do i have to?
Kaiju does not like to go outside. Every time I approach him with his harness/collar and leash, he runs away from the door. Then he protests by sitting down or sometimes laying down, and not moving. After all the trouble, once he is near the door, he gives me this sad look.
He is a “shy” dog. He is afraid of people approaching him. He is afraid of any random objects on the side walks. He freaks out and starts pulling away frantically at any sudden noises, especially metallic noises or rolling bags. When he sees a toddler ahead, he stops and refuses to move. All those things we cannot avoid, living where we live. His tail is half-way down or all the way down 80% of the time while we are out, which is too bad because the tail is one of the cutest features of Shiba Inus that he should be showing off. He does not bark. He doesn’t attack. He just wants to run away and hide.
He was a reserved dog to begin with. And it got worse after the injury and the following recovery phase. He spent his 5th and 6th months in his life mostly indoors. He probably missed a lot of good opportunities for socialization. Now in his 7th month, he is afraid of just about anything new. It breaks my heart to think of the stress he must experience at every walk (twice a day).
We’ve been focusing on socializing recently, trying to make up for those lost months, but maybe we need to give it a rest for a while and focus more on the fun?
Poor friends… Don’t worry, my sis Shiki (she is now 1.6 years) has some similarities to Kaiju but in some ways worse. Kaiju is a little over a month older than me — he can be ok. Just like they say, focus on fun using toys and treats to keep his mind off the scary stuff and have great experiences. I wish I could come over to play.
Mommy got my sister Shiki at 18 weeks and she was completely unsocialized when she came home. Mommy did her best and worked on socializing Shiki as much as possible. It was tough, but unfortunately, Shiki still turned out to be a very fearful and stressed sister–it seemed to get worse after she got spayed at 6 months (long story). She is very skittish (startles and jumps at most noises almost constantly).
Shiki’s desensitization using positive training with food or toys using has not been successful for my family because she is not very toy or food motivated (probably the constant stress!). She’ll turn away really yummy treats that I want!!!! On the other hand, I love food so much I will do whatever my family want for it. I even give then a nice scream when they ask me to speak… but, I digress…
I came along as a confident member of the pack in March of this year and my laid back personality is supposed to help family and Shiki. It works sometimes with Shiki, but it doesn’t always work on walks because she gets stuck in her own scary world, and she cries to go home and tries to bolt and paw off her head collar (which they use to try to help calm her because of the pressure on the head).
On the other hand, there are times she sees me getting excited about meeting strangers, she is less anxious and sometimes wants their attention too–so there are ebbs and flows with her progression (1 step forward and 5 steps back).
Mommy has decided as last resort to take her to a veterinary behaviorist next month to see if we can help her beyond my presence as her constant state of stress is not good for her well-being.
Keep up the fun with Kaiju and let me know how it goes. 🙂 🙂
shiki looks really comfortable at home. you and your sister are adorable together in those videos.
so we’ve been focusing less on socialization and more on having fun and relaxing walks for the past 4 days. we now go around things that we used to encourage kaiju to go near when he was scared. and i think it may be working. he still protests but while out, his cute tail is curled up longer than before. he even gets a bit bouncy, too. we’ll do this for a while to see if he’ll start liking going outside more.
thanks again for sharing your experiences. it helps a lot!
thanks everyone. we are going to try to keep it as positive and fun as possible, without giving in to his sad look. ahh the fine line.
Oh – almost forgot: yes, do focus on the fun stuff he likes too. 🙂 You are clearly good doggie parents – this will work itself out.
Poor Kaiju – but, you are doing the right thing but not “giving in” because he looks sad. Zuko went through some sort of odd 2nd fear phase starting around 8 or 9 months and it went on for awhile. He’d shake himself to pieces in the car, jump at things on the street that didn’t bother him before, etc. We basically ignored it and kept going and he seems to have grown out of it. Keep your energy positive and upbeat, that will help him. Kaiju is such a beautiful, brave dog – this too will pass!
That’s rough, Kaiju. I’d socialize with you, if I didn’t live on the exact opposite side of the country.
At 1.5, I still have my fears, too. I still get freaked out by metal grates on the sidewalk–I hate to walk on them. And I dislike toddlers or babies being carried; they really make me uneasy.
You might already be doing a lot of this, but my owners would do things like place my collar/leash on the floor and when I went near it, I got a ( very small) treat and lots of praise. After a while, they started getting me to sit, putting it on/off and then I would get those same rewards. I even got rewards for going through doors I didn’t want to–and then we’d repeat until I didn’t mind so much. It may not help with all the fear outside, but having those positive markers around the leash/collar or even going through the front door may help a little. (This did help me with the metal grate quite a bit.)
Best of luck, Kaiju and pack.
–taro*.
Aww – poor Kaiju. He looks so sad in that picture. 🙁