[Paigika]

Our 8 week pup is afraid of dogs barking. Our neighbors have a couple of labs and sometimes they are outside and bark.

She has even been afraid of a dog I heard barking a couple doors down that was by the sound of the bark a small dog.

Our girl has never seen them face to face,
since we have a privacy fence. If she is outside and they come outside and bark, she immediately runs for the door or whines and comes to me.

We have never left her outside unsupervised, so I know she has not had a bad encounter through the fence.

We have not brought her to meet any other dogs since she does not have all her shots.

But I am worried about how she will do since she is afraid of just a bark.

Any advice on how to help her overcome this and to introduce her to other dogs when the time comes.

Thanks so much!

 

[readaboutdogs]

Cute puppy! Others will chime in with good ideas, but I'd probably just go on and engage what you were doing, working on ignoring the other dogs. head out in the middle of the yard, tossing the ball, whatever you had planned to do, keeping her engaged with you and ignoring the other dogs.

 

[mkculs]

OMG, adorable!! You could also try playing barking dogs online, at a very low volume first, and rewarding her for casual interest and ignoring. Raise volume very slowly--over days, not hours. Desensitizing takes time! This is helping Jett (I think) and now he ignores barking online even at high volume. He was barking at voices over the phone, too, and gradual exposure helped with that as well.

I see folks carrying small pups in public to get them used to more things before shots are finished. Ask your vet if that's ok?

 

[Shane'sDad]

She's just a "baby".....don't worry about it and don't make a "thing" out of it just continue doing what you were doing as if nothing is out of the ordinary....if you're anxious at all-she'll sense it--again act as if nothing out of the ordinary is going on....you're her "teacher" now she learns a lot simply from YOUR reactions...during the next year she'll be going through many changes...they typically may go through times when they're afraid of many different things--hair dryers-washers/dryers-vacuum cleaners--TV--radios--kitchen mixers and outside doors closing etc.


Yes genetics is a part of "fear" long term.....some may say she's got weak nerves....I've had many that as very young dogs .... go through a phase of being afraid of one thing or the other and then out grow it as adults...but the most important thing IMO is....HOW the young dogs "human" reacts to the fear...don't reinforce her fear




*** as far as her meeting other dogs after she's had her shots try to connect with someone who has a pup about her age and size---set up some play dates....or....some big adult dogs LOVE puppies and are super gentle... so you'll need to know and trust the older dog first... a bad experience with an older dog at your pups age would not be good