Skittish / Fearful

[Nanda & Nelson]

Nelson is almost 1 year old. We got him from the rescue when he was 10 weeks old, so I can't imagine he was traumatized then - but who knows. He is a confident dog, that loves to play and run and is never afraid of any other dog. Cars, busses, people - it doesn't seem to do anything to him. The problem is, that he only seems skittish when we are in our home. Whenever I drop my coat, my bag or anything really, he jumps up and runs to a corner or to his bed. The weirdest things make him scared; he hates cables, pillows falling of the couch etc. If his ball is next to a cable - he wont touch it.

 

Yesterday was the worst! My partner took out a measuring tape to measure something and it just scared the hell out of him. I know that sometimes sounds that are normal for humans can he painfull for dogs - but this was pure fear. He ran to the door and he did not want to come back into other parts of the house. It was around his dinner time, we ignored him (put the measuring tape away) and put his food at his usual spot. He never ever ignores his food, but he did yesterday. My partner decided to take him outside for his usual game of fetch, and outside everything was fine. But when he came back home, he was still very spooked. Ears back, didnt want food, not interested in his ball, which he usually goes nuts about.

 

Today he seems OK but he still doesn't seem as comfortable and confident in the house. He has got nothing but love, but we never 'approve' of his fearful behaviour - when he responds like that, we usually ignore it and do not cuddle him or anything (should we?). We have never physically touched him or thrown anything at him. I am just wondering if anyone here has experience with skittish dogs inside the house. It is so odd, cause it only happens inside our house and nowhere else.

[Gideon's girl]

Gideon can behave that way if he is startled in the house. It's like outside he expects things to happen so he just accepts it, but in the house he expects everything to always be the same. Yesterday I put something down in a chair that is a particular favorite of his and he acted like there was a stranger in the house for almost 24 hours. He was slinking around, curling up in a ball out of the way, and startling at every noise, then he just got over it. Weird!!

[diane allen]

I don't have any personal experience with this, so dunno if this will help.

Plus it sounds like it is a somewhat intermittent thing - yes? or it is ALL the time?

 

I've heard of dogs that have sound sensitivities to things we would never imagine. Anything from a refrigerator hum, to a radio "buzz", to a heater function. I don't have good suggestions for how to overcome this, if you can't figure out what it is.

 

One other thought: dogs do go through various "fear periods." Mine never really did (go figure!), and it seems to vary a bit with ages (some are quite young, some might be as old as yours). The only thing I can advise is: ignore it, and see if it goes away over time.

 

If not....hopefully someone can help!

diane

[arf2184]

Meg can get weird like that in the house too. She hates it when furniture is moved. She doesn't like it when I put chinchillas in different cages (not that she ever interacts with them directly, but she can see and smell them and she knows where each one 'belongs'). Sometimes she jumps up and runs across the room when someone shifts or moves a foot, yet at other times she wants you to rub her belly with her foot.

 

I think with the tape measure, he probably just needs introduced to it slowly. Its a new object that makes unfamiliar sounds. Bring it out, let him sniff it, reward him for sniffing it. Pull the tape out a little and repeat until he's comfortable with it.

[waffles]

Levi has a few quirks like this as well. If the smoke alarm goes off he comes slinking up to my side for comfort. If the ottoman is pushed and makes that loud furniture moving on hardwood floors noise, he may get up and look suspiciously at it. He may get up and leave the room if the remote falls onto the hardwood floor and looks suspiciously at the ceiling fan when it rotates super slow after being turned off. You can reward him by throwing yummy treats away from the tape measure while you have it out gradually getting him used to the object or noise. We used to throw treats out of the kitchen when we used the coffee grinder. He also used to walk into his crate when we turned the fan on in the bathroom at our old place-some treats being thrown down the hallway solved that but made him come running to the bathroom every time I showered. :rolleyes:/>

 

For the most part though we just ignore it/him since it isn't total fear just him being uncomfortable for a few seconds. He is also suspicious if I am walking while holding the mop but the loud vacumm is totally cool with him. This is really just in the house as well. He is very aware of his environment-like when I got a new backseat cover, instead of jumping in the car he stood there, looked at me and wouldn't get into the car without a bit of encouragement. Most dogs probably wouldn't have even noticed the change.

[beachdogz]

We have been going through something similar (refer to my recent post titled Rescue and Regression) where after 1-1/2 yrs. of being with us, our current rescue dog is going through periods of regressing. Some of it is startling at loud noises/fast movement, and being skittish. Some of this is back to fearing my husband (we knew he had an issue with men when we got him, and it had gotten a lot better.) One minute he acts like he is afraid of DH, and the next minute he is begging him for petting.

 

One morning we got up and he was simply freaked out about nothing. My husband went to let the dogs out and he back flew upstairs. I called him back downstairs and he also did it to me! He was freaky all day. I checked, and it was not a full moon. We have been having regression issues at agility, and so that night, I expected a bad session...not so! He had one of his best nights at agility! Go figure! Next day he was back to normal (or, at least, normal for him.)

