[yorkietalkjilly]

Any time there is a behavioral change, a vet check is always in order to be sure she's not got a painful or tiring medical condition.

Once she's checked out, you might try just carrying her or taking her in a doggie stroller over the course of her daily walk for a couple of weeks, so that she feels safe or at least is made to passively enter the area she apparently thinks is scary. Take care you are going through the same route each time, stopping to let her smell each yard area as you near it safe in your arms or her stroller, to show her that the area is safe. At some point, you might then let her down to see if she will walk toward home.

It's not uncommon for dogs to go through fear periods that suddenly develop out of nowhere and the key is just to keep working with the dog through the episode. Even the change in the seasons with lighting changes can spook a dog outside. Dogs may associate anything unpleasant with their new fear, even something we do. Maybe one walk something scary happened to her down there on the end of that leash or a noise happened that scared the her and she began to associate the walk with that fear.

Google "my dog has a sudden fear of...." and you will see millions of pages with dogs having developed sudden inexplicable fears or a sudden avoidance of something. The key is just to keep working with the dog through the experience, trying different things to change their focus at times while they are experiencing the thing they now dislike or just seeing them through it in a passive way, desensitizing them with mundane repetitions, until they see that the fear is unfounded. It can take up to six months to work through a new fear that began with a real trauma, though usually it's more like two months to desensitize the dog to its new area of concern.

My Tibbe came to me at age 9 mos. with many, many fears and over a period of the next 3 years or so developed several new ones but we've worked through all of them. His fears seem to be mostly related to odd or strange noises - especially on TV - but he can find more new noises in this world than I ever knew existed. But we have techniques such as games we play, go into training mode or I just redirect hi or pick him up at times, and get him through the experience w/out drugs or giving up. Also would become fearful of things like doors, new furniture, going into a room. When Tibbe was sick, he developed a fear of thunderstorms and a Thundershirt totally negated that fear when distraction - our normal tool - failed. You might try a Thundershirt for her to help her through this.

Just keep on working with her and in time she will no doubt find out her worries are non-existent after a while. It's amazing that the bathroom and utility room doors Tibbe suddenly developed a panic about are now not an issue, despite six months of fear avoidance of both doors.