Our cocker spaniel, Boris, is coming up to 8 months old. Generally, he has settled in pretty well. He is quite chilled out, has a lovely nature and training going quite well. At times he seems quite confident - is very sociable with other dogs, happy to explore his surroundings. But then there are some things he seems to be really scared of. He seems to be wary about going out into our garden on his own to go to the toilet (he's never had a bad experience out there), and freaks out when he hears some dogs barking in the park (but not all dog barks!!). I had a scary experience today where he was off lead in the park as he's been pretty good at recall and stays fairly close and follows anyway. But when a German shepherd started barking about 50m away playing with some other dogs he completely freaked out and started running back home. Luckily he didn't run out the park thank god, but recall and treats didn't work as he seemed to be so scared. It makes me nervous about letting him off the lead again as it is kind of inevitable that we will encounter dog barking in the park. He's just spent 2 weeks staying with my parents and their dog, so I wonder if he just feels a bit insecure as its the first time he's been out without my parents dog for a couple of weeks.
Just wondering whether anyone has had similar experience and what they did to help cure The Fear!!!
Thanks!