 

Now we have a new problem...leg lifting in the house. Don't know where the heck that came from. Have had him to the vet...everything is normal physically.

 

I probably think that the advice I got on the other post about just being patient and letting him find his way is probably what will happen. However, it is frustrating to take one step forward and two steps back.

 

On the other hand, my first BC rescue (girl) has always had issues with ladders and any kind of carpentry-type work being done in the house. And if you move the furniture, well, her actions range from hiding in a corner for the day to going outside and not wanting to come back in.

[Liz P]

I had a dog like that that I completely turned around. He trusted me completely, so it wasn't hard. I started small with things that worried him but didn't cause utter panic. Example, when I would shake the garbage bag to open it up he would run from the kitchen, so just pulling a bag out got him worried. So, I pulled out a bag, dropped it on the floor and got really excited (happy voice, pointed at it, acted fascinated by the bag). His curiosity got the better of him (my owner's not worried, so maybe I shouldn't be) and he took a few steps towards the bag. I praised and tossed his favorite treats to him. The closer he got the more I praised. He earned a jackpot and tons of praise when he started pawing at the bag.

 

The agility teeter was the most funny. We did baby steps, two people helped slowly lower it when he reached the center and tipped it. I gave him lots of praise to let him know how proud I was. Eventually we started to drop the teeter when it was almost on the ground, allowing it to make a tiny bang. I praised like mad when that happened. We slowly let it tip on it's own farther and farther until he was doing it unassisted. Unfortunately the lesson worked too well, because every time he did the teeter he insisted on banging it down as hard as he he could.

 

The important components to turning a dog like that around are trust, tons of praise and making light of the scary things.

[Nanda & Nelson]

You guys were right and he got over it pretty quickly and now we just try and use the measuring tape outside. We have a new problem now where he is afraid of my office. A few weeks ago, the blinds fell down and it made a bad noise - he got stressed out after that. Then yesterday, the mail got dropped off through the mail slot, pretty much right next to him. And it totally freaked him out again. Now I pretty much have to drag him into the office, as soon as the door opens he wants to bolt. He wont drink in the office or eat the treats I have for him.

 

Hopefully this one goes by quickly too. I just ignore his behaviour right now (it has been 1,5 days of office-hate) and hopefully it will just pass...

[rlwzgd]

Have you ever disagreed with the behavior? Sometimes, dogs take silence as "it's acceptable for me to act like this, I should be afraid". Yesterday, the pizza stone rolled out of it's appointed cabinet, both Al (the dog) and Liv (my daughter) freaked out. First, I addressed the dog putting my hand up in the stop sign since L was right next to me. He sat, so I let Liv touch it. Then called him, let him smell and see, then I showed them how it can roll, etc and how it's ok. With the blinds, maybe try taking them down and letting him smell, then show him they can touch the ground, then drop it from an inch, reassure him etc. move at whatever pace he is comfortable with. My guy is used to seeing things do crazy stuff but I've worked a lot on the unexpected with him. The more they get used to it, the better they take it. It's really just acclimating them and showing that you are in control. It's super important to read your dog and only move at the pace they are comfortable with. The more stuff you show him, the easier it gets and the quicker you can move.

[urge to herd]

^{My Gibbs is fearful of things that appear where he doesn't expect them to be. I left my shoes on top of a hassock once, and he growled at them from15 ft away, in his very serious 'danger, danger' growl. Luckily for us, he's got extremely quick recovery, and has taken to a 'go check it out' cue quite nicely.}

 

^{It sounds like Nanda is more seriously frightened and doesn't have the quick recovery. I wouldn't work around fears with a dog like this. I'd do exactly as Liz P describes, very slow desensitization processes, with one item at a time. By ignoring it or doing the work arounds, you're likely to end up with a dog who gets more and more afraid of more and more things. Trust me on this, that's no good for any of you, dog or human.}

 

^{With the appropriate desensitization work, Nanda might become generally less reactive to unexpected sounds. At the very least, you humans will be able to continue a normal life, and not have take stuff outside to measure it. The desensitization seems like a lot of work, but it will also work to help Nanda learn to look to you when he is scared, rather than run. That alone is worth the effort, IMO.}

 

^{Ruth and Agent Gibbs, who is no longer scared of shoes in any location at all}

[SS Cressa]

Don't know if someone mentioned it. Could it be something stupid like he get shocked a couple times?

 

It just seem almost everything that he is scared of has friction against something that could produce static electricity. and some dogs are very sensitive to it.

[rlwzgd]

right, nice reminder... I wasn't saying go fast with this at all. It needs to be very slow and your pup should always be comfortable. If she isn't comfortable, don't push it and don't do anything else. She needs to trust you. Sorry if it came out wrong!

 

Eta: i was trying to agree with the previous posters, not disagree.