Lick-monster getting scared of strange men

[Idgie's Dad]

Idgie has started getting scared of strange men, especially large or tall men. It started after she was in kennels for 2 days when we were in a no-dog Hotel in DE, with a grumpy old deaf man at the kennels that shouted a lot. (Much more picky on our kennel choice since!) But that was several months ago and it seems to be getting worse despite our concerted efforts to ignore it. I cannot see any other similar threads about this issue, only ones for fear aggression and not just towards men. She does not get aggressive or growl, and it just seems to be with men. Even my boss who is 6'2", who she has met several times when I take her to work for the day, she always makes very strange and cowers down from him, even though they will be playing chase within 10 minutes or so. Other than this she is just a 1 year old lick-monster who thinks everyone on 2 legs or 4 is a lypop put here for her to lick and play with.

Has anyone else experienced fear of men without any apparent aggression?

Rgds Tony

 

[gmacleod]

Possibly it's a manifestation of the second fear imprint stage. Some pups become openly wary or fearful of just about everything, for others it can just be one or two types of situations that they're noticibly concerned with. See http://www.boxerworld.com/puppy/education/ (6-14 months) for more info, and you could try a forum search on "fear imprint" or "fearful stages".

 

[re68335]

My pup is scared of men too

Hi... we have a 18 week old boxer female who is a sweetie, but noticeably afraid of men, especially tall or large men. Not sure why, she likes my husband and was well bonded with the breeder's husband. But I noticed when we walk her in the park she is a bit timid of people, in fact I have started a thread about that the other day ("My boxer is shy"). Today in petsmart she did great, until a big man wanted to pet her and then she hid behind my daughter. But what concerns me, and why I am here reading, is that today she growled for the first time. It was my daughters boyfriend, whom she just met today in our front yard. It was a low growl. Maybe it was because my dachsund was barking like mad in the house. My daughters boyfriend got down on her level and made friends with her, but now I am worried. We praised her like mad when she went up to him, you could tell she was scared. I want to have a freindly dog!!!! We start puppy kindergarten next week, hopefully that will help. But I am reading anything I can...