Teenage scaredy cat
Did anyone else’s puppy become fearful in their teenage months?
Our girl (chocolate lab) is just shy of 15 months now and although she wasn’t THE most confident puppy (very submissive with other dogs & scared of bin lorries) she was overall quite a consistent and steady pup.
Over the last few weeks she’s developed, seemingly out of nowhere, some really strange fear behaviours.
The most worrying is she’s gone from sleeping happily in my car for hundreds of car journeys, sometimes multiple hours long to physically shaking & panting when we go anywhere, she becomes massively stressed. I’ve gone back to square one and done the same training I did at 8 weeks, treats in the car, short journeys, high value snacks but doesn’t seem to be budging at all. I travel to my family home pretty regularly (90 mins or so drive) so I can’t really get around having to take her in the car, also live in the city so like to take her to the countryside for walks but hate to see her super stressed.
She’s also now decided she’s scared of the sound of frying / cooking, so as soon as I’m making food she’ll run away and lie down panting and looking distressed.
Has any experienced anything similar?? There’s nothing that stands out as bad experiences to have triggered these