# 6 Month Old Afraid of Other Dogs



## kwinston7

I have a 6-month old golden retriever Molly. We got her at 8 weeks old from a breeder and she was a happy puppy, who would go up to anyone or anything and give it kisses. But since she was about 4 months old she has become scared of a lot of things, mainly other dogs. She has grown up with our 4 year old miniature schnauzer and loves him to death but every time another dog comes near her at the dog park she yips and cowards away. Since we have had her we have tried to socialize her a lot and nothing traumatic has happened in her life. We exercise her daily, she goes everywhere with us, especially my parents house where there is a huge yard and pool. So I do not know what we have done wrong, this is our first Golden Retriever, or if maybe she is just going through a phase. For now, we are taking her to the dog park once or twice a week and trying to socialize her with both other dogs and people. She also does not want to have anything to do with the pool right now but we are just getting started with that since it is finally warm. If any of you guys have any suggestions on what might help please let me know!


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## jackie_hubert

I'm sorry this is happening. Is she afraid of anything other than dogs?


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## RedDogs

Was she in a puppy socialization class, how did she do there?
Have you consulted with a professional?

I would not be taking her to the dog park, socialization is about good associations (not bad and not neutral) and it does not sound like she's having a good time there. You COULD set up 75+' from the dog park or other location with her on leash and every time a dog walks past, give her a few small pieces of hamburger or other REALLY great stuff. NEVER going closer unless she has been tail waggy and excited to see several dogs. The more nervous moments she has at the park, the harder it will be to change behavior.


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## kwinston7

She is scared of things other than dogs. For instance, this morning a boy was skateboarding and she gets so scared she tries pulling me all the way back home. Or one day the people were moving next door and she wouldn't go outside of the door because they were moving big boxes out of the house to the truck. So she is scared of ALOT but the dogs is what bothers me because I really want her to love anything and anyone and I figure she will grow out of being scared of the other things. Also I have noticed that it is more bigger dogs than smaller dogs. She is still nervous of smaller dogs but she will at least start trying to play whereas with the bigger dogs she is just petrified, but they are the same size as her, she was 50 pounds at 5 months old. I am guessing she thinks she is a small dog since she has grown up with 2 schnauzers and a yorkie. And I understand what you mentioned about the dog park being a negative experience and not doing it. I guess I will have to find a way to socialize her with dogs but make it a positive experience.


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## Florabora22

I don't think your puppy has the same dog issues that my dog has, but one thing I can definitely say is stop taking her to the dog parks for now! I made the mistake (several times) of taking my dog Flora (who I knew was very timid around other dogs) to dog parks and she had many negative experiences there that I think only exacerbated her issue with other canines.

If you can find friends with dogs that are well behaved, I would suggest setting up meeting sessions with them. With Flora, in her puppy classes our instructor would allow me to drop Flora's leash but everyone else had to hold on to their dogs' leashes because any wrong approach would scare Flora witless. So Flora could approach the other dogs on her own terms (which unfortunately she rarely did) while the other dogs were under control by their owners. I would suggest maybe trying that with some dogs of your friends, trustworthy dogs that you know wouldn't only make things worse. 

Try older dogs, calmer dogs, dogs like that. My dog Flora really dislikes puppies and excitable dogs but she actually gravitates towards older dogs - my guess is because they're much calmer and more predictable.

Good luck! Hopefully she is just going through a little fear stage.


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## rhondas

I would be concerned about her non-dog fears also.
Did you attend puppy kindergarten with her? It seems like she has not had much socialization beyond her pack or much beyond your home and familiar safe places - like your parent's house. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting your post....
I definitely would not take her to a dog park because you don't know much about the dogs that go them. I personally wouldn't take my dogs to one either. 

I personally would treat your situation as though you were dealing with an 8 week old puppy who just came home and needs socialization. I would suggest going to Ian Dunbar's website and read his information on how to socialize a puppy. This will provide you with professional expertise. 
Additionally, scheduling time with a professional trainer or behaviorist would be worthwhile to get advice and guidance. Even having playdates with dogs that you are familiar with and trust might be too much for her to handle if she's extremely fearful.


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## jackie_hubert

Does sound like socialization issue. When did she first go out to strange and unfamiliar places?


