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We have an approximately 5-month old standard poodle who has just recently become afraid of his reflection during the day and his (and other’s) shadows at night. This new challenge is resulting in difficulty on walks, as he stops to growl, bark and attempt to bite his reflection and often tries to run from his shadow at night. We have read/heard from a couple of sources that this is a “normal” or at least not unusual stage of puppy development. However, we were curious if there is anything we should/should not do to help him navigate this latest phase. Many thanks in advance for your feedback and assistance!

We adopted a four month old female Aussie pup and she is fearful of “life” if we take her away from our home. (Except other dogs...she seems ok with them!) Just getting her to get in (and them subsequently OUT) of the car is a chore. And she just hides and shuts down (compete with drooling sometimes) when we make her go anywhere. We took her to a puppy class at PetSmart and couldn’t get her to even take steak for treats. (She will NEVER eat a treat when we aren’t at home.) She will walk on the road near our house, but if we take her anywhere else, she shuts down and refuses to walk (after we have to drag her out of the car of course). It’s exhausting for us, and I’m sure it’s worse for her. Can we change this? I don’t know what happened to her before four months of age, but am assuming she had no socialization. Are we too late for her to be a confident and happy dog when not in the house? (She knows basic commands, and is bright, as long as we are home.). Help??? (She is six months old now. We’ve been trying to fix this for two months.)

My dog Red, (I wrote about her a bit before), has a fear of everything outside. So here is the story, issue, what I have done, and then- help! So we got her at 12 weeks. She was already scared of everything. She was learning quick with house training. She has a schedule so it helps tremendously but, her fears escalated. I live in a rural area, but my street is very busy, and we have a train that comes through periodically. Note: My pup does not have an issue with people, not even stangers. Only with every noise. Music from neighbors, doors, cars, train, anything falling, blowing, moving.... First I was taking her outside with a very calm, matter-of-fact, no- worries attitude. I say "its okay!" Like its no big deal. I just kept taking her out regularly. But then it got much worse.So, anyway, it has gotten so bad that now she will not go potty. I have puppy pads down inside. She uses them. Now I do not make her go out. She is 4 months. I am trying to take it slow, starting over. I hate that I do not know why she had all the phobias when we got her. I feel like it would be helpful if we knew the circumstances of her life before.. And the fact that she will not leave the doorway-well, I do not want to make her unless I am supposed to? But two issues here. One is , am I handling this right? I need her to house train. Two is, I think it may be a healthy fear to have a fear of cars. But I have been telling her its ok. I think maybe that's bad? note: the first few days we got her, I carried her outside. I thought her fear was just normal because she left her original home.

We adopted a lovely cross labrador in April (now is November). He was 1,5 years when we came with us. Zapote has a splending personality and he is extremelly well behaved. His previous owner spent evidently a lot of time training him (he got sick and had to give the dog in adoption). Zapote is known to be sweet and playful and everyone. Dogs and persons who meet him melt for his sweetness. However, in our presence Zapote was attacked twice by other dogs. Once we made the mistkae of throwing a ball in front of another dog at a park, and Zapote suffered from it as the other dog attacked him to take over zapote's dog. There was blood in his ear and a short vet visit. The second time was out of nowhere, a dog came from behind against him in the forest. We learned 2 weeks ago that Zapote attacked a smaller dog during Zapote's walk with his beach pack. The dog walker tells us that Zapote is insecure and that he picked on this outer dog to prove himself to the pack. We can't believe that our sweet playful dog would do this. While we are looking for a trainer and behaviour support we witnessed last week a 3rd attack against Zapote. A larger dog was blocking him from playing with a third dog. Zapote avoided the larger dog repeatedly yet the larger dog insisted. At a point of tension zapote grawled and the larger dog went to his neck. No one got visibly hurt but the fight lasted long. it was horrible. Yet the large dog owner told us that his dog had never attacked anyone. So now, I am afraid that Zapote's attack against the little dog was a result of his past attacks. I am also worried that he is not able to better communicate to tell dogs off and prevent these horrible incidents. Thanks for your advise.