She is scared of everything

[MariannB]

Help! My boxer is three years old and is afraid of everything! She freaks out and cowers at any loud noise. The worst part is she is petrified of the elevator in our building and she urinates every time! I don't know what to do! Help please!

 

[Linda]

I don't have any personal experience with this type of behavior, but here's some ideas.
Have you had her since she was a pup?

How do you react when something happens (loud noise or approaching the elevator)? Do you baby talk "it's ok," or try to reassure her? Sometimes that just reinforces her reactions and teaches her to react that way. If you're calm and confident, she'll pick up on that and may become calmer. If you're nervous or anxious, she'll be also.

Perhaps you can try giving her treats and praises when approaching the elevator. Make it a positive experience.
Or, alternatively, make it a non-issue. Don't make a big deal out of it. Calmly get on the elevator and completely ignore her. Praise her when you get off and she hasn't urinated.

Get her out in more situations and "desensitize" her to noises and scary things.

Good luck!

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Linda
Remy -DOB 6/2/92; white male w/brindle patches;
Bailey - DOB 10/16/99; flashy brindle female
Shannon - 1992?-12/7/99 Flashy fawn; We miss her!

 

[MariannB]

Thanks for the suggestions. We usually try to keep her nice and calm while going to the elevator. Once we are in there, I stand and tell her to sit and stay (which she really tries to do. She is good until someone gets on the elevator with her. Then it's all downhill from there!

Are your boxers jealous? I would not trade Maggie in for anything - I love her so much, but it gets irritating when my husband and I sit on the couch together and she barks!

Oh, yes... we have had her since she was 10 weeks old!

 

[Krikkit]

Hi Mariann, poor Maggie, phobia's are hard to deal with. The good news is that they can usually be controlled by desensitizing her to the things she has issues with. A video by Karen Pryor (can not remember which one but will find out), has a wonderful section where she uses clicker training to help a mule overcome a great fear of being stabled, these methods work extrememely well with dogs and may help you with the elevator.

It would probably be a good idea to work with a behaviorist on this, here are a couple of sites to help you find someone: http://www.inch.com/~dogs/behaviorists.html
http://www.geocities.com/l_herf/behavior.htm and here are some tips on how to choose a behaviorist: http://www.webtrail.com/petbehavior/guide.html

These websites may help as well:

Fear - Loud Noises: http://www.clickandtreat.com/webart107.htm

Submissive Urination: http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/applied-ethology/behaviourproblems/suburine.html
http://www.clickandtreat.com/webart105.htm

Shy Dogs: http://www.interlog.com/~infoland/petland/dog/pd4.html
http://www.doggiedoor.com/confiden.shtml
http://www.doggiedoor.com/doghouse/shyq.shtml

Two books which are very good are:
"The Cautious Canine” by Patricia McConnell Ph.D.
"Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson

Maggie sounds lovely - looking forward to hearing more about her

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Sharon
Bella (Red&White 03.07.94) Layla (Brindle&White - 03.12.94) Ruben & Amy (Red&White littermates 15.09.98) Bo, Tess and Rebel in our hearts.
AgilityBoxer.Com

 

[Jennifer -Pharaoh's Mom]

CONSTANT postive reasurance WITHOUT babying and/or coddling her!!! Do NOT NOT NOT baby her when she gets scared, rather....act very happy and excited and laugh and play with her. If she's scared of the elevator take her on it and feed her treats and praise her lavishly. Constant slow exposure to what scares them at least assures that they learn to tollerate the thing they fear, even if they don't learn to like it.
JEnnifer

 

[MariannB]

Thank you so much for your help. The sites you gave us were very informative. We took Maggie on the elevator twice last night and once this morning and although she was a little hyper (she now sits in front of the closed door and scratches it), she had no accidents!
We just love her dearly, quirks and all!