[Steve K9Pro]

Spanner, on 6th Nov 2007 - 12:06 PM, said:

2nd Fear period???
K9, my 9 month old GSP (who we have only had for a few weeks) was very ill 10 days after he came to us and spent a couple of days/nights at the Vet but thankfully pulled through. I visited the vet today and he is now very scared of the vet (and to some extent the nurse's too) and he hid behind me like a small child would (which he didn't do before the episode of illness). The vet was gentle with him and hand fed him treats and said to pop by every now and again to show him that its an ok place to be. The thing is a few days ago my parents visited and our dog was really weird with my Dad and grabbed (nipped) at my Dad's hand. He didn't make contact at all (looked almost like he thought he had food) and he didn't appear to be aggressive about it (to my unexperienced eyes anyway) so I am wondering is he going to be fearful of men now and if so what is the right thing to do about it?

K9: Your dog has probably paired the unpleasantless of the vet to the vet.Yes your dog may be in FP2 but there may be some learned problems there too...

[Spanner]

Ok, so is socialising him more and visiting the vets likely to help the problem or make it worse?

[Steve K9Pro]

Spanner, on 6th Nov 2007 - 12:26 PM, said:

Ok, so is socialising him more and visiting the vets likely to help the problem or make it worse?

K9: at this point I would keep the pup at hime until FR2 is behind you...

[jillybean]

My 14 week old puppy is most definately going thru a fear period!! I used to think she was such a quiet dog, she very rarely barked at anything but now she smallest sound scares her and she'll just stand there and bark for ages! I've been trying to ignore the barking and keep her distracted with Kongs and bones etc, as well as spending more time playing with her. Anything else to stop the barking, or do I just wait it out?

[ChocLabLover]

K9 Force, on 2nd Nov 2007 - 12:17 PM, said:

Quote

think my puppy is now in the Selective Deafness stage. When you say you introduce consequences for disobedience, what does that entail? Also how do you get the dog to obey you on the first command? I think I'm starting to sound like a broken record!

Is there a difference between the dog going through these stages and lack of respect for me because of lack of leadership, or not very strong leadership?

K9: to teach anything, you will need to establish a motivator (reward system) for your pup, then there are ways that you can use this with a method like show/place & reward system..

Yes there is a difference, in reality respect comes from discipline which is you setting boundaries for your pup... Consequences can be from time outs to physical corrections..

Sorry Steve - what do you mean by "physical corrections" ??

[yeggy]

Steve, thanks for this thread. My German Seheperd dog puppy is really trying to establish herself as leader. How do I stop her biting? I've started isolating her when she bites. She's non biting when I get her from the pen after about 20 mins but then when I put her on the lead she sits and won't come with me. Rather than pull her I put her straight back into the pen. Am I doing the right thing?

[Flaves]

Steve, do all pups go through fear periods and react negatively to things?
Are there some pups who don't?
And if so is this a bad thing or should i just be greatful?

[ZEPING]

WOW thanks steve i think i seen this on your web site her can wait ti the 29th novermber!

[royalla]

i have a pup that won't come when called at all she is about 13 weeks old now, i had to leave her at a friends house for two weeks but before i left her she was always at my feet wanting a pat and jumping on me and alway came when called my friend has a pup of the same breed and about two weeks older that does not come then called now did my pup learn this from the other pup because she is now a real pain, i was told to call her for tea and if she did not come and would not go into her pen for tea then leave her out and take her tea away and in the morning do the same again i was told by doing this by the next night she would be the first pup in the pen. at the moment i can't do this at all because every night my back yard is full of sheep as we have had wild dogs killing the sheep if left out in thier paddock, now i have tried sitting on the back steps giveing the other pups cuddles and treats for over an hour but she would still not come to me and i could not waste any more time trying to catch her nicely as a had to get the sheep up before dark so i had to conner her and carry her to the pens now none of the other pups stayed at my friends place and are all still fine to catch in fact i just open the pen gates and say 2 in and 2 pups go in then i repeat this for the next 2 pens and all go in as told apart from ruby (Ruby was away because she was sold but the sale was dropped the day before the transport was to pick her up) so would you have any more ideas on how to get her to come i have never had this problem before with a pup so young yes older male pups play deaf but she is not playing deaf she is just standing back watching me and if a take a step towards her she runs away and if i sit down she will not come any closer, she got very car sick going down to my friends place and then coming back again so maybe she blames me for that ???

[je33ie]

Thanks K9!!

I read this a few months before I got my puppy so I was prepared for the different stages. I'm surprised at how spot-on you were with the first fear period... it seems as though the day Geordie turned 12 weeks all that boldness and fearlessness disappeared and we suddenly had a dog that would jump at the smallest noise.

Through it now though and now we've found ourselves a 16 week old little terror!

[LoremIpsum]

Martha's 14 weeks, and she hasn't had a fear period. At least not one that I've noticed! Are they mandatory??

[Steve K9Pro]

K9: sorry for the late reply, I didn't get an email notification there was a message here?

Anyway, they are not mandatory but they do occur in every dog, just some dogs go through a more serious change than others.

[Aussie3]

Lili has just turned 21 weeks and has gone from barely barking at all to woofing her little heart out at anything unusual.
She saw some curtains in our bedroom move and completely freaked out, then heard some builders using a nail gun and it was the same. The barking is not aggressive, it is out of fear, I can tell she's scared just by her body language.

I know that there will be things she hasn't been exposed to yet that might scare her but before this she just took things as they came.....
Could this be a fear period? She hasn't seemed to have one yet....

And if so what is the best way to handle it? When she gets scared I try and distract her by playing with a toy, scratching her belly or going into the room walking round to show her it's all fine...Is this right?

Thanks

[Steve K9Pro]

Quote

A: I know that there will be things she hasn't been exposed to yet that might scare her but before this she just took things as they came.....
Could this be a fear period? She hasn't seemed to have one yet....

K9: It certainly sounds like it from your description, it is late but it could be peaking now.

Quote

A: And if so what is the best way to handle it? When she gets scared I try and distract her by playing with a toy, scratching her belly or going into the room walking round to show her it's all fine...Is this right?

K9: Not really, any reaction you have to this fear only empowers it, ignore this behaviour & try to avoid taking her out too much over the next few weeks.

[Aussie3]

Ok I will, thanks for the advice