Thursday, August 21, 2014

The Return of Fearful Faolan

I recently posted regarding how Faolan wears his heart on his sleeve.

He really does a good job at expressing his every emotion.

We dealt with his fear issues for a solid year and a half.  The last six or seven months have been fantastic, with no fear issues at all.  Until last week.

I first noticed it when I went to put his leash on him for a walk.  He took a very submissive posture, and peed on the kitchen floor.

I thought it was a fluke thing, and carried on.  But it wasn't.  He is now back to submissively and fear urinating on a daily basis.  Nothing has changed, and he has not had a bad event or experience to trigger this.

It is so pitiful, like it was in the beginning.  I can tell when he is going to do it, by his super submissive body language.

He is not fearful all the time.  Just randomly.  I feed my dogs in crates due to resource guarding.  This is the only time they are crated.  I asked him to get in his crate, and opened the door.  He flopped over and peed over his head earlier this evening.   Other times he is his normal, happy, joyous self.

Back to square one, and time to buy stock in enzymatic cleaners.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

14 comments:

  1. Oh no! That sounds terrible! Poor guy! What about feeding him outside?

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    1. It's not just a feeding time time thing, it's completely random. 97% of the time he is joyful. It makes me sad when he's not.

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  2. I wish I had a suggestion but I haven't had to deal with fear. My dog Laika recently reverted back to being more reactive while on walks but I know that was my own fault for slacking on her training. Without it being triggered by anything specific it makes it difficult to desensitize. Good luck, I wish I had some good advice to share.

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  3. I found this article that seems like it has great info on fear issues; http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/you-cant-reinforce-fear-dogs-and-thunderstorms I usually find Patricia Mcconnell to have great training advice

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    1. I'm a big fan of both her and Nicole Wilde. And Jean Donaldson. Thank you.

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  4. If you have not yet read it, "Control Unleashed" is a very enlightening book that may give you ideas for addressing his behavior. It truly stretched my imagination and made me change how I worked with my dogs, and it helped a great deal with my little Submissive-Pee-For-Everything dog. :)

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    1. Thank you Andrea! I'm going to check it out.

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  5. Not that I'm qualified to help, but I'd like to try! In what situations exactly does he act like this? Is it here and there only when you go up to him to feed him/give him commands/leash, or? Does he act this way with other dogs, or just towards people?

    I hope you guys can overcome this :c

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    1. We have before, so I'm hopeful we will again. I noticed last night while all three dogs were playing that he had reverted back to his previous submissive play behaviors. Belly up, tail between legs over belly at times. But rowdy and rambunctious too. Thank you.

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    2. Man, I wonder what the trigger was for him, not necessarily a bad experience.. any environment, toy, or activity that he used to do or go to when he was fearful and has done/seen again? Somewhere or something he hasn't experienced or somewhere he visited since the last time he was fearful?

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  6. Oh no we feel so sorry for you both. Unfortunately we have no experience of the like so can of be of help. Rest assured our fingers and paws are tightly crossed and we so hope you get to the bottom of what is wrong.
    Best wishes Molly

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  7. Ah poor baby. Strange how he went back to square one like this :(
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!

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  8. Poor guy :( sounds like it might be time to talk to your Vet or a Veterinary Behaviorist, especially if you can't seem to figure out what's triggering his behavior. Best of luck to you both! I hope he recovers quickly!

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Thanks for the howls!!