I've found a couple of articles about the fear period(don't know if they're reliable or not). https://www.alldogsgym.com/miscellaneous/articles/miscellaneous/nh-sunday-news-sp-1206405242 http://www.doglistener.co.uk/puppies/criticalperiods.shtml http://www.dogster.com/puppies/How-to-Help-Your-Puppy-Through-His-Fear-Imprint-Period-58 As for the advice the trainer gave, she said each time he sees a stranger in the street, click and treat him before he has a chance bark. I've been practising this this morning indoors because he also barks at any noises and at the moment he's happily chewing a bone with nothing bothering him. I click and treat the moment he hears a noise that usually makes him go into a barking fit and so far it's working. Going to practice the actual stranger part in a few minutes. What she recommended for the vets was to get every staff member to greet him and give him treats but make no physical contact. I don't exactly know how I would arrange this as they're busy all day.
With the vets, I took several opportunities to go round there just for her to say hi to everyone, rather than have an actual appointment. But we only live 10 minutes walk from our vets, so it wasn't very difficult...
Back from our walk, a few things happened. Everything started ok, got past the first two people with no problems by using treats. Then he saw the first dog of the day and I was using treats to get him calm which was working until the dog and owner got closer. Full bark mode ensued. The owner actually stopped and her dog didn't really seem bothered by Kodi and was eating grass instead. Anyway she tried approaching him but Kodi was having none of it, he even refused the treats. Luckily she knew how to handle nervous dogs and started doing some sort of weird play jump, you had to see it to believe it. It calmed Kodi down a bit but he still was a but wary of this person. Once she left we continued past 4 people with no problems again, barked at noises from some construction work on a house, initially wouldn't walk by but I waited there and gave him treats and he calmed down and we went past. Then we were on the other side of the road from another puppy who barked first, Kodi left him alone. Then one more dog and an owner barked at first but seemed more relaxed after gave him more treats. Then past a few more people and back home. It seems to be more of a problem with people approaching rather than walking by although he is still nervous of that too.
I do that too - I take them every week to be weighed as part of our routine walk - they get a fuss and a biscuit off the receptionists and any passing vet
I observed what seemed to be a brief but striking example of a fear period with Oban. For two weeks, out of the blue, he was afraid of the garbage cans set up for pick up once a week. He'd been walking past them for about a month, all of a sudden they were scary. I posted my solution on another thread, my song and dance routine. Would Mum be singing and dancing on the street if there was really something to be afraid of? I distracted him and made it fun at the same time. I didn't know about fear periods with Jet. I don't think we had internet back then, source of all knowledge you could ever hope to know in the whole world. LOL. So when she started barking at people we met off leash in the bush I was concerned, called the breeder who said dogs will bedefensive, except defense was not an appropriate reaction. But I noticed something, I noticed she did not bark at people I knew and greeted with a cheery, " Hello, great day, nice to be out for a walk. How are you?" Simple solution that worked for me? Greet everyone as if they are a great friend I was happy to meet. Worked. Stymied some strange men who were not used to a woman they didn't know greeting them like that but it worked. Plus I put Jet in heel position, sitting or walking, to help signify that I am the boss, I will go first, I will decide who is a threat, not you little miss puppy. I think this reassured the people as much as JEt. Jet was about one year old then.
Dave201 When a stranger is approaching with or without a dog try click, treat then change direction, cross the road or go up a driveway so the person is no longer heading for you. A nervous dog would naturally choose "flight" in a scary situation but because it's on a lead it can't it thinks it has to choose "fight" so barks to scare off the monster which when you think about it usually works and so perpetuates the problem. If you choose "flight" for him he will start to trust that you will make the right decision in scary situations he doesn't have to worry about it and so eventually an approaching person won't be scary. You can also train a cue word which means "it's ok don't worry I will deal with it". This will work when meeting people on walks, noises, visitors anything that might freak him out. Choose a cue word and say it before you C&T and change direction on a walk. If he barks when someone comes to the door say the cue word put him in another room, deal with the visitor then let him check out the door and that there's nothing scary about it you've dealt with it. Whether Kodi is going through a phase (hope so) or he naturally has a slightly nervous temperament a cue word that tells him "it's ok don't worry" will always come in handy even if it's just to stop him barking at next doors cat.
Hi guys, just a quick update. After a lot of work and a million treats later, Kodi has almost stopped his antics when he sees people, he even approached someone himself to say hello for the first time ever. He still gets agitated at bus stops because I think crowds are a bit too much for him at the moment. Overall I'm delighted with his progress although he does have a few relapses every now and then but he's no where near as bad as a few weeks back.
It sounds like you've made good progress, well done! I have dogs that are nervous of certain things and it can be a long, hard slog, so good work