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## LibertyME

IMO - this is a dog that should be wearing a martingale (limited slip) collar out in public for fear that she would back out of a flat collar and take off running if panicked.


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## kwinston7

Yea, I would say she is comfortable with her "pack" and really only goes between 2 places, our home and my parents. But she has gone to another park that is not off-leash to try and meet people and dogs, shes been on 2 play dates, with the same puppy, which ended up going pretty good. She was scared at first but got use to him and they played for hours. We have taken her to my fiance's mom's house when we have been over there. I mean we have tried and so I guess we have to just keep trying and try something new. No, we never took her to any puppy classes, which was probably a mistake. We didn't for our other dog either. But there are so many people out there that don't take their dogs and they end up being the sweetest dogs still, so I guess I just never thought about it because of that. Do you think it is too late to take her now? Thank you all for the good advice so far!


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## RedDogs

She is too old for a puppy class (8-16 weeks, some go to 20 weeks of age), but a basic training class could be a good place to start.

Due to the extent of her fears, I do think you would benefit more from a consult with a board certified veterinary behaviorist than from classes with a trainer. 

Without seeing her, it's hard to determine what kinds of practice set ups and things to do that would benefit her, anything that is too hard could ---greatly-- set you back and I don't want to take that risk.

Thanks for working to reduce her anxiety!


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## jackie_hubert

I would definitely check in with a behaviorist (not a trainer). Fear issues can be a little tricky to overcome but I think with a good professional working with you and lots of telethon and good experiences she'll overcome that, IMHO.


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## lyssa

I'm getting a puppy in a couple of months to train as a service dog for myself - so have done a vast amount of reading about socialization and fear periods. Nearly all puppies have fear periods (which is what you have there by the sound of it), which doesn't actually refer to puppies being fearful, but puppies learning and struggling to deal with their fear of new and difficult situations. 

The most important thing you can do is to never force the dog to confront the situation, but instead basically ignore her, do not reinforce her scared behavior by comforting her.... instead set an example for her and yourself explore whatever is making her upset, eg a skateboard or the other dog etc. Don't praise her or give her any attention until she is overcoming her fear and has at least somewhat followed your example in exploring whatever you are looking at. Whenever you see her struggling with fear, don't back away from helping her overcome it, but don't force her either! Walking away from a situation with her still scared will continue to heighten it in her mind. For further information I would look up "fear period" and "socialization". 

Oh and I wouldn't continue to take her to the dog park either, start with something else that scares her a little less, not a dog as other dogs obviously can be unpredictable. Start with something that you can control and work on that. Her fear period is likely about learning to deal with new situations, so whilst you just want her to be ok with dogs, working on other stuff will help her with dogs too. When you have improvement in other areas, then start working on new dogs. Doing the dog park again and again will no clear plan will just make it worse. Hope this was helpful.


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## Ranger

My brother's dog went through this, too. In his case, he was rarely taken out in public places (read: never), was barely walked, and only hung out with Ranger or at my parent's house. My brother finally realized something had to change when Blue started getting aggressive tendencies to strangers, kids, and other dogs and twice charged random people when he was off-leash.

Blue entered a very strict program of socialization. We found a great dog walker who worked closely with a behaviourist. Dogs weren't allowed to run off leash like crazies and had to "earn" their off leash freedom. Other dogs stayed on leash and walked in a pack, sometimes of up to 20 dogs! He did that twice a week for a year until he became comfortable with other dogs and learned how to meet/greet/ignore.

The other thing we did was walk Blue A LOT. First, he was walked in non-scary settings. Calm neighbourhoods without a lot of people, traffic, or dogs. We wanted to expose him slowly and gradually without scaring him or over-exposing him. He still got see a lot of "new" things but wasn't overwhelmed. Then he started getting walked 3 times in a week in more difficult settings, like next to a busy road, or past a playground with kids. He never got the chance to stop and stare at the "scary things"; he'd see them, then we'd distract him with a cue/cookie and we'd keep going...no chance to get frightened OR have kids come running up.

Then we started doing obedience in distraction areas. My favourite was a supermarket's parking lot in non-peak hours. We'd start at an empty end where he could see everything but was overwhelmed and we did a lot on obedience to help boost his confidence. Over a few weeks, we gradually moved closer and closer to the busy area.

