Author Topic: Scared by certain visitors  (Read 604 times)

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Offline Ldavies38

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Scared by certain visitors
« on: August 29, 2014, 09:34:21 PM »
Hi all, my pup is now 15 months old and happy and confident, but Monday and Tuesday we had two new visitors which turned out to be quite embarrassing.
She was barking screeching hiding behind us. Couldn't make eye contact, basically she looked petrified. And so amount of comforting helped. One of those people was a dog walker friend, and we agreed for dog walking not to happen as she was very unsettled around her.
Why on earth is this happening? They weren't threatening towards us or her.
Any to give advice would be much appreciated x
First time cocker owner 🐶

Offline elaine.e

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Re: Scared by certain visitors
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2014, 11:23:58 PM »
Could she be coming into season? That can affect behaviour (sorry, I don't know if she's spayed or not). Otherwise, no idea, but if her initial anxiety made you feel embarrassed she may have picked up on that and become more anxious.

One of my two is nervous of strangers and barks and isn't sure whether to hide or approach, so I take the pressure off him by initially putting him behind a baby gate and telling visitors to completely ignore him. He can see the visitors but can also hide from them if he wants to. When he relaxes I remove the baby gate so he has the choice of approaching the visitors or not. I still ask the visitors to ignore him. It helps his confidence.

Hopefully you won't have to do that with Mae and she'll be fine when you have visitors in the future. But I think next time you're expecting visitors it wouldn't hurt to have a plan in place to help her find her comfort zone and to give her the chance to keep her distance if that's her choice. Leave it up to her to decide if she wants to meet them :D

Offline dipsydoodlenoodle

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Re: Scared by certain visitors
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2014, 11:56:17 PM »
Charlie can we wary of OHs family (VERY loud), but he either sits perfectly on my knee never straying or he hides upstairs. A back up plan as Elaine suggested would be ideal.
My beautiful little boy Charlie :)


Offline Ldavies38

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Re: Scared by certain visitors
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2014, 02:13:57 PM »
Thanks, yes she is spayed. I totally agree with the stair gate idea and will be putting that into practice .
In the meantime were walking and taking her to busy places and approaching people to say hello. So far so good. 😀
First time cocker owner 🐶

Offline sodpot2000

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Re: Scared by certain visitors
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2014, 10:50:34 AM »
Sometimes they will just take a seemingly random dislike to someone. I have seen this with lots of dogs. Never any explanation. Sometimes Sophie would see someone either from the car or in town and start to bark furiously at them with her hackles up. Same applied to visitors. Some welcomed and adored and some hated with a passion. No easily discerable reason. See the "What goes on in their heads" thread.

Offline Katie_and_Millie

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Re: Scared by certain visitors
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2014, 12:11:42 PM »
Millie does this quite (it appears to me) randomly.  She is perfectly friendly to most people, some she will just take a dislike to.

On the petrified "screaming" noise that they can make, Millie did it yesterday when a cat made her jump - I tried my best not to laugh!