Fear Periods GAH!!

I swear Guardian breeds are going to be the death of me with their slow maturity.

I am pretty sure Panzer is going through a fear Period he is 17 months old right now so he still has a way to go before he is full mature.

My first clue is when Tyler and I come home late one night, which we do a lot during the weekend and Panzer never has an issue with it, but anyways a few weeks ago we where out late at a friends place, we come home and that night we got a dump of snow like 2 feet of white fluffy stuff, so we played in it for about 5 minutes before we went inside. I knew something instantly was wrong because Pan was not at the door waiting for us and he was barking at us like a mad man at the end of the hall way. I am pretty sure he was in a blind fright because he would not recognize our voices or our faces and it took him a while to recognize us. He also peed all over the floor. He has NEVER done this before. And my first thought was "great I got a dud" lol

Second clue was when we would have strangers over he would bark at them and try and act tough, but you could tell he was nervous. He usually runs up, welcomes them with open arms. People he knows he was fine with and would attack them with his love.

Third clue is he is having issues with smoke and the range stove fan, which he has never had issues with before. As soon as smoke develops he gets nervous and starts to shake and wants us all to go outside.

Now I am pretty sure he will get over the first two issues as soon as he is out of the fear period, but I am wanting some advice on how to get him over his fear issue with the smoke and range fan, I have gotten him a little less nervous of it, but I don't want this to be a lasting thing, as I said before he has never had an issue with it until now.

Gah, fear periods are mentally exhausting, especially when you have a guardian breed that is suppose to give no F***'s

hang in there! everything will be okay

I feel for you, but I agree just one day at a time you can do it

Do you have any recent pics? I saw the pics from a long time ago but I'd love to see more recent ones!!

I think classical conditioning is always the most powerful way to go for helping a dog feel better about something.

With your guardian breed you can have strangers feeding her as she will still develop her own instincts later on. Typically not until 2 or sometimes as late as 3 years of age though.

So for right now at least if you just focus on helping her feel comfortable, later on she can be a ninja

I have no good advice, but I wanted to say hang in there. Fear periods SUCK. I'm pretty sure Recon spent his first year in a fear period. Lol. At least 5 of them... Very similar to what you're describing. Luckily he's a smaller breed and grew up. Still weird, but not nervy about everything.

Thanks guys. I know he will grow our of it. It's just so frustrating having a confident dog one minute and then not the next. I just want my fearless boy back. I am just hoping the fear period does not last long.

I just had to vent lol

Jack's fear period involved fear of one particular corner of a park we used to go to a lot--it was very odd. He avoided it and gave it the hairy eyeball for weeks. He did eventually grow out of it though.