I produce neurotic dogs.

Southpaw

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#1
Just a rant. Or something.

It seems like recently Cajun has developed into a neurotic mess when we go places. =/ I'm having flashbacks to when Juno was this age and was put on Prozac because being out in public never failed to shut her down.

Just a short clip of her reaction today, when we were at a small raw food store. There was nobody in there except one employee.
[YOUTUBE]rk1qgOOco3M[/YOUTUBE]

Note the body trembling.

Her outward reaction is obviously... very obvious. Although I think if I would have had treats on me, I could have gotten something from her. She was at least capable of sitting when asked, even though she's definitely distracted and not paying attention to me. I only asked for a behavior to gauge where she was at, see if I could get a response.

This is only the 2nd time this has happened. 1st time I just thought she was having a weird day. Apparently not the case.

I don't know. Her reaction is a bit intense but I feel like mentally she's in a much better spot than Juno was at the height of her anxiety, and I was able to "fix" Juno. I just hate that this is happening AGAIN and that it seemingly came out of nowhere because she never used care about being new places. Urrrgghhhh.
 
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#2
Could it have possibly been a sound that you could or couldn't hear?

Angel is super sensitive to high pitched sounds I can't hear and starts trembling and sometimes whining like that. Basically that exact same reaction, she will listen to commands/cues but is very distracted and clearly uncomfortable.
 
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#3
Aw no! That is super frustrating and stressful.

How often do you take her out to new places? Can you increase the frequency, bring lots of treats, etc? How old is she now? Does it matter if she wears the GL? (Dad's got a Catahoula that can't function in public when he's wearing his head harness)

Pippa occasionally goes through phases of freaking out at new places (usually outside, we'll go on a hike and she's suddenly she's whining/jumping/biting), and I always freak out thinking that it's a new permanent change in her temperament. Hopefully Cajun snaps out of it in a couple weeks and you can just chalk it up to growing pains.
 

Southpaw

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#4
We're definitely going to just start going on field trips armed with Easy Cheese. We don't go to new places a ton - basically just the same pet store all the time, which she loves. And training classes. The class she's in now, she started a couple weeks ago and had never been to that facility before... and she was fine but she of course gets tons of treats there, so maybe that's the difference.

Otherwise it's definitely normal for her to be unfocused and distracted, but she never used to act uncomfortable. She doesn't like the GL but this isn't how she reacts to it. I don't think she heard anything... she's really good about noise actually and has never seemed sensitive to any sounds.

I think (hope) we'll work through it but it's just... ugh. Not supposed to happen!
 

monkeys23

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#5
Watching it I don't see nervous... I seem zomg I am so excited about the noms and I know mom won't like it if I try to dive into them and I have this thing on my head, so I can't!!! So yeah maybe anxiety about being so overaroused about such high value goodies with no appropriate outlet for that arousal. Definitely over threshold and I would NOT expect her to work in that state. But I wouldn't be worried about her base temperament at all. It is awesome she gives such crystal clear feedback about how she feels!

Work slowly up to high value distractions like raw food in very small quantities at home first using IYC and if she is stimulated by people and other dogs those are other distractions you'll have to work on separately in small increments building up. Lol, I sure wouldn't expect Lily to contain herself in a place that smelled that good, but Scout has better food impulse control and would be fine. She does boing and bark when she is really aroused about something FUN and can't help herself from exploding with the excite. Cajuns whining in this video totally reminded me of that.
 

k9krazee

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#6
I definitely wouldn't label Cajun as a neurotic mess! :p But she does seem anxious and maybe a little nervous (or cold, lol). Her tail is tucked and she's shaking...but she still has her head up and whining. I'd be more concerned if she had her ears back and head down.

I think she just needs more experiences going into new places!

I feel ya, though. I think I create certain types of dogs too and it's my biggest fear in raising Pox.
 

DJEtzel

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#7
I agree with Ashley!

Just a little more socialization. You know dogs don't generalize things, so she was probably just a little uncomfortable about a new place.

Patton still gets a little whiney in new places if we don't warm up with some training. I always bring at least a pocket full of cookies for dogs that know what's up going out in public, for younger dogs or dogs with less experience I bring a bait bag to make sure I can prevent any anxiety and make sure they are behaving.

Pilot actually gets cookies less in public than Patton does, now... :rofl1:
 

Southpaw

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#8
Thanks for making me feel better lol.

The reason I see anxiety is because she mostly fixates on the door. It doesn't show as well in the video but that's what she was staring at most of the time we were there. Once we start moving towards the door she tries her hardest to RUN to it, and then once we're outside... she takes herself down a few notches.

Well, at least we have an abundance of local pet stores we can make use of for field trips I guess :p
 

krissy

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#9
It could also be the age she's at. Kili did stuff like this at certain ages. She was just a distracted, nervous mess when we would go places. And I was taking her out and about frequently. She is much better now, though she will still sometimes get to a new place and randomly decide it's the scariest place ever. For no apparent reason. But she has definitely improved with some maturity.
 

Dogdragoness

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#10
I have a tendency to create antisocial dogs with strange people. Not scared antisocial, they are confident around strangers, they just dont want to interact with them.

I have heard this is a bit of a trend in dobes, though. Someone told me it came from the effort to bred the aggression and some of the guard instinct out of them ... now I am not stating that as fact, just what I have heard people talking about on working dog forums and junk.
 

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