, a garbage man throws a bin, someone slams a car door, any sudden, sharp noise, and Coop is pacing and panting and climbing into my lap. He refuses to go out after dark and when I force him, gone is his confident strut, he slinks low to the ground, tail between his legs, jumping at every little sound. I don't quite know how to deal with this, so before I call a dog behaviorist, I would like to ask the dog enthusiasts here if anyone has had a similar problem? Thank you so much in advance
Hi Karin and welcome to the forum from me and my two, Willow and Shadow, who are two years of age. Willow is a very nervy dog and when something scares her, she reacts strongly to it. The latest has been birds (rock martins, I believe), swooping towards her. It scared her so much, she refuses to walk past the place it happened. I've been out to that spot with her meals and her bowl, feeding it bit by bit and trying to get her to relax, but she finds it a struggle. We have two homes - the place it happened was in Andorra, and we've been in Spain for the majority of the summer, so not had a chance to work on it much recently, but I know when I go back, we'll still have the same problem. She has a long memory when it comes to things that have scared her. It's a real slowly-slowly approach, trying to replace the strong feelings of fear with positive feelings. In your case, I doubt very much there's anything that a behaviourist could tell you at this stage that you don't already know. I would say that your best course would be to go to your vet and talk to him about any suitable medication that could help take the edge off in the short term, so you can get him out the door and start working on building positive associations. It sounds like he's too scared to try to work through it with training alone. @Jes72 has a similar problem with her dog, and the vet has prescribed him something. There's a thread on it here: http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/too-scared-to-go-outside.14253/ I hope you gave that idiot what for. What a despicable thing to do; there is no justification for it.
I'm fuming reading your post,ignorant lout to do something like that. Fiona has given good advice there ,it's all really about building positive associations ,particularly around the place and the circumstances ( it was dark) in which it happened.It won't be a quick fix by any means.I've been lucky in that whilst Dexter is quite a 'sensitive' dog he's not particularly fearful,he doesn't love balloons and tail will go down and he'll skitter past if a house is decorated for a child's birthday .I don't like seeing him like that and it's nothing compared to poor Cooper.....best of luck working on it with him Angela
I really feel for you, my love has the same problem, it started last year when we passed a house and they let of a firework he was a nervous wreck, but the shooting season was still on so that didn't help matters either, Buster also didn't want to go out after dark either and still doesn't. It all came to a head this March when any noise would make him very nervous and stressed. We read as much as we could, we took treats out with us, to try and distract him we kind of knew we were on the right track, but we did consult a behaviourist (who also trained and walked him when he was a pup) she was really good, told us to play sounds at home that he didn't like, on a low setting and build up to what he would hear outside, I always was either playing with him or doing some training while the cd was on so he wasn't focuses on it. We always took and still do take treats out and we always were on look out (hear) for any sounds and distract him before he focuses to much on it, we played find it, where we chucked a treat on the floor not too far away (so our arm wasn't getting yanked out of its socket) while out walking so he had to focus on finding it, we also talk to him a hell of a lot and tell him what a good boy he is and what's going on( I know we are mad ) but he seems to like us talking to him. He isn't perfect but he has come on a hell of a long way since March, I'm so proud of him, but it is coming up to the dreaded shooting season in a couple of weeks so that will really be the test of how well he has done. We will just have be really alert for him, and hopefully he can get past it. If I was you I would either go to your vet or seek out a behaviourist and read as much as you can find on the Internet, I wish you all the luck in getting Cooper the help he needs to recover and start to enjoy his surroundings again.
So sorry your poor dog had such a dreadful experience. At four years old with a long history of confident behaviour behind him, he stands a good chance of recovery. With lots of patience and understanding, hopefully his belief that life is basically good will soon be restored. And a warm welcome to the forum
Hi there, Although I can't pin point an exact moment Homers fears have got increasingly worse. But a few moments have added to the progression and generalisation of his anxiety. And mine. He won't go to certain parts of his normal walks and flinches at random noises especially when out and about. Snow bunny has put a link to my thread. I'd go to the vet, we got a referral to the Royal Vetanary College in Hatfield North London. I'm not sure where you are and if this would be helpful.
