More fearful behavior...

The last couple of weeks Kestral has been building even more fears.

She is already scared of countless things out of the house (bins, people, cars, bikes etc), and in the house has a few things she is very cautious of going near such as a standing lamp, exercise bike, bins, guitar hero, oven.

Although generally I think she is more confident she is still creating fears.
The other week we removed a rug in the bedroom to wash (it has been moved before), but this time she became scared of the WHOLE bedroom floor (its the same as the floor all over the house). She crept round the corners of the room if she had to but was terrified.

Then she became scared of the kitchen area.
Then yesterday the toy box, followed by the whole rug that the toy box sits on.

Some days it will debilitate her, so she freaks herself so much about something she will not go near it. Then the next day she may be fine (the initial list of things in the flat she is cautions of remains constant though).

I don't know whether I should accept it, or whether I should think about trying out some more calming measures.

Just after peoples thoughts on it really...

I think the inital things like the oven (makes a noise when door opens), exercise bike (moves) have reasons behind them that have stuck with her, but I'm not sure where these new things are coming from when I can see no trigger?

Oh this touches a nerve. Not a dog, but a cat I took in. Such a nervous wreck - I had him for 16 years, dear old Ebeneezer. If you came home in through the back door and put a bag of shopping down on the floor before putting it away - well - to see him walk round it VERY warily! It was the INTRUDER FROM OUTER SPACE!

We loved this old cat so much that we refrained from moving furniture because it gave him a nervous breakdown!

That turned out to be a good thing, in the end, because just before he died, he went blind. I would hate to think how he would have coped if we hadn't kept 'everything in place'.

Sounds like how Rupert was. He seemed to go through phases with what he was frightened of. One day it would be wet leaves, the next day they would be fine but a low tree branch would be a terrifying monster. Then the next day the tree branch would be fine and the crooked sign post would the monster. And so on. And move anything around in the house and that was it, the world was clearly coming to an end.

I tended to laugh at Rupert and jolly him along as I found that worked for him. If I was all sympathetic and understanding he actually became more reactive to the scary thing. I'm sure I sounded a right b*tch telling him what a big baby he was and how stupid he was being and apparently finding his fear hilarious but it was what worked for us.

Have you actually done any desensitizing to the things she's consistently scared of? Reason I'm asking is that I found that if Rupe had had a particularly stressful day, seeing several of the things that were always Rupert Eating Monsters then he was far more likely to react to something he usually didn't bother about. I found the more comfortable I got him with more things the less he seemed to create a fear out of thin air.

Have you spoken to your vet about this?

Have you considered a vet referral to a behaviourist?

Remind me, how old is she, is she spayed and if so when and have you noticed any connections with her behaviour and her previous cycling?

Its just the same, if I come in with a bag or a box or a new object she will run away from it. It's sad eh?!

I have been desensitizing her to people and she has become so much braver on that front. She is not at the place where she can meet a stranger or group at close proximilty unless there is a routine but generally improving.

When I try to desensitize her to things that she is being silly about like a box or the lamp she just gets even more scared by the fact we are focusing on it and freaks herself out more. I either move the object and put it elsewhere which sometimes helps, put on a bright voice and call her away so she breaks her focus, or just leave her to it and she will often change the fear (like Rupert) the next day.

Yes I've spoken to my vet and we ran a blood panel which came back clear.
As I have seen some improvements I am generally not too unhappy but it is odd that she is still clearly not totally at ease in the house.
She also listens out for noises that will scare her and barks and grumbles. (she is in the middle of a growling and bark now)

I have considered it, but I have generally been making progress (mainly with people). Perhaps it is naive of me as I am sure they would have good suggestions I'm just not sure whether it would provide good value for money.

She is 19 months old, was spayed at 6 months.
Displayed nervous behavior from before the spay. Retrospectively from the reading I have done I should perhaps not have spayed so early but generally her behavior has been similar throughout (although did peak at 8-12 months).

I would suggest keeping a calendar of her behaviour both daily, weekly and monthy and chart her ups and downs this will give you a better picture of her overall behaviour and any trends.

This will require some self discipline on your part but it may help in zeroing in on when and where the issues peak and trough.

Hell I know some 'grown up' people who are like this! They lock the car and then check the doors, and then do the 'key thing' again when they get a bit up the road lol! And they cannot SLEEP if their bookshelves are 'out of alphabetical order' or if the tins in their cupboards are not all 'facing the right way'.

I'd like to take them to a behavourist! Lord the stress they bring upon themselves!

Thanks, I did keep a spread sheet about her walks. Number of barks at people per day and the intensity at which she did it. Since she rarely barks on walks even once a month any more I stopped, but I will re-start one with other general observations.

What would you suggest I note;
Date/Time
Good things,
bad things,
object scared of
Reaction to object
Whether there is any background sound
Whether something happened to initiate the fear such as a noise/movement.
Anything else?

Poor Kestral do you think it's worth putting the DAP collar back on her for a month and see if that helps?

Yep, there sure are I don't want Kestral to have to live with such fears though!!

I did wonder this whether it could be beneficial. It certainly did no harm and perhaps coincidentally but perhaps not, coincided with her improvements round people last time.

Generally she's fine, especially when out on a walk, but these random fears do seem to be creeping in more and more.


Also, not sure if this is related, but following that agility session where she got stressed and snapped at dogs, she has been a bit off with the GSD puppy.

Puppy came in and Kestral was fine with her, until puppy picked up one of Kestrals toys and started flaunting it around and what looked like teasing Kestral with it. K flipped and began snarling and lunging at the pup. I put K out in the hall to calm down then let her back in and all was fine for a few hours until they were playing on the sofa and K got fed up. Puppy didn't read signals to stop and K flipped again. Did not get them back together after that as K couldn't relax.

Was the puppy being rude and it made K anxious? Or was K totally out of order to snap? I would rather not have problems round dogs too and hope to get another dog in the future! She is fine with all other dogs and living with Roxy atm happily.