My husband and I got our first GSD puppy back in December. He is 5 months old now. We have no children so he is our baby We have him in basic obedience and he is doing so good! He is crated during the day while we are at work. As soon as one of us get off we spend our whole afternoon exercising, working, and playing with him. On weekends we go to the dog park and all of my time is devoted to to him. If I can take him with me (running errands) he rides with me and LOVES to ride! Back to my concern....if I have to get out of the car, and leave him in there he absolutely freaks out. And when I mean leave him in there, it is only for a few minutes to run in somewhere and the weather is not warm and not too cold. Even when we get home I turn off the car and he jumps into my lap and starts whining and as soon as I open my door he is jumping over me to get out. Even when I stay in the car and my husband runs into a store he freaks and barks and whimpers. And when he freaks out, it is a terrified/freaking out bark. I love to take him places with me but I hate for him to be so scared. Is this SA? Is this just him being a puppy? I'm okay with him not running errands with me. But even if one of us get out, we do not want him to freak out each time. We want to stop this before it gets worse or before he gets any bigger. Help, please!
Mine did this too for about two weeks. May be SA but could be going through a fear period too. No advice here other than leave him home if he's ok at home.
I only left my pup in the car by herself once. She cried and barked, but she wasn't too crazy. I am worried about her tearing up my car, so I don't take her places when she can't go in with me. I would say to take things slow.
Sit in the car with the doors closed with him.
Then get out and stand by the car with the windows down. Calm him if you need to. Treat him for sitting nicely and not crying.
Then start closing the door and taking a couple of steps away.
You should be able to work up to leaving him in the car by himself.
I've been afraid to leave Otto in the car unattended since he ate the safety belts in the jump seat of my station wagon. He was one, he's almost 6 and I still won't do it!
think I can understand what you mean by the freaked out bark. my guy had the most awful sounding bark when I moved out of sight, like when I went out through the garden gate but didn't let him follow me. he doesn't do it anymore, he'll stay by the gate super alert and sometimes whimper. I think he partly grew out of it and also I just did it repeatedly and he knew I always came back. I never made a big deal out of it and I never let him 'call me' back. I just acted like the awful, ear shattering shriek didn't exist even though it was hard.
for the shrieking too sometimes I would say 'shhhh' or 'it's OK baby's' or something like that in as soothing a tone as I can do without looking at him. this was for things like car rides which took him awhile to grow to like. he loves car rides now so maybe some of that helped.
Yeah it's just weird because he loves the car. We open the doors and he jumps in. He doesn't mess anything up or chew while we are gone. I've tried to put the car in park and let him calm down. Turn the car off and let him calm down. Unbuckle and calm down. He knows all of those sounds/steps mean that I'm getting out. So I've tried to calm him and wait. But it doesn't seem to work. When I/we return he isn't barking. He's just excited to see us.
Try and picture the concept of a car to a dog. It's a mind blowing place/experience for dogs to climb into a big cloth/metal/plastic box that zooms at unbelievable speeds down the forbidden stretch of earth.
Our version:
Some 20 foot tall aliens land. Begin to care for you, speak jibberish that you can only decipher a portion of. They provide anything and everything for you, exquisite meals, comfortable living quarters. They seem to have almost god-like powers in acquiring items of need and seek little in return but shaped play. Then they toss you into a structure that in your mind will never move and then proceeded to fly through the center of the sun. Few light-years 'round the galaxy they stop into a place that's packed with OTHER big honking friendly aliens and leave you in the mystery flying thing. You gonna to stay calm?
well I don't speak for others but I only occasionally pee my pants in fright
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