Help appreciated, very fearful puppy

[Nichola]

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Hello, I’m new here! Nice to meet everyone

We have a 7 month old Goldador (female) who is showing extreme nervousness of people. She’s absolutely fantastic with other dogs and happily attends day care a couple of days per week with her brother.

My other dog is a 5 year old Husky and honestly (not exaggerating) he is the perfect dog.

Our Goldador is also perfect in every other way. Very trainable, excellent recall, has always slept all night and even fully house trained on her first day with us. We got her at 14 weeks old.

The problem we are having is she is terrified of people, or people approaching her. This even extends to the tv in the house, she will constantly growl, bark and hide away from the tv if there are people moving on it.
On walks she’s absolutely fine as she is moving and other people are walking on by.
when approached by people, or when she sees people in the distance, she growls, cowers and barks, even refusing to look in that direction.

I’ve been continuing to take her to our normal public places with our very confident 5 year old. I don’t correct her if she barks or hides, I reward her with treats and a big fuss when she relaxes, wags her tail or doesn’t bark. Though it’s not long before her tail returns to between her legs.
I made excellent progress over the weekend and she was much more relaxed in town centres, at car parks and with people approaching and saying hello (including children - where I struggle most with her). This continued for two positive days.

Fast forward 24 hours to today and she’s taken a million steps backwards. Terrified again. As soon as we leave the house and she sees neighbours, people walking down the street or kids playing, she drops to the floor, cowers and is growling, barking and almost howling with fear.

She also seems more nervous/jumpy in the house this evening

I was wondering if it could be hormonal? The vet has advised against spaying till after her first season as she is a larger breed.

I know it could be a fear period too? But it’s really excessive. My older dog takes the lead and introduces himself to people, yet she is still nervous. She’s really bad if people walk past the car.
My mum (who she knows and loves) visited the house with my niece and nephew (9 and 5), and she was so terrified she peed herself as they were coming in.

We’ve always had dogs, from GSDs, Huskies, Working labs to smaller terrier breeds. But we have never experienced this level of fear in a 7 month old pup before.

Interestingly my father in law has her full sister from the same litter. She is exactly the same. This worries me, as I’m panicking that it’s a genetic issue that I may not be able to correct.


Any advice is much appreciated!

 

[JoanneF]

Fear certainly can be genetic and I think you need to prepare yourself for her never being a friendly dog.

However there are things you can do.

As you said, never correct her because fear is an emotion, not a behaviour she can control. She doesn't want to feel like this.

I think what may have happened when she seemed to progress then got worse is one of two things. She may have been partly shut down, just getting herself through a situation she found traumatic and waiting for it to end. Or, she may have been coping with two days, but by the third day, it was all too much.

Either way, the advice is the same - go slower.

There are three things to bear in mind - Distance, Duration, Distraction.

Take her to a place where she can see people outside of the distance that causes stress. I like places like retail parks at quiet times where she can see people in the distance, far enough away not to bother her, doing their own things. You want her to be aware but not reacting, and reward, reward, reward. This helps change her feelings of 'people are scary' to 'people are good' because good things happen when they are around.

Duration - it may be she coped with two days, but not a third. Or she may cope with 20 minutes but not 30. Work within her comfort zone.

With the above two, in time you can start reducing the distance and increasing the time, but not together. And this will not be a quick fix, you are looking at months rather than days.

Distraction is how distracting the person is. A quiet calm adult will be less scary than a loud gregarious one with extravagant body language.

So advocate for your dog. Tell people, firmly that she is nervous and they mustn't approach. She probably is a very cute looking dog but that doesn't give anyone the right to pet her.

 

[Nichola]

Fear certainly can be genetic and I think you need to prepare yourself for her never being a friendly dog.

However there are things you can do.

As you said, never correct her because fear is an emotion, not a behaviour she can control. She doesn't want to feel like this.

I think what may have happened when she seemed to progress then got worse is one of two things. She may have been partly shut down, just getting herself through a situation she found traumatic and waiting for it to end. Or, she may have been coping with two days, but by the third day, it was all too much.

Either way, the advice is the same - go slower.

There are three things to bear in mind - Distance, Duration, Distraction.

Take her to a place where she can see people outside of the distance that causes stress. I like places like retail parks at quiet times where she can see people in the distance, far enough away not to bother her, doing their own things. You want her to be aware but not reacting, and reward, reward, reward. This helps change her feelings of 'people are scary' to 'people are good' because good things happen when they are around.

Duration - it may be she coped with two days, but not a third. Or she may cope with 20 minutes but not 30. Work within her comfort zone.

With the above two, in time you can start reducing the distance and increasing the time, but not together. And this will not be a quick fix, you are looking at months rather than days.

Distraction is how distracting the person is. A quiet calm adult will be less scary than a loud gregarious one with extravagant body language.

So advocate for your dog. Tell people, firmly that she is nervous and they mustn't approach. She probably is a very cute looking dog but that doesn't give anyone the right to pet her.

Thank you, that’s really interesting that she may never be a friendly dog.

