I have met a very nice fellow lab owner(who is also a dog walker) on our morning walk. Her black lab Freddy is about 4 and always runs to greets us with a broad grin on his face. He has started displaying some strange behaviour. To begin with he wouldn’t walk from her house only if he went in the van somewhere first and would walk from there.A couple of months ago she was in a field near her with the van parked outside the gate when he was spooked by something.He ran back to the van but through a wire fence and ended up with stitches across his nose. She now can’t walk him in that field as there are workman in an adjacent field. I was with her when a car door was shut and he turned tail and went.She is finding it quite upsetting as she is now frightened to let him off the lead incase he runs across a road. He also swings a ball on a rope round and round in circles(I.e he goes round in circles). Probably not connected but seems slightly obsessive. Any suggestions? A long line might work when she is on her own but not playing with other dogs. She was talking about going to the vets but I think it’s more a behaviourist she needs to consult.
My boy who’s 5 has noise fear, it started when someone let a firework of near us when he was a pup, we did consult a behaviourist we gave us the tools to help him. We have also had moments of him not walking, but like your friend is ok if we drive to the park, he will bolt if he hears a noise, he has come such a long way but it is always there and a lot of the time he is really good with noises, we do a lot of talking to him when out if he is unsure, lots of praise and some treats. It took us a long time to get to a good place but some days it is a challenge. If he does hear a noise he doesn’t like I just turn round and walk him home as I’m not going to stress him out further by trying to walk to the noise. I found lots of info online as well and on this page.
