big problems with sophie help needed
Sophie has been doing really well up untill 4 days ago we went past some road works that caused her to flip out jumping around franticly trying to drag me back to wards home she was wearing a harness at the time which meant I had no control over her I hand to put her lead into s choke chain to regain some control the next day it happened again at the same place we then saw a horse which sent her in to a panic again this time she was trying to jump a wall to get away from it she has become scared off everytjing now cars buses even if we got past a garden and a dog barks sge wants to run I now cannot let her off the lead because bults if frightened she shakes pants tail between her legs and will put with all her might I know not to fuss her when she in this state but do not know what to do x
Comments
I'm not a fan of the harness. Well not when they are young. It allows them free roaming because it doesn't restrict them. Use the choke chain consistently then after a while move back to the harness.
Be careful using a choke while she is nervous o feaful-choking he is only going to create more of a panic response and cause her to fear walking all together.
you need to use positive reinforcement to help her over-come the fear. it sounds as if she is going thru a fear stage.
Though I cannot say for sure-it seems from many people I have talked to, as well as both of my bullies, that many seem to go thru a "paranoid" stage between the ages of 9 months to 2 years, where they will randomly panic or be on the "alert"
Cesar went thru this and he would bark at bushes, fence posts, paper on the ground etc till he hit 2. and every time he did I would give a short verbal correction and bring him (when possible) up to whatever had him worried or upset.
Chimera is now going thru this same faze-a bit worse then he did, she suddenly became fearful of my trimming her nails, even though I have done it almost daily from the time she was 8 weeks old andh ave never cut to short. and then for a while she went thru a faze where she was nervous of children and would belly crawl when approaching them, and before that it was people walking past-positive reinfocment has cured her of all of those fears.
I personally think its the homones kicking in and it exhibits itself in territorial (barking, growing, carrying on) or nervousness and fear.
and a harness can be used just as well as a collar-I perfere a good harness because I can use it better then a collar and not worry about wearing the fur away on their necks which I have a big problem of with Cesar.
So, what I would do is-find a road and stand near it-if she freaks out a lot, I would have her in both a harness AND a collar with 2 leads just to simply prevent her from escapeing.
stand their and do nothing-let her flail when cars go by, when she relaxes and stops flailing, give her paise and reward her with treats (assuming she will accept them)
or if you can find a road near an open grassy area, you can stand by the road, and after a car goes by and she has a chance to relax-take he running in the opposite direction telling her what a good girl she is and praise her a short distance from the road. after you praise her and shes calmed down some again-take her back to the road to do it again.
in this way your teaching her "if you remain calm after a car goes thru-you will be rewarded by getting away from the area"
the sprinting will also help relieve her of some of her pent up anxiety.
I like to get control of my dogs in a harness by wrapping the lead around their chests like this photo I posted, the reason I do that is because its self correcting-without choking.
when they pull-there chests hit the lead and it will feel like a barrier in font of them and they will stop.
don't mind my poor "paint" skills
"It's not just a Dog, it's a Bull Terrier!"
www.bulliesofnc.com
He is doing good Steve, ive been doing my best to keep him calm (hard to do!!)
I am dog-sitting my sisters English bulldog and its 10X harder keeping him from wrestling and rough housing with her here as she is only 6 months old.
This is indeed a problem for you and your good furkid! I hate to see a dog in a panic! I l like walking a scared dog along with a very calm, easy going companion or sever other dogs if you have friend/neighbors who will go with you.. Plus I use a head halter on these dogs. You can combine it with anything you like...harness, wide collar for comfort etc. But the halter will help you with control and won't rub hair off the dog. I also like approaching things that scare the furkid a bit at a time and condition them against being so frightened. I live on a private lumber road so this means big lumber trucks going by on a regular basis if there is logging going on to the south of me somewhere. It can be really scary for a dog not used to this stuff to be passed closely by one of these trucks. I find a side road(or my long driveway) to first introduce the dog to this noise and I have lots of high value treats along. I want the dog to associate the noise with good things to eat. Then we get closer and closer to the source of all the noise a bit at a time wiht lots of treats involved.
I also start dogs here with the WATCH ME program, so they are already used to looking right up at me at any disturbance or anything upsetting or new. Brooklyn is just learning this now and doing well with it.
Good luck with this. I know you hate to see your girl scared. Sonja & The Furkids
Good luck bigbear! Keep us updated! I'm trying that wrap around tomorrow!
Oh no! glad everything turned out alright! i think for your pup you should have 2 leads-one attached to her collar, one to the harness so you don't have to attempt unclipping and re-clipping.
maybe do a prong + harness as i stated with 2 leads.
when she begins getting very upset switch to controlling her with the prong, when she is calm and relaxe or simply pulling forward, use the harness lead (hold onto both of them of coarse, but take control of the one you need to take control off)
also, make sure you get a proper fitting prong, too loose or to tight is both bad scenarios