Carefree charmer to cujo crazy Cruz... A rescue at 5 months, wary of men (unbeknownst to me at adoption). Lab/who knows what else mix with a shady past the rescue knows nothing about other than it was rough. Loves dogs, was shy with people he didn’t know but never anything beyond normal ‘puppy’ shyness. We socialized as often as possible, had people over at home, he went to work met TONS of people including men, gained significant confidence, lots of walks, meet and greets, etc. Everything was moving along well. Then a month ago a female came over to visit and he went wayyyyyyy overboard. Fear barking, growling, hackles up, etc etc. I had never seen any indication of this before. We worked through it to where he could be around her without going crazy but he’s continued to move to this reaction at intervals. Especially in the car when if he sees other people. But it’s hit or miss and not consistent beyond him being ‘spooked’ by something he didn’t expect on walks. Nothing bad has ever happened in my care, he has many dog and people friends, lots of exercise both on and off leash daily in town and country. Working on basic training, brain training, like look at that/look at me/distance exposure/positive reinforcement/ignoring bad behaviour/consulting trainers, etc etc. This is the most challenging puppy I’ve worked with and it’s left me in tears and feeling helpless. Some days he is happy, engaged and not worried, other times he’s distant, dissatisfied, cujo crazy and fearful of everything without a way to snap him out of it. I don’t want to exacerbate the issue by over exposing but avoiding it is not going to help either. A typical walk could be ignoring people getting in and out of cars/walking on the street and having a good sniffing time no fear ranging to the first person/scary thing he sees being a major trigger and he is fearful and tense for the remainder. I’ve also started group walking with dogs that aren’t reactive to people, it helps but only when the dogs are around. All the dogs I’ve owned, trained and fostered this special guy takes the cake and it breaks my heart as I feel I’ve failed him but don’t know how. Or how to help. He is going through the typical terrible lab teen phase and some have said he’ll grow out of it with consistent positive experience. We live several hours from any cities so my next step is to take a trip to a behaviourist. Sorry for the long post. I have and will continue to look through similar threads for more glimmers of advice/insight. Any suggestions or similar experiences?
