Frightened Sheltie scared to go outside!!

C

ChampLucy

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Champ and Lucy are 15 months old. We've had them since they were 9 weeks old. They have always been scared of lots of things but outgrew most of their fears but recently our male, Champ seems scared of things that he wasn't scared of since he was a tiny puppy. The thing that seems to scare him the most is going outside! We have a large fenced in back yard that they both used to love running around in. Any chance they got they would be trying to run out the door so they could go play, but now Champ hangs back and has to practically be pushed out the door and then will just hang out on the deck and won't go out into the yard with Lucy unless my husband or I or one of our kids are out with them in the yard.

Also going out to do his business has gotten quite difficult. In the past if we would say "do you need to go outside?" they used to both be at the door wanting to go out and Lucy still comes right to the door when we grab the leash and need her to go out, but now Champ walks the other direction and won't come over to the door like he used to. I will have to go catch him to get his leash on. He's gotten to the point now that we have to pull to get him out the door once his leash is on. Once he is out on the deck he will walk out to the yard with us, but he acts like he is scared of every noise. He will usually do his business, but the whole time will be looking around acting nervous and scared. We have a busy road behind our house and if a loud truck or motorcycle happens to drive by while he is outside.....he will try desperately to get back into the house even if he's in the middle of peeing or pooping. He was a little scared of the trucks as a tiny puppy but they didn't bother him now for months and months. But all of a sudden over the last few weeks it is just getting worse and worse! And I'm not even sure that it's just the sounds of the trucks that are scaring him. He will act nervous and scared even if there is no traffic. The last few days he after his "supper" when we know he needs to poop after we manage to get him out into the yard he will just pull and pull to go back into the house and won't poop.

Has anyone else experienced this? What can we do? I have no idea what is scaring him and why he has changed so much over the last few weeks. I'm afraid one of these days he will totally refuse to go out and we'll have to carry him out! :eek2: How do make him more confident again?

Julie
 
oh how awful this must be for you and him!

first of all, baby steps, no forcing to go no pulling no chasing him to go...
He may have had some sort of trauma to be this scared... maybe when nobody was around. Make sure no neighbours have done anything inadvertently or on purpose if he was out there without you guys. But what matters most is that it's happened, don't knock yourself crazy over the way if you can't figure it out.

I would highly recommend you sit with him out there, see how close he gets to the grass, really be calm and relaxed with him there while sitting with him, feed him small treats or try a spoon with peanut butter on it, or even feed him his kibble for the day there, but stay with him.

It will give you an idea how far he will go before he shuts down because he won't eat lick the peanutbutter spoon or take any food then.

I am assuming he may need the balance tipped in the other direction now, if he was really spooked at some point, he needs to NOW have the best and most fun experiences out there EVVVVVERRRRR

Even if it means making a fool out of yourself and do some running and playing when you ARE making it to the grass together.
seriously would NOT force him to be there by himself right now, that will really perpetuate the problem and make it worse.
 
i agree with toffee; don't force the dog and go slow. reward any and all baby steps.

if a dog is scared of something (especially because of a bad experience), you cannot push them to make progress faster. let the dog take as long as he needs to feel comfortable with each baby step. it could take a looong time, so be patient. it helps to get your mindset into not expecting anything from the dog. that way you can easily be happy about whatever progress he makes. he'll get over it; just let him set the pace for how fast (or slow) you progress.
 
I agree with the others.

I also want to recommend that you reach out to OntarioSheltie. If I remember correctly her girl Ginny had a bad experience outside (I think they determined she was stung by a bee or something similar) and she had to work to rebuild her confidence outside.
 
Thanks

Thanks for the replies.....the wierd thing is.....we often go outside during the day and run around and play ball. Champ is fine with that. As long as somebody is with him he is usually fine. If a noise scares him he will run over to one of us and stay beside us for a minute or so and then go play. The thing he doesn't want to do is go out with just Lucy (his sister). It's just wierd because he used to love it. I don't usually force him out to do that and I definitely won't from now on.

He also doesn't like going out when I know he needs to pee or poo (mostly in the evening). I kind of have to force him then.....the alternative would be for him to do it in the house which I'm not willing to let him do.

We do have new neighbors (they moved in about a month ago) and they have 2 dogs who bark a lot when outside which makes our dogs bark a lot. Our dogs are in our fenced yard and they are in their fenced yard. But still probably scary for Champ......we were wondering if maybe that was making him more nervous....

Thanks again....we'll just keep taking it slowly :smile2:

Julie
 
Is there a second exit to your yard that you could start to desensitize him to? Dogs don't generalize so you might be able to get him past his aversion of the yard if you can approach it from a different perspective. If not, then I would walk him on lead out front of your house for awhile when he has to go to do his business while playing "lets go through the door to the deck and back again" separately as a reward based game.
I wonder if a truck backfired and his already nervous attitude got a boost from it. You could try to mix Mimulus, Aspen and Rescue remedy - 3 drops of each in a coloured eyedropper filled with distilled water or bottled water. You would give him 3 - 4 drops of this mixture into him mouth 2 x daily and also a few drops into his water bowl. I've had a lot of success getting dogs to lose enough of their nervousness to be able to learn. Tinsel got it for about a month.
I hear your frustration. If you ask Tinsel if he wants to go outside he trots off in the opposite direction from the exit, gets to his bed and lays down waiting for me to pick him up and take him back to about 12 feet from the right doorway and then trots out from there. He doesn't appear to be scared out there just doesn't understand that he can go there by himself. Still working that one out but I have a big bag of tricks up my sleeve and we are only on number 5 or 6.
 
Forgot to mention. If you do decide to try the Flower essences remedy then remember to keep the solution refridgerated.
 
oh that's good, he is not all that scared during the day, just in the evenings?
Ok, so do your training with him at night then. Put on leash, give treat, step towards the door, give treat, repeat as long as he takes the treats you keep going out through the door. If he gets too scared and won't take a treat then go out front door, let him poop on a short walk or something. It may not even take that long to get him to have fun again at night. Try doing the same thing at night that you do during the day, if you force him out at night at this point just to pee/poop... it'll make it worse in the long run.
 
How well light is your backyard? There might be shadows that all of a sudden have become monsters. He may have been frightened by one of the dogs next door out at night without you seeing/hearing them, but he could. We have a light at the back door, but we also have a huge flashlight/spotlight that we use when we have them out at night. As recommended, baby steps, lots of treating.
 
I noticed my Beau does not like to be out side after 5pm.

What I've done is that I take him out for his walk in the park in the morning. Once he has pooped, I take him for a longer walk in the neighborhood.

Then I bring him home feed him breakfast, wait until around 930am walk him for an hour. bring him home feed him lunch around noon, then at 130 we go out for another long walk.


By then he is pooped out and peed out. Both literally and physically.

I take him for his last pee at 7pm, then he pees on a tree on the corner and runs right back to the house. Its like he's telling me, "Momma, we don't need to be out here with all these crazy people." and actually I agree with him:smile2:
 
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