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We've had Sylva for four years, we adopted her from Romania and after the initial few weeks of her being scared of everything, she soon became a lovely dog who we could take everywhere!
The last couple of years though, on a few occasions she heard distant gun shots and was absolutely petrified shaking and trying to escape and just run! So, ever since then, she has been a nightmare to take anywhere,
doesn't matter if we go to a town (She's heard noises she doesn't like there too!) or out in the countryside (We nearly always hear a shot when out in the countryside!!), she is already really anxious as soon as we get out of the car and it's become so stressful to take her almost anywhere now.
The only place she likes being walked is around our village and very small town, but both my partner and I like to get out and about as much as we can visiting places, walking in the countryside (Which is the main reason we wanted a dog in the first place!) etc, but if we go anywhere now we just get stressed and argue because Sylva always plays up, so we either have to not go anywhere or just go somewhere for a couple of hours and leave Sylva inside, but that means we can't go out for the whole day, which we really like to do as often as we can, especially as we can't afford to go on holiday, and haven't been on one since 2019.
We have very little money, so can't afford to pay anybody to look after her, and we don't have any family or close friends who we can ask, and I am getting very depressed with it all because I feel trapped here, and I don't like where I live, so walking Slyva has become a chore instead of a pleasure, because she's only really happy walking around here, and pretty much nowhere else. One day we went out on our own for a few hours and left her out in the garden because we didn't want to leave her shut in, but she barked all the time so we had complaints from the neighbours when we got home. 
We do of course try to understand that she must have been very traumatised by gun shots when she was a puppy, to have such an extreme reaction, and know it's not her fault, but we are beginning to really resent her because of her restricting our lives so much. We don't have many friends, but when we do meet up with them, she's so distracting wherever we take her that it's really difficult to ever let go and enjoy ourselves. She will also pull out of her harness if she wants to get away and she has done this a couple of times now, but luckily we managed to stop her running out into the road!
We really don't know what to do, we are at our wits end, and have even considered trying to find a new home for her!
We did buy her a large bottle of Bachs Rock Rose for extreme terror and panic, a couple of months ago and she seemed to be improving a bit on that, but it didn't seem to last once the bottle was finished, the behaviour soon came back.
The last couple of years though, on a few occasions she heard distant gun shots and was absolutely petrified shaking and trying to escape and just run! So, ever since then, she has been a nightmare to take anywhere,
doesn't matter if we go to a town (She's heard noises she doesn't like there too!) or out in the countryside (We nearly always hear a shot when out in the countryside!!), she is already really anxious as soon as we get out of the car and it's become so stressful to take her almost anywhere now.The only place she likes being walked is around our village and very small town, but both my partner and I like to get out and about as much as we can visiting places, walking in the countryside (Which is the main reason we wanted a dog in the first place!) etc, but if we go anywhere now we just get stressed and argue because Sylva always plays up, so we either have to not go anywhere or just go somewhere for a couple of hours and leave Sylva inside, but that means we can't go out for the whole day, which we really like to do as often as we can, especially as we can't afford to go on holiday, and haven't been on one since 2019.
We have very little money, so can't afford to pay anybody to look after her, and we don't have any family or close friends who we can ask, and I am getting very depressed with it all because I feel trapped here, and I don't like where I live, so walking Slyva has become a chore instead of a pleasure, because she's only really happy walking around here, and pretty much nowhere else.
One day we went out on our own for a few hours and left her out in the garden because we didn't want to leave her shut in, but she barked all the time so we had complaints from the neighbours when we got home. We do of course try to understand that she must have been very traumatised by gun shots when she was a puppy, to have such an extreme reaction, and know it's not her fault, but we are beginning to really resent her because of her restricting our lives so much. We don't have many friends, but when we do meet up with them, she's so distracting wherever we take her that it's really difficult to ever let go and enjoy ourselves. She will also pull out of her harness if she wants to get away and she has done this a couple of times now, but luckily we managed to stop her running out into the road!
We really don't know what to do, we are at our wits end, and have even considered trying to find a new home for her!
We did buy her a large bottle of Bachs Rock Rose for extreme terror and panic, a couple of months ago and she seemed to be improving a bit on that, but it didn't seem to last once the bottle was finished, the behaviour soon came back.
