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As some of you already know from my previous thread, the basset injured himself somehow.
Now that he is recovering (recovered!), he fears everything and everywhere he was when he felt pain.
It's insane. He's neurotic. I swear.
There is a little 4" step from our yard to our patio. He won't go near it. He'll walk up to it and stop. If you try to encourage him to onto the patio from that direction, he runs to sit in the middle of the yard with his ears down looking all sad.
I got treats. He readily went onto the patio. Twice. I made a big deal. Next time we were out, he wouldn't do it. Not even with treats. I put the leash on him, and he walked right up onto patio like there wasn't a big deal. No treats to motivate him, just the security of the leash.
He also was avoiding coming into the house because he hurt himself jumping in. He'd jump out to go outside, but he wouldn't jump in. Sometimes he would. Over the past few days he was jumping in effortlessly. Tonight, he was jumping in as I was moving the screen door aside, and his leg smacked off the side of my leg slightly. He's a drama queen. He was holding up his leg. When I went to give both dogs treats (the usual routine after coming inside), he ran right over on the leg without holding it up. It was fine.
So hubby is taking them outside a few hours later. The dog wouldn't leave the dog bed. Sat there with his ears down. So now he's afraid to go OUT the door, even though he has never been hurt going out the door. I went to get treats to encourage him to come out with us. As I was opening the treat container, my husband saw him leap up over the sofa (he has been avoiding the sofa too!), fly across it, and jump down and fly across the room to me at the treat container.
Those are just two examples. There are many, many things/places this dog is avoiding that he is very capable of doing because he does the exact same things in other areas of the house and outside. The treats didn't cause him to act like this. I only tried the treats this evening---only once.
This dog is perfectly fine physically. It's all in his head now.
Funny! He really has lost his mind. He is truly completely capable.
This morning, he sat in the yard instead of coming inside to eat breakfast. He finally walked around the entire yard so he could get on the patio from the other side. Then he refused to come into the door. He is usually a freak when it comes to getting fed and comes flying if we start to prepare the dishes while he's outside. When hubby tried to encourage him to come inside, he ran back into the middle of the yard and sat there with his ears down. Hubby got the leash, went outside to get him, and he trotted right onto the patio and jumped right into the house effortlessly wearing the leash.
The problem is that if something happens while he's on the leash, he'll become afraid of the leash! We have to figure out how to stop this psychosis before it gets totally out of control!
My pup just had surgery. As she was recovering from surgery, daily tasks were very painful for her (like going to the bathroom on her pup pad which happens to be in the bathroom). Like your pup, wherever she experienced pain recovering from the surgery, she feared. (She was also VERY fearful of literally EVERYTHING when we got her. Every. Single. Thing. So I've had a lot of practice with this, unfortunately.)
I didn't think I'd be able to undo her post-surgery fears so quickly (since she's a naturally timid, fearful pup by nature), but what worked for me was simply replacing the bad experiences with good ones.
After surgery, she would shake uncontrollably and whimper in the bathroom, and refused to use her pup pad. Since she feared her puppy pad / the bathroom because she experienced pain there, I gave her back rubs (aka puppy massages - her favorite), soft-talked her (she's affection motivated), and gave her treats in the bathroom.
In the beginning, she was too terrified of the bathroom to take the treats (plus, she's less motivated by food), but we just kept doing all these things over and over (short sessions of "happiness" a couple times a day in the "scary spot in the house", until we got the desired result) and eventually she'd take the treat in the bathroom (a sign she was getting less fearful of that room) but then she'd dart out in the hall to actually eat the treat.
That progressed to her taking the treat in the bathroom and staying in the bathroom to eat it (even better progress!).
Now, she's not scared of the bathroom any more! It's become a place where mommy gives her massages, she gets treats, etc. and it's no longer the place where she experienced pain recovering from surgery.
Keep in mind, if your pup is toy motivated more than affection or food motivated, that could equally work.
The entire goal is to make these places happy places again.
Remember to remain patient, positive, and calm, or your work will only be counter productive as it will reinforce the pups' negative feelings with those spots.
just keep up wiht kind encoragment and dont baby the situation...i had issues with dozer...he was terrified of doorways...and gently coaxing him out was geting us nowhere, so eventually i said enough is enough, took the other 2 out side and left the back door open with a couple fo treats just out of reach...
the combination of treats and the fact wed left him alone was enough motivation, but it took plenty of simply letting him get through it on his own before he decided the door wasnt some evil portal that planned on eating him one day.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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I can identify... personally.
I broke my leg last winter. A full 12+ months later and, still, I sometimes go down the stairs like a toddler -- one foot on the step, then the other foot, and THEN I'll go onto the next step, again one foot at a time. I feel no pain in that leg but, I guess, at some subconscious level, I'm still babying it, worried that it's still fragile.
Once you figure out how to cure your basset of this, let me know... I'll try it on myself.
Sorry HOPES, this will take a long time. I understand completely your concern about over-using the leash, and that could happen.
When you say treats, I'm guessing that includes scraps of people food since you said normally when dishes are being prepared for breakfast that he usually comes-a-runnin'. Any chance a cheap cut of steak will get him in and out? As an aside, do you see the sofa phobia as a problem? If so, give him a jackpot of treats when you want to avoid the leash. Sounds like he is food motivated and needs a human family member to escort, maybe just that and not on the leash - just someone to walk with and be around.
Sorry I missed the prior injury thread (holiday, then pet issues), but was a human family member with him? If he was alone, then maybe that is the key. In any case, it will take time. Please don't worry, it will eventually work out. This assumes that you're not going to take your family member to a doggie shrink (insert the sarcasm face here, don't know how).
...but it took plenty of simply letting him get through it on his own before he decided the door wasnt some evil portal that planned on eating him one day.
ROFL!!! Oh, dang that is too funny about Dozer!
Sometimes that is all it takes...them figuring it out for themselves!
even funnier given hes this huge monster of a puppy...
even now hes starting to get a little bolder, if somehting spooks him outside hell give it a good telling off..but if somehting spooks the cresties and he cant understand what there freeking out about he BOLTS and tries to hide under the cushions lol.
better hide and be safe than investigate and find out there barking at shadows LOL!
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