Potty training halted by severe phobias

[virgo9674]

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.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello there!

With fear of noises, counterconditioning and desensitization are often the preferred behavior modification methods.

The "hear that" method can come handy, you can read about it here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/

 

With behavior modification it is important that exposure to sounds are not presented in full intensity initially. You want your dog under threshold:https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

With sounds, you can muffle them by playing white noise (TV on, radio) or present recordings of the sounds played at low levels.

 

While the "hear that' method can help when a dog is fearful of a particular sound, things get more challenging when a dog's fear of certain noises has started to generalize to other sounds to the point that a dog is fearful of almost any sound. In such cases, calming aids (supplements, pheromone plug ins and pheromone collars, Thundershirts) may be helpful, but severe cases may require medications and the intervention of a veterinary behaviorist.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli

[virgo9674]

Thank you, Adrienne.