owain

My dogs name is Roxy she is 18 months old and she is 1/2 American bulldog and 1/2 bullmastiff. She looks a lot like scooby doo. The problem is she scared of every thing you name it when she walks out the front door. Carrier bags blowing in the wind a old pullover on the ground. It makes taking her out a nightmare as she is quite big and powerful now. I thought she might have grown out of it by now. Any ideas? much appreciated.
Regards Owain.

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Amanda

lolol. I can picture her, a nice mix. Was she socialized a lot as a pup? Was she taken outside a lot? Her fears themselves may not be a problem, but she may develop into a 'fear biter' as time goes on if she gets scared enough. Is she spayed? Sometimes the hormones can alter their personalities like that - make them more excited/jumpier about everything.

owain

I have always taken her out from a pup and shes seems OK with other dogs as I have 2 west highland terriers and OK with kids as we have lots of people who visit with their kids its just strange people who visit and everything outside the door. As I said before it becoming a struggle taking her out now as she must be near 140 pounds now. and she gets spooked and jumps out of her skin and into mine lol

owain

shes not spayed yet. Do you think this will help?

gremlin

My puppy was 9 months old when I brought her home from the pound. She was scared of EVERYTHING!!! I didn't even know if she had legs for the first week because she belly crawled everywhere. The only thing she doesn't like now, is when I turn on the hose (it means bathtime and she doesn't like that). She still gets a little freaked from thunderstorms, but it's not bad at all. Unless you plan to breed her, having her spayed is a good idea. You won't have to deal with males being agressive towards her when you take her for walks or at the dog park, and you won't have to deal with the mess. As for getting her to not be so afraid, that will take time and work.

Pick one thing that she is afraid of. Put her on her leash (even if you do this in the house) and make sure you are in an area with no distractions and nothing else she is afraid of. Arm yourself with lots of treats (boiled chicken is really good for this). Have the item she is afraid of, we'll say a blown up balloon this time, in the room when you walk her in. Walk her around the room until she notices the balloon and starts to act frightened. Stop and ask her to sit. If she won't respond, walk a little farther away from the balloon until she will respond to your command. Then reward her with a bit of chicken. Slowly walk closer to the balloon. Stop every couple of steps and give her a command to sit or shake or lay down or whatever and give her a chicken treat. Eventually you should be able to get her close enough that she can investigate the balloon on her own. When she does, tell her she is a good dog and give her more treats.

You can do the same type of think outside. Sit in your front yard with her on a leash and a pocket full of treats. As something she is afraid of starts coming towards you (a bag blowing in the wind, another person walking their dog, a car or a bike coming down the street), distract her from it with a command to come, have her sit and give her treats until this scary thing goes past. Eventually, when the scary thing starts coming, she will look to you for the yummy chicken treat. That's when the "scary" thing is now the "I'm gonna get a treat" thing.