# Fearful of crowded areas - 1.5yo



## chrissy465 (Aug 26, 2021)

Hi all,

My dog was attacked in the dog park at 6 months and since then has been very fearful. I was using a 'positive only' dog trainer to help her and we worked on desensitization with people and big dogs (she couldn't even walk past one person without pulling away). This didnt work and only made her worse (she started getting leash reactive). I switched to a 'balanced training' style and in a couple weeks I've been able to walk her past dogs and people without her being scared and I have proper control over her.
I've been using techniques such as asking her to heel when she gets distracted/potentially fearful and I also try switching between walking and jogging because it helps with keeping her focus on me. I've been trying to get her to switch between doing commands (sit,down etc) and playing on a tug toy on walks (saw this on shield k9 dog training YT channel) and I can't get her to be fully engaged in play yet.

Also, there's a few busy streets that she refuses to walk by, she will look very overwhelmed and sit down and not move further. I've tried walking more confidently and saying 'let's go!' to try and encourage her but she won't budge. She hasn't been able to walk on these streets since before the attack.

Does anyone have any advice on how i can help her get passed this? I've already tried treats and that doesn't work.

Any help with this would be very helpful!!!


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

Samson didn't like busy roads when he was a puppy. I did two things to help him deal with it. There was a bench that was close to the corner of a higher traffic street. He would lay underneath while I waited for him to relax enough to accept a bit of chicken, then we would leave and head for a quieter area.The second thing was just to jog/run down one block before ducking down a side street. For him that seemed more effective. Keeping him engaged instead of dwelling on the noisy traffic. Once or twice during a long peaceful walk in town,only every week or ten days.


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## cagal (Sep 3, 2013)

My pup is reactive to everything but he’s much improved as we do things in stages. It has to be slow so your pup doesn’t exceed her threshold. I’m assuming it’s the cars she’s worried about? We have 2 walkways that hook up to busy roads with one being extremely busy. I took Django every morning to the less busy one where he was far enough away to see the cars but not react. I’d treat when the car came until it passed. We moved incrementally closer until he could watch without reacting on the other side of the walkway (so on the sidewalk actually by the road). We then statrted all over with the busier one. If he started to react, we were too close and I’d stop for that session. 5- 10 minutes max per session but a few times a day worked for us. You may have to bring her near the busy street treat but not go on it and then work up to walking on it for a bit before going back. You just have to keep at it in little steps so you don’t overwhelm her. It’s taken us months to be able to walk on the sidewalk by our busy road and he still “looks” quite a bit at the traffic but that’s now more prey drive than fear. It can be a very slow process and requires loads of patience and treats but it does work.


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## chrissy465 (Aug 26, 2021)

dogma13 said:


> Samson didn't like busy roads when he was a puppy. I did two things to help him deal with it. There was a bench that was close to the corner of a higher traffic street. He would lay underneath while I waited for him to relax enough to accept a bit of chicken, then we would leave and head for a quieter area.The second thing was just to jog/run down one block before ducking down a side street. For him that seemed more effective. Keeping him engaged instead of dwelling on the noisy traffic. Once or twice during a long peaceful walk in town,only every week or ten days.


Thanks for your response! How long did it take to see improvement in your pup? 

My dog is more so worried about crowds of people, particularly this one main street near my house that is like a busy shopping centre but I'd assume the same logic would apply. I'll try incorporating this on weekend walks


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## chrissy465 (Aug 26, 2021)

cagal said:


> My pup is reactive to everything but he’s much improved as we do things in stages. It has to be slow so your pup doesn’t exceed her threshold. I’m assuming it’s the cars she’s worried about? We have 2 walkways that hook up to busy roads with one being extremely busy. I took Django every morning to the less busy one where he was far enough away to see the cars but not react. I’d treat when the car came until it passed. We moved incrementally closer until he could watch without reacting on the other side of the walkway (so on the sidewalk actually by the road). We then statrted all over with the busier one. If he started to react, we were too close and I’d stop for that session. 5- 10 minutes max per session but a few times a day worked for us. You may have to bring her near the busy street treat but not go on it and then work up to walking on it for a bit before going back. You just have to keep at it in little steps so you don’t overwhelm her. It’s taken us months to be able to walk on the sidewalk by our busy road and he still “looks” quite a bit at the traffic but that’s now more prey drive than fear. It can be a very slow process and requires loads of patience and treats but it does work.


thank you, I'll keep at it by trying to build her confidence. I'm thinking to start with, I'll take her earlier in the mornings closer to that one area that really freaks her out and see if we can gradually bring her closer. Since the area is quite crowded with people, I think the fact that so many random things happen all the time scares her like people wanting to pet her.


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## drparker151 (Apr 10, 2020)

Most people think socialization is playing with other dogs and meeting people. It is so much more, it is the process of experiencing the big new world and all its scary sights, sounds, and smells from a safe distance so that they start to become normal background to ignore. Slowly moving closer and closer, don’t push it.

It does not matter what the dog is fearful of, the garbage truck emptying a dumpster, kids yelling and screaming, a floating pier with weird noises, the process to get over it is the same.


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

Nobody needs to pet your dog. Tell them sorry,she's not friendly.There's no timetable really, dogs are all individuals.No rush as you don't want her to dread walks.Make sure she gets plenty of time to enjoy exploring and sniffing.


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## chrissy465 (Aug 26, 2021)

drparker151 said:


> Most people think socialization is playing with other dogs and meeting people. It is so much more, it is the process of experiencing the big new world and all its scary sights, sounds, and smells from a safe distance so that they start to become normal background to ignore. Slowly moving closer and closer, don’t push it.
> 
> It does not matter what the dog is fearful of, the garbage truck emptying a dumpster, kids yelling and screaming, a floating pier with weird noises, the process to get over it is the same.


Thanks that's good insight. I took her to the park today and sat on a bench with her, she was pretty curious of the people walking by and I think it helped. I'll keep doing this daily until she's comfortable with sitting near a more busy area.


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## Rolling Ragu (Oct 12, 2021)

We've taken our 3 month old on busy street walks. She did fantastic. Yesterday, she came to marching band practice. It was the first we saw a little fear in her. But come on...it was 100 kids blowing loud instruments, banging on drums and twirling flags. When the started, she sat and watched, but then decided it was necessary to get behind us and peak around. After an hour of practice, she considered it background noise. We were proud. I don't have a lot of experience, but it seems giving them opportunities and patience is key.


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## Thecowboysgirl (Nov 30, 2006)

Something else I think helps is sniffing. One of my dogs had a brief nervousness of busy roads after a snow plow went by us on our tiny road very close and loud and scared him.

I would take him to busy roads with nice green areas beside the sidewalk and if I saw a big loud truck coming I would encourage him to go smell the smells in the green area and just enjoy sniffing and being a dog. Rather than focusing at all on what made him nervous. It helped so much.


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