Frightened
 

Hi everyone, I really hope somebody can help me, my 2 year old baby girl Poppy has been acting very strange and I am very worried about her it all started last week Friday my daughter came home from a birthday party with a party blower I took it out the party bag and blew it this totally freaked poppy out she was hiding under the table and would not come near me when we went to bed where she sleeps I between me and my husband she would not come near me she wouldn't even come on the bed because I was there, she slept on the floor all night long, the next day she was still very strange but had got better over the last couple of days but she has still been on edge, until last night my husband and I were laying in bed with the remote control for the tv she too one look at it and did the same as the other night ie shaking, hiding in the corner and wouldn't come into the bed at all. She has never been a nervous dog so this is totally out of her character. As I am typing this I scratched my lip and poppy has completely gone crazy again she stands and looks at me with a really scarred look on her she won't stop shaking. Please can somebody give me some advice my baby is so important to me and I am so worried any advice would be appreciated.

You have a really sensitive baby girl.....how old was she when you first got her? This could be symptomatic of that period of time she missed out on with her momma if you got her between 6-8 weeks of age. Has she ever been scared of any other event or happening during everyday life at your home? Is she well socialized to different activities, noises, people, other animals around the house? When you blew the party blower, did she jump from something where she could have hurt herself....this behavior could be fear or it could be response to pain.....is she eating and drinking her water well, and eliminating without any problems? I would be sure she didnt hurt herself running from the "Monster Party Blower Yorkie Eater" and once you have assertained that this is not a health issue, you can just spend an over the top amount of time cuddling and holding and reassuring her that you have no intention of feeding her to the Monster Party Blower....that your arms are the safest place in the world for her to be!

How strange. I don't have any advice but hope you figure it out...

i would put the party blower on the floor and let the dog sniff it and bat it around. I did this with Jess with her medicine dispenser (syringe) and it helped her get over the fear of it..she smelled it, poked at it, eventually licked it and now its not as scary when she sees it

Your little one got very scared by that noise maker and is now paranoid, not knowing where the next really scary sound could come from. The remote might have reminded her somehow that it was a handheld object that scared her so.

I would just get that party blower out and place it on the floor and put a whole lot of delicious pieces of boiled chicken all over it and around it. Ignore her and allow her to approach and do what she will without your input - look away from her if she looks to see if you are watching. Just keep doing this until she is walking all over it and whatever you do, don't blow that again right now. Even when the treats are gone just leave it lying around in the floor, moving it near to her foodbowl, her bed, her toys, by the back door. In time she will associate it being around with good things and grow used to it.

Then, one day you can put it to your lips and clap you hands gently, treating her at the same moment. Do that about 3 times a day and that's all. Keep repeating that 3 times daily and then when she's not that scared, try lightly blowing it as you treat. If she runs scared, start over and put it on the floor covered in treats and go through all those same steps and then start with putting it in your mouth and clapping/treating. Keep working up until you can blow it and treat and it not scare her. In time, this will help her associate the thing that scared her with good treats and seeing it around in the floor all the time and slowly desensitizing her to the sound from it by little by little blowing it gently and treating will accommodate her to it.

You can cover the remote in treats on the floor as well and help her desensitize to it being around the same way.

Your dog obviously has an overdeveloped fear response to loud or certain types of noise so every time she shows this kind of fear, work to slowly and over time desensitize her to that noise and the object that made it by replacing her fear little by little with treats when the scary object is around or noise comes from it. Take it very slowly and do not try to "flood" her with sounding it a lot all at once and over and over in rapid succession. That type of attempting to desensitize a young dog can severely frighten them and cause them to become noise-phobic.

Just take it a little at a time and very slow. Be very patient and do not soothe her when she is shaking or acting fearful - that can further reinforce her becoming fearful by thinking you are approving her acting fearful. Do just the opposite - let her deal with the noisemaker on her own as she eats chicken and let time and the object being around all the time where she lives be the healer.

Thank you so much for the advice, she is a little better maybe because I very weary of what I do and DO not put my hands to my mouth as she associates this with the party blower I think, I definitely will try all the advice that has been posted and work with her fears.

Thanks a million all you Yorkie lovers....

Wow, what great advice! I will tuck this away in my brain in case I ever need it for Huey or any future dog! :thumbup::thumbup:

Thanks, Marhcarter. I appreciate the kind words. :) They are tried and true techniques and have worked with my dogs over the past. And the reason you don't look at them when they are around the scary object or start to approach it is that they are looking to you to "read" your level of anxiety or interest as they get close to the scary thing and look to you as a kind of co-dependent. If you act "tuned out", your dog will soon learn that he/she needs to deal with his/her fear and desire for highly-scented, juicy chicken bits - risk v. regard - on his/her own and learn how to develop ways to process fear without panic reaction and still get the chicken. At the first, the dog may be too scared to even to even try to go in for the chicken but in time, its presence and scent and the primal need to eat any chance given wears them down and they just have to overcome the risk for the reward. In the future, your dog can draw on that learned behavior of how he or she dealt with fear and push past it to help him/her get over other scary things.

Another trick you can use to overcome fear is put the noisemaker in your lap or hold it in one hand as you toss a ball for your dog to chase and bring back. Hold it while playing tugowar and one-handed scratching their backs or tummy. Have it in one hand while you dish up food, etc. Associating the scary thing with things that are fun or that they like soon helps them desensitize to it.