Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly  Tibbe had so many fears when I first got him but we've worked through all of them. Sadly, odd sounds he hears from the TV are his last bugaboo - today I was watching a TV show and a woman screamed and Tibbe got nervous - big eyes, ears back, standing out in the middle of the floor of the den to face whatever bad thing he imagined was coming. I began to laugh at him, tease him with my hand, poking and touching him and jerking my hand away and engaging him to get me back and before long, he was playing, chasing me and forgot the scream altogether. That's kind of how I got him over his fear of wind, just distracting him with other things to quickly get his mind off the thing he feared and before long, he'd begun to see that it was actually pretty fun to be out in it.
When I first got him, he would not have gone out to potty in that wind at all - even though he was desperate to go - and if I carried him out, he would have frozen in place. He did that once, a total downpour started while he was outside and he just froze in place, barrels of rain pouring down on him, thunder and lightening suddenly firing, wind swirling, and I had to go get him at the far edge of the yard - he couldn't make himself budge to come to me when I called him. He was too scared.
Gradually, in little bursts of wind as it occurred, he was distracted from and desensitized to it with play sessions/chasing bouts, treats, laughing, etc., made to associate it with fun and play, so that when it's very windy now, he seems to really enjoy it. And he loves cold weather.
The day it stormed so badly here and 1/4 million households' power was disrupted by the storm, some for days, Oct. 2, I came home in the beginning of that storm and the wind was gusting up to 50 miles, really howling, with leaves, limbs, pieces of everything flying through the air but I'd been away for so long, I knew Tibbe needed to potty badly. So I let him out in it to get his pottying over before the storm began to get worse. He dashed out, stayed right next to the house, did his biz and ran right back in with just a couple of minutes to spare before the downpour started. He got a big praise and treats.
We were just outside again and the wind is still really blowing, so strong I had trouble getting the door open against it and Tibbe's coat was blowing every which way! The den window is just cracked open as wider would allow in too much cold wind in. I can hear it blowing even with the home theater sound going. But cold air and wind sure feels good after months of heat and AC-living!!! |