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Originally Posted by Jennxling  Thanks! The behavior was always there, but it's only sometimes at random things (doors, leash/harness). It's not really that she's scared of them, but anxious that she may get hurt. My roommate refers to the anxiety as her being cautious. lol Today, she was fine when going through the doors so I just praise her. She's very outgoing, but just cautious (probably better term for it). Everyone that sees her at the park says she looks like a happy girl... |
Maybe this will help you. I call it the touch game. When an item causes fear, I have Kaji in my lap and bring the item close to us. I touch it and tell him what the item is called. I bring it a little closer and let him sniff it and investigate it on his own terms. If he sniffs, he gets lots of praise. I bring it a little bit closer, and ask him to touch it. Every time he does, he gets praised. If his reaction is really bad to something, he even gets a treat when he works up the courage to touch it. He doesn't learn to love the items, but he learns to tolerate them. By sniffing and touching them in a controlled environment, he learns the item is not as scary as he thought. We came up with this game when someone had balloons in our old place. He was terrified of them, and eventually got over it. He doesn't seek out balloons to play with, but now if they are there, the balloons don't scare him. Most recently, someone dropped off a pumpkin at my apt. Kaji was very cautious of it until we played the touch game. Now, he can walk past it without having to watch the pumpkin, and life is back to normal.