# 7m suddenly scared of everything / highly reactive



## Stellae (May 13, 2011)

My pup is just a little past the 7 month mark. In the last few weeks, he's suddenly become very reactive to odd things. 

Last week, he was walking through the kitchen and all of a sudden decided that a pan lid drying vertically on the end of the dish rack was satan incarnate. Literally - hackles up, growling, barking loud and deep, skittering to be behind furniture and/or humans. It took us a while to figure out what he was so upset about! I have, at least for now, successfully taught him the pan lid is not evil (got out the clicker, encouraged him to investigate it, lots of treats and partying).

He's started acting similarly about the garbage truck. He barks at it from behind a bush in the backyard when it drives by the house. In the car, he barks at motorcycles. The other day while walking at the park, he was scared of a jogger.

This evening, when going out for his last potty, there was a large spiderweb over the side of the deck. This spider has been making webs in that general location all week. However, this evening he noticed - and had to be coaxed past it to the grass. I literally couldn't snap him out of that state of mind. He would only go past the web if I was walking between him and the spider.

What do I do? I thought he was a really well socialized dog - I take him everywhere, expose him to all kinds of situations. He's generally calm or excited - I'd never seen him scared before recently. But all of a sudden, the sound of the icemaker is enough to set him off like the world is ending. I can't do the same for the garbage truck as I did with the pot lid. :help:


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## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

Could be going through a fear stage if he's not shown any of these behaviors before. Just act like everything is super cool and work on the look command and distracting him.


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

I vote for a fear stage too - puppies can be weird sometimes. Continue on with your socializing and don't make a big deal out of his fears. Laugh them off, act like he is being silly, and continue on.


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## TankGrrl66 (Jun 29, 2010)

Don't worry about it too much, it sounds like a fear period (which is normal about now). 

Just don't coddle your pup when the silliness is happening. 

I'm going throguh the same thing with my puppy. When I broguht her home, she was very sure of herself. Curious, almost unshakable. 

Things are a little different. Puppy shots are done and I really take her out now. She shows some anxiety and a kid on a skateboard tripped her out. She has seen skateboards and bikes and all that jazz and it never bothered her before. Thankfully she relaxed after a little time.


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## idahospud49 (Jan 28, 2011)

Definitely sounds like a fear stage. They are like kids. Kids are fearless until a certain age and then they are afraid of EVERYTHING, and then they grow up a bit and grow out of it.


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

One thing that you can do with some of the things is to encourage him to investigate the thing he is afraid of (some things only of course0.

For example one day we come out into the cul-de-sac in front of our house and he starts barking like mad at a car with a big rack on the back with a couple of big bikes on it. So i just encouraged Baron (about 6-7 mo) to go up to it and sniff it asll over. Soon as he did that then he ignored the car from then on even the next time he saw it. Same thing with everything that we could that caused him any reaction and soon he realized that there weren't any real scary things. And laughing off stuff is good, but NEVER pet him or treat him or generally coddle him while he is acting scary - don't want him to think that is a good reaction, but never punish him or force him to approach anything till he is ready.

Assuming that your pup generally has good nerves, he should quickly realize that he is a big tough GSD and not to afraid of anything!


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## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

LOL, puppies are so hysterical. My husband tells everyone that gets anxious about these freak episodes about his first SchH3 male, Ike. Now I only knew Ike as an adult, but he was one of those super cool, super confident males who never batted an eye about anyone or anything. His bark would scare Satan himself and his bite was crazy tough. Apparently when he was in that gangly teenager stage, Mike (my husband) had him out at the Schutzhund club, where he'd been a zillion times as well as every where else you could legally take a dog. Anyway, my husband walked him over to the car to get his bowl and some water. When he got to the car he put the bowl on the roof of the car and grabbed the water jug out of the car. The metal bowl slid off the roof and landed with a clatter right at their feet. Ike took off running like he'd been shot! Doing that screechy dog scream. He didn't stop running or look back until he was about 100 yards away. Then he stopped and wouldn't come back until Mike walked over to him and reassured him that the scary evil bowl had been dealt with! Of course the entire club collapsed in laughter. It took a few visits, but he got over it eventually. Go figure.
Don't panic about your boy, like others have already said, just be nonchalant if you need to, or show him yourself that stuff is still safe.

Annette


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## Stellae (May 13, 2011)

Thanks so much everyone.  I hadn't realised there were two fear stages, and since I adopted him at 14 wks, I figured he'd been through and done with that. I'll keep encouraging him to investigate the scary things he can, and otherwise we'll just keep laughing and moving on. I'll give him credit, he mostly does seem to want to sniff and explore the scary things once he tells me how evil they are.

I've just started reading _Control Unleashed_ (recommended somewhere else on the board), because he tends toward being easily excited. Sounds like it's a good time to start trying the Look at That! game.

How long does this kind of thing last, or is it highly dog-dependent?


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