sudden fear of walks day/night

hi. sorry if this drags on a bit. my dog has been walked on the same field for all her life (9yrs). the last 4/5 days she has got to the top of our road and wants to come home. shes terrified. it happens in the day when i take her out and of a night when hubby takes her out. we know its not fireworks cause she loves em (honest). bare with me on this cause you probly think im mad, BUT i think its because of a local dog. she got into a fight with him bout 5 weeks ago and was roughed up pretty good. we saw him again 2/3 after the event on the field. he sat there staring at her, she freaked and ran past me into the road. i put her on the lead and came home. BUT its only been the last few days where she wont go out, this is the mad bit....if that dog had cocked his leg on our side of the road, would my dog have reason to feel threatened/intimidated to the point she wont go out?......ALSO..we saw a lady yesterday who had similar appearance but differant breed of dog, (same colour), my dog freaked. ALSO..could my pooch be going blind, short sighted? any ideas , i would love to hear peoples thoughts, ideas.

Hi Mustang
I understand you totally! the same is happening to me, my boy was attacked by a female dog (not badley thankfully) and he became very wary of dogs that he doesn't know and sits down and refuses to go beyond certain points on the walk, eventhough it's not exactley the same place where he was bitten). However, having changed the route of the walk eventhough the same circuit he is slowly, slowly gaining confidence again.
I think time and patience is the key, have you tried going into the field from another point rather than the usual...I did find this helps...good luck

Hi there.

I don't think you are mad...I have collies who have fears of things and their actions can be quite bizarre. For example, one of mine is frightened of the sound of the swing of a golf club. At one stage she would walk down the road fine in the morning but not in the afternoon (because she only heard the golfers in the afternoon).

I got her over it by taking her most favourite thing (a big water pistol) out with us and let her play with the water squirts all the way down the road. It took about 5 walks (making sure that there were no golfers out) before she got over it and didn't need the water pistol anymore.

Do you have anything that your dog loves as much (e.g. toy) that you can encourage her with? of course, you would have to try and make sure that the other dog is nowhere around. Once she has got used to walking down the road again, i think it would be a good idea to try and introduce her to similar looking dogs (who you know are going to be friendly) so that she realised that they aren't all going to attack her.

thanks guys, definatly a few things worth trying. xx