Scared Bulldog, HELP
Submitted by Tootsie the bully on October 17, 2014 - 2:32pmMy bully, Tootse, (10 months) is scared of everything! I feel as time goes on she just gets more scared of everything around her. She is scared of plastic bags, garbage bags, anything that makes a crinkle noise, the dumpster I dispose her poo into, the golf carts my maintenