Afraid of the dark?

E

Estella'smom

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I confess, I am deeply in love with my 8 month old puppy, Estella. I have been very pleased, so far, that she shows no signs timidity and has not been all that barky. She reserves her barking for the squirrels in our yard. She seems to consider it her job to chase them away.

I am starting to notice, however, that she appears to be afraid of the dark. She loves the yard and will whimper at the back door to go out. In the early morning and evening, however. she will bolt out the back door and then execute a rapid u-turn to bolt back in to the house. Sometimes, she will repeat the exercise two or three times. On these occasions, I think she needs to pee. If I go out with her, she will go to the bathroom, and then bolt back inside.

Do any of you have a sheltie who is afraid of the dark?
 
mine some of mine are not necessarily afraid of the dark, but they are cautious of what lies in the dark, I think some of mine are a little smarter then the others and know there are animals on the other side that can eat them:yes:..I know in the middle of the night when one (usually Mia since she sleeps with me) has to go out she will not leave the deck until I put the flood lights on and light up the back yard. Its funny because shes warp speed from my room through the dog door to the deck and then she hits the brakes until I am quick enough to reach the light switch. Once out she will do what ever she has to do quick (because she doesnt have the "pack protection") and runs back in the house. No dwaddling in the dark!!
 
I have had the opposite reaction to a dark yard, with some of the very shy fosters I have had.

Several of them would run and play in the yard after dark, which I never saw during daylight.

We still have a former puppy mill girl, who after 4 years, will wake up at 4 AM (:confused2:) to go outside so she can run and play. During daytime, she spends her time safely in her open crate in a back bedroom.

My guess is that they are more confident in the dark, when they cannot see as well? There is also less activity in the neighborhood after dark (no scary people in the park across the street!).

The thoughts expressed regarding being scared of the dark, may be true too. I have never experienced it. I would certainly turn the lights on in the yard at night.
 
Dickens doesn't like climbing stairs in the dark. He likes to be able to see where he's going. I think that's because as a pup he stumbled a few times on our steep basement steps.
 
Does she have to go down stairs? We remodeled our deck last summer, and I noticed that Callie was very skittish for the first few weeks if she had to go down them in the dark. During the day she was fine, but at night she was very hesitant to go down them. We had to walk her down the first few days in the dark, and then for another week she took them very carefully.

The funny thing is that we just replaced the stair treads, but used the same riser pieces and made them a little wide -- so there shouldn't have been that much difference as far as the steepness or anything. She sure didn't like them though.
 
My Hanna still won't go down stairs - we have to carry her. She comes up reluctantly. I sure hope this is something she grows out of as our park has tons of stairs and carrying her up & down is not in the long term plans. We'll be working on that soon as the weather is nice enough. She is not all bothered by the dark, but I put on the lights so I can see.
 
Mine have different reactions to the dark. Since we live in a rural area we have a lot of coyote packs that howl back and forth to each other once it gets past dusk...we also have large owls hunting at night that can take fairly heavy. So my smaller ones are never alone in the yard at night even with the 6' fencing... and Pixie, my little yorkie, stays right next to us the entire time we are outside after dark whereas in the day she is running all over the place exploring and chasing squirrels, chipmunks, etc...she obviously senses the danger at night. My shelties are nervous when the coyotes howl, but otherwise have no issue with the dark and Kinnon (collie/husky mix)stands at the fence and calls back to the coyotes...wish I knew what the conversation they have is about.

Trini
 
EJHUNTL said:
My Hanna still won't go down stairs - we have to carry her. She comes up reluctantly. I sure hope this is something she grows out of as our park has tons of stairs and carrying her up & down is not in the long term plans. We'll be working on that soon as the weather is nice enough. She is not all bothered by the dark, but I put on the lights so I can see.
Click to expand...

Dickens has this thing about going upstairs, where he needs to launch himself. Sometimes he makes about a dozen false starts before going. I wonder if it has to do with the body length, or some other aspect of a Sheltie's physical structure or vision?
 
I have to force the issue of a potty break at night. Chauncey has no problems going outside up until dark, but once it is night, I open the door to go out and he stops in his tracks, sorta like um I changed my mind.
We been feeding him earlier to allow him to go out while it is dusk since the winter and daylight savings kicked in. He loves the cooler weather and is really active and if there are a lot of stars and the moon is bright he doesn't have a problem, it is those pitch black nights he doesn't like Our street has a street lamp about 400 yards away so in front of our house it is really dark even the garage carriage lights don't cast enough light. I might have to get a flood light installed to help.
 
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