I think the reason my husband wanted a golden retriever mix was because he was advised that they were sociable and trainable. But I suppose there’s never a guarantee!

 

[JoanneF]

Generally Goldens are very friendly. There is good reason for them being one of the most popular breeds in the UK.

But genetics and paragenetics play a bigger part in temperament than most people realise. Did you meet the parents? Or, did anything traumatic happen while the dam was pregnant?

 

[Nichola]

Generally Goldens are very friendly. There is good reason for them being one of the most popular breeds in the UK.

But genetics and paragenetics play a bigger part in temperament than most people realise. Did you meet the parents? Or, did anything traumatic happen while the dam was pregnant?

Met the parents, they were lovely. Nothing has happened.
She has developed this fear of people out of no where. We can’t even leave the house if neighbours are talking in the street. She used to travel fine, but now reacts if she sees people from the car window.
Our other boy hasn’t changed at all. He’s the first to go greet people. I was hoping she would follow his lead, but she hasn’t

 

[Nichola]

Generally Goldens are very friendly. There is good reason for them being one of the most popular breeds in the UK.

But genetics and paragenetics play a bigger part in temperament than most people realise. Did you meet the parents? Or, did anything traumatic happen while the dam was pregnant?

Met the parents, they were lovely. Nothing has happened.
She has developed this fear of people out of no where. We can’t even leave the house if neighbours are talking in the street. She used to travel fine, but now reacts if she sees people from the car window.
Our other boy hasn’t changed at all. He’s the first to go greet people. I was hoping she would follow his lead, but she hasn’t

 

[crazycockerowner]

Have you tried going out when it's dark and quieter, my 6 month is nervous of heavy traffic, as I live near a football and cricket ground it can be really busy , Sunday I walked her after work it was dark and drizzling but she was fine with that once we hit a main road she went into pulling mode and reacted to the traffic stopping and starting , got her down a lonh side street and she relaxed.

 

[Nichola]

Have you tried going out when it's dark and quieter, my 6 month is nervous of heavy traffic, as I live near a football and cricket ground it can be really busy , Sunday I walked her after work it was dark and drizzling but she was fine with that once we hit a main road she went into pulling mode and reacted to the traffic stopping and starting , got her down a lonh side street and she relaxed.

Interestingly she was worse last night, and it was dark. Could dark make her more nervous?

 

[JoanneF]

Definitely. As well as not being able to see the scary monsters in the corners, things sound different at night and anything that's different is something to be cautious of.

 

[Flobo]

Interestingly my father in law has her full sister from the same litter. She is exactly the same. This worries me, as I’m panicking that it’s a genetic issue that I may not be able to correct.

Out of interest have you contacted the breeder? Other than the sister your father in law has, how is the rest of the litter? And has the sister developed this fear like your girl?
I can't really add to the advice @JoanneF has given, it is a slow process of trying to avoid the things that make her fearful as consistently as possible to start. Over time the less her anxiety/fear is triggered, the more manageable it hopefully will become. If she's getting triggered several times a week, or every time she goes out, her body never has a chance for the stress hormones to diminish... so I would advocate a period of time where you do everything to keep things within her comfort zone and give her a chance to settle a bit if possible.
It might also be worth investing in a visual clue to highlight the fact that she is nervous and not to approach. Yellowdog.co.uk do a good selection or if you just google 'nervous dog lead' a whole load will come up.

 

[Nichola]

Out of interest have you contacted the breeder? Other than the sister your father in law has, how is the rest of the litter? And has the sister developed this fear like your girl?
I can't really add to the advice @JoanneF has given, it is a slow process of trying to avoid the things that make her fearful as consistently as possible to start. Over time the less her anxiety/fear is triggered, the more manageable it hopefully will become. If she's getting triggered several times a week, or every time she goes out, her body never has a chance for the stress hormones to diminish... so I would advocate a period of time where you do everything to keep things within her comfort zone and give her a chance to settle a bit if possible.
It might also be worth investing in a visual clue to highlight the fact that she is nervous and not to approach. Yellowdog.co.uk do a good selection or if you just google 'nervous dog lead' a whole load will come up.

Thank you
I will try that. Her sister is the same as her.
It will be such a shame as we have always been very social and always had our boy with us. But we now might not be able to do that anymore as she doesn’t like people

 

[Hemlock]

You can still be social - just either arrange your socialising outside while leaving her at home, or if at home, in another room where nobody should enter (if visiting children are likely to disobey then lock the room) make this room her Safe Space and get her used to it by degrees not just shutting her in one day, and give her plenty to do such as a snuffle mat or a stuffed kong so it is a pleasant refuge. When out, simply kindly and firmly tell random people who want to get in her space that they are not to come near.

 

[crazycockerowner]

You can get a lead with nervous dog leads and coats these days, we once adopted a dog that refused to come in any room if we were in there, had him 13 years, despite every effort he didn't get over what ever it was that caused the issue with his previous owners . He would go in if the room was empty but minute anyone went in he went out, we learnt to live with it but he was great in every other way.. yours is young and will hopefully with time thevpenny will drop and learn to enjoy going out