Afraid at odd time

[aidanmferguson]

Hi, our rescue Charlie has some odd behaviours that we aren't too sure how to deal with.

At nighttime when we try to get her inside she is very reluctant. She gets to the door and whines like she wants to come in and then stays at the door and whines. When she is coming in, we are just hanging out, it's not like she is going into her crate. We do have to wipe her paws when it's muddy outside, but that's about the only undesirable thing that happens when she comes inside.

 

We try to entice her with treats, and happy high pitched voices and playing, but we are at a loss and don't want to have to trick her with the doorbell, or other things.

 

Her other odd behavior is that she is afraid of my cough. Not my husbands, just mine... it's very odd.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi aidanmferguson,

Welcome to the forum!

How old is Charlie and what breed? Does she spend all day outside and then in the evening spends time indoors? How long have you had her? Where does she eat?

What do you mean when you say "we don't want to trick her with the doorbell?

These details will be helpful,

Thanks!

[Adrienne Farricelli]

As I wait for your reply, I will try to address the fear of your cough. This can be enough for a timid dog to be reluctant to come inside the home.

 

One dog I once worked with was afraid of my sneezes, and being that she was with me during allergy season, my powerful "achoos" were not very avoidable! In any case, what helped was for me was to make fake sneezes that were much lower in volume and tossing very high value treats as I made the sneeze.

 

Fake sneeze after fake sneeze, this dog started looking forward to them because the fake sneezes became a cue that treats were coming. I then gradually made fake sneezes that were louder in volume until she got used to those and looked forward to them too. So then when the real sneezes happened (and of course they did), she cared less or looked for treats. This may help your dog and also create positive associations with you and being indoors. The most important thing is to make sure to:

 

1) make the initial fake coughs as low as possible initially to prevent your dog from being over threshold (over reactive to the point of being scared and even not taking treats)

2) make it crystal clear that the yummy treats happen contingent (and exclusive) to the fake coughs

3) go gradual in presenting louder coughs. If she gets startled at any time, you have raised criteria too quickly, go back to making lower coughing sounds until she habituates to those.

[aidanmferguson]

Hi Adrienne,

 

Thank you for your reply. I will try that. Charlie is a rescue and we aren’t 100% sure of her breed, she spends most of her day inside, and we let her out when she wants throughout the evening and let her in when she barks to come in. We got her about 7 months ago. She eats inside. And when we ring the front doorbell she will sometimes come in to see who is at the front door. So we have used this to get her inside.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Thank you for the details. Is this fear at an odd time a new behavior? or has it been happening since the past 7 months?

With rescues with an unknown history, it can at times be challenging identifying what may be triggering some of their behaviors. It sounds like she has some sort of conflict going on. A few possible ideas that come to mind are the following:

 

-Can she be scared of the door? I have seen some rescues who were scared of the door closing behind them. I have seen this mostly with storm doors that close erratically at times. Doors that make sounds when being closed may too act as a trigger.

-Does her body language appear fearful? Perhaps she wants you to join her outside? Many dogs have conflicts between wanting to be outside and wanting to be with their owners. If she is sent out on her own only in the evening, she may look forward to her evening outings, but then may feel lonely and be in conflict between wanting to stay out and enjoying your company.

-If she dislikes having her paws wiped, although you may do it just a few times, it could be that she wants to come in but doesn't know if she's ll get her paws wiped or not, so she's anxious about coming inside. In such a case, it would be important gradually conditioning her to allow her paws to be touched by creating positive associations with lots of praise and high-value treats.

-This applies mostly to old dogs: some older dogs may have vision problems or cognitive decline which can cause sometimes some odd nighttime behaviors. However, sometimes young dogs may eye issues too, so this behavior may be worthy of discussing with the vet in a future visit if it happens only in the evening just to rule this possibility out.

[JMFS]

I'm teaching Gertie to wipe her paws herself and thought that might come in handy in this situation. My end game goal is to get her to file her own claws as I'll replace the towel with sandpaper. If nothing else it may help with getting your pup to come to enjoy the sight of a towel. It was a video I saw and they didn't show many repetitions, nor did they address the Back feet, but it was enough to get us started.

 

I put a treat under a towel and point to it. When Gertie touches the towel with her paw I say, "yes!" and toss a treat a couple feet away. If she noses at it instead I say, "nope!" and point again until she touches with her paw. Even accidental touches get rewarded - they'll put it together eventually. She comes back and we repeat the process. After about 7 tries she started pawing at the towel instead of only touching it. That only took about 3 minutes of time and I ended it there because she was still succeeding and enjoying the game.

 

I'm using Zuke's minis for this exercise, but if yours sincerely dislikes the paw wiping then you may want to upgrade to chicken or the jerky treats. Something super enticing. Just never use Chik Fil A nuggets. Trust me on That one, ugh! :D Who knew just 3 nuggets could cause such mayhem to a dog's tummy!

[aidanmferguson]

Thank you so much for your advice. I think that part of it has to do with her wanting to play outside. I think that because I have been slammed at work and just not giving her as much attention as before, she is trying to turn coming in, into a chasing game. I am currently working on making sure that I give her some more quality and training time everyday. Hopefully that helps. I think part of it is her loving being outside.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Interesting! If she is wanting to play, you would see more playful body language rather than frightened. If playful, your dog may do play bows (lowered body with rump n the air and tail wagging) and then move away as soon as she sees you move in her direction waiting for you to chase her. Dogs like to play "keep away" but in general this game is not encouraged due to the fact that it can get out of hand and a time may come when we really need dogs to come and they think we are playing with them and they'll play hard to get.

 

Certainly extra training and more quality time helps a whole lot. Other things that come to mind is teaching her to play hide and seek (you'll find this game in the brain training section) so that she comes looking for you rather than you trying to get her, training a strong recall (come when called) and rewarding these heavily. Also, making great things happen upon coming inside (access to a stuffed Kong, a game of fetch, a brain game) can help if she is reluctant to coming inside.