Now barley has never been the friendliest of dogs towards people, what i mean by that is that he does not like being petted and constant attention, he prefers to be left alone, but he is never nasty, no aggression is ever shown by him towards people. On our last few walks barley has become extremely nervous of people, to the extent of almost backing out of his collar in an attempt to escape and get as far away from them as possible. It is getting to the point that he is constantly on edge on our walks, he is not relaxing, always looking around at people and turning round and looking worried if there are people behind us. This is very unusual of him and is not like him at all. It is distressing to see him looking genuinely scared and frightened without him being able to tell us why he is scared, we are just left guessing. :'(
Re: Nervous barley Oh dear, poor Barley. Didn't you tell us, not so long ago, about his behaviour changing on walks towards other dogs too? Do you think it's related? Hmm...I think a few of us suggested he might be feeling a bit vulnerable if his joints are hurting. Do you think it's that (sorry, can't remember now what you said)?
Re: Nervous barley I don't think it is related to his attitude to dogs as they are complete opposite reactions, with dogs he has turned aggressive but only towards some, other he has been fine with, with people he is extremely nervous and frightened, no aggression shown, but i can't say that if he was put in a certain situation that he would not become aggressive. It could be, but we just don't don't know, there has been no incidents to cause him to become nervous that we know of.
Re: Nervous barley I forget, Annabelle, how old is Barley? Could he be getting a bit deaf and /or visually impaired? So that he's constantly being "surprised" by people/dogs on his walks, causing these reactions? It does sound odd, and that there should be some reason behind it if it is something that has come up all of a sudden.
Re: Nervous barley he is around 5-6 but we do not know for sure, thats just a guess really. Ears and eyes working perfectly fine, apart from his selected deafness when he wants his own way :. Eyes working perfectly,especially if food is involved, his reactions are either try to catch it or duck as we could be throwing vegetables or even worse pills at him to try and sneak him into thinking they are real food. It is very odd of him, but then he is an odd dog overall. We will give it another few weeks and see how he goes, if he does not get better of gets worse we will speak to thevet and see what they think.
Re: Nervous barley I've no real tips to help his nervous behaviour right now, but reading this I'd advise you to get him a body harness and use that instead of having a lead attached to a collar. I've seen too many panicking dogs backing out of collars and then bolting blindly across roads. Don't take any chances. At least in a body harness, he won't be able to get loose.
Re: Nervous barley [quote author=Jules link=topic=4612.msg56712#msg56712 date=1393191968] I've no real tips to help his nervous behaviour right now, but reading this I'd advise you to get him a body harness and use that instead of having a lead attached to a collar. I've seen too many panicking dogs backing out of collars and then bolting blindly across roads. Don't take any chances. At least in a body harness, he won't be able to get loose. [/quote] yes he can, he is a master of escaping out of harnesses, the only one he can not escape out of is not sutible to close control lead walking in a busy place, and gives me less control over him when it is needed. He could not escape out of his current ollar as it is a fixed half check one, not adjustable, made to fit him, as he is also a master of escaping out of collars.
Re: Nervous barley The DivaDog - - is also a past master at the quick get-off with collars and harnesses. The solution we found that works is to have a very wide (almost 1 3/4") second collar she wears only for going out. It is slightly tight; doesn't hurt her but I'd consider it uncomfortable to wear full time. We have found it is the width and fairly high placement on her neck (closer to her ears than her slightly more loose full-time collar which is more comfy but, being bigger, rests further down her neck from her head) that has finally mastered the backwards wriggle that zooms collars off in a flash. We attach her lead to her normal everyday collar and when she tries to get out of it the two collars jam each other and totally prevent her getting one off. She got out of harnesses too even though we made a bespoke one but this wide second collar really seems to work. She has had three goes at getting out of it, all failed, and hasn't tried again for over a year. It lives on a hook near the front door and has earned the name Collar Of Happiness as she is inevitably thrilled to have it put on as it means going out for fun.
Re: Nervous barley Thanks MMM will keep that in mind. He does not wear a collar in the house as it rubbs on his neck and makes it sore. even with padded ones, so he only wears ones for walks. As an update he has not got any worse nor has he got any better. All walks are now with headcollar on just to be on the safe side. I am going to be doing some 1 to 1 work with him on the weekend at the park as it can get fairly busy on weekends but there are is lots of space that we can be out of the way but still see other people and dogs and reward calm behaviour. It is fustrating as we have 3 shows for April already but not sure if he is going to be able to go, due to this and other things, once we have found a spot to sit down at a show he is fine as long as no other dogs bother him when he is asleep then all goes well, he does enjoy them and has a good time, we usually find a clear space away from all of the crowds before we go into classes to gee him up a bit and get him excited which he loves, we have a game of tuggies with the lead and have a bit of a trot around to wake him up a bit, and he looks happy, he puts a smile on his face and it is so nice to see him happy. He has been to a few shows he has not been feeling his best and had a few snaps at other dogs because they have got too much in his face which is fair enough, we take him somewhere quite where he can calm down and relax before carrying on. He has got his 'Please give me space' bandana that he will be wearing walking around the show but not when in the ring if he is in a bad mood in the ring he gets his halti on.
