Scared of moths?

Hello guys, long time no speak. Had a funny ol’ night with Roxy last night. As a lot of you probably have with your doglets due to the ridiculous heat! We had a lot of moths in the house last night because all of our windows were open. One was brave enough to land on Roxys back. Which startled Roxy and she went absolutely CRAZY. She was running/jumping around the bedroom, she was totally on Red alert!

After a while she leapt up onto the bed and hid behind me. OH wasn’t having any of it and put her back into bed, but she kept being really ‘skittish’ snapping at the air and tip toeing everywhere, until it got too much for her and she leapt back onto the bed. OH put her down again and this time sat with her calming her down and re-assuring her, it happened again so I got down and stayed with her. etc… Eventually she stood at the foot of our bed looking at us and racing around the room.

So I brought the fan in and then the ‘swaying’ curtains scared her by this point it was 2am so OH picked her up and put her in between us and we stayed awake until she fell asleep before picking her up and putting her back into her own bed. Kids ey? Oh wait, I mean pups!

Anyway is anyone else’s pup going through this stage, I am trying to re-assure everything, even holding moths and showing them to her, but she is really freaked out by bugs. She has never been scared of the curtains swaying before, so not sure what that was about? Is there anything else I can do to calm her down rather than putting her in the bed with us, which I have no issues doing except I don’t want her thinking she can do that every night?

If your dog is scared of anything do try not to reassure her by petting, cosseting, or talking to her in a sympathetic manner as this will simply reinforce in her mind that she is right to be scared.

If you ignore her behaviour or talk to her in a normal, cheerful voice when she is acting 'flakey' then that is the best way to get through to her that her fears are groundless.

If you find any dead moths then just leave them laying around on the floors. She will find that they are not such monsters.

Re the curtains, dogs do go through a secondary fear period when they take fright at previously unworrying objects. Do as above. If you console her it will just make matters worse

I agree with Shadowboxer. Ignoring them and not petting them, though hard is the best thing to do. We had it with fireworks a couple of years ago and now they don't bother at all.

If your dog continues to be stressed you can get a DAP from the vets which doesn't work for all dogs, but might for yours. It is a diffuser which you plug in and after a coupe of weeks dogs are meant to be more relaxed. We have used one before and it did work - not cheap though!!!

Scared of moths, butterflys, cats, birds, curtains.....the blinds are the scariest monsters though when the breeze from the fan makes them move as they make a sound as well.....but my dog has improved gradually and actually chased a bee off the balcony and got close to a butterfly....until it fluttered its wings...but its still an improvement.

I agree with above comments in not paying any attention at 'this' time. At worst it will reinforce the fear reaction and at best its another attention getter.

Hi guys, thanks for your comments, I finally found my Dobie book last night and it clearly states ages 16-20 weeks are the second fear and protectivness stage, which would also explain why she has taken to growling at passers by in the dark.

And It also says in there about distracting them during this stage etc. So thankyou for all your help! Roxy was much better last night, flipped about a bit then i switched the light off and chatted with OH and she settled down.

Now just all this to go through again at 1 year and seriously not looking forward to the 8-14 month age of pushing thier luck