Between obedience sessions in places like that, I'd hook him up to Ranger and we'd go for walks in busy areas. He gained a lot of confidence from Ranger and would look at Ranger to see how he should react. Ranger is super confident and happy with everything so it worked really well. I'm not sure if you have a confident dog you can walk with your girl but it would probably really help. Just make sure that it's a super confident dog - you don't want your girl learning she should be scared of something!

Keep working with her by getting her out and about in non-scary settings then gradually build up. Obedience classes will definitely help boost her confidence. The hardest thing right now is to keep going out there when she's scared but you have to get her out in new - controlled - situations. It's easy to think "it's just a phase" and keep her in the house, but it's ONLY a phase IF she keeps getting exposed and socialized. My brother thought it was "only a phase" and that's what happened with Blue. He didn't get worked with through his phase and it became part of his personality.


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## mustluvgoldens

Class and maybe a trainer who would pay a visit to your home a couple of times could really help. My 11 month old male went thru a very brief fear period just after being neutered at 9 months. He wee wee'd on the vet and in his obedience class a few times. Actually shot his vet in the head when picked up and put on an exam table (after a mysterious eating of not good objects episode). Seems to have corrected itself in just about 3-4 weeks, and he no longer pees on anybody's head fortunately. 

What somebody else said about using a confident dog for your dog to lean on is a great idea. My 3.5 year old female was a fearful, very submissive little girl when I got her but she quickly learned from my older male who was about 7 when we got her. She watched his reactions and became bold and outgoing through him. Good luck. This will pass.


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## lgnutah

When my dog was around 4-6 months, he went through a period when he was afraid of things he hadn't seen before (once we went to a school and a man was walking with his little child on his shoulders and Brooks went into a fear barking state). When it was something we saw on a walk (like those blow-up figures in someone's yard or a snowman) I would just stop and wait. Little by little, Brooks would approach the thing, and I would just move with him, saying nothing. This seemed to work for him, as after a few months, he didn't do it.


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## Jige

Lots of good advice here. But one thing that wasnt mentioned was having a vet check his eyes and ears a medical condition of either could cause the dog to over react to different things.


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## kwinston7

Thank you all for the great advice! We are definitely not going to take her to the dog park anymore and are starting to slowly introduce her to the new things, like the skateboard. My fiance explored it with her and she is getting better.  Like you all said it just takes time and exposure. We are going to work hard with her and so she will hopefully overcome this and it be just a phase and not her personality.
We also had a one and one session with her yesterday with another dog and she did better! She was scared every now and then but she also started trying to play and was happy and excited. So that was great to see!


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## saab95conv

Monaco is 6 months today. she was nipped by two adult dogs at dog park, so i am thinking that is what makes her coward. she loves the dog park and I was intervening telling her to take it easy. I decided to let her learn and she plays with all the dogs, but some does she still cowards. I am hoping if i stay out of it, she will come out of this. never had a retreiver do this. I am no expert, but all my dogs grew up socially fine, no problems. I am open to any suggestions too. [email protected] (Janet)


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## LeilaM

You have gotten some really great suggestions here. You are also doing a great job working to overcome her fears.

I apologize if I have missed this in any of your posts, but have you contacted your breeder to let them know that you are having theses issues? Your breeder should be your first resource with your puppy as they know them and their litter mates very well. Also they usually like to know how things are going.
What do you know about your puppies parents?

I hope things continue to improve for you.


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## Charliethree

It sounds like a confidence issue, the more good experiences she has with other dogs the better she will get. However, be careful about what dogs she encounters, another 'bad' experience could cause a setback. Also helping her be more comfortable with other things she may find scarey can help over all. For example: If she is afraid of an 'object', try pairing the object with treats. Lay a few treats on the floor or ground, and let her work her way up to it, place treats on the object or quite close and let her get them at her own pace. Confidence can also be helped through basic skills training, and rewarding for success, and exposing her to a variety of 'strange objects' like a ladder placed flat on the ground, or a chair 'tipped over', etc, and pairing them with treats to help make good associations with them. The more 'socialization' and positive associations you can give her with all kinds of things-people, objects, obstacles etc, the more comfortable she will be in the 'real world'.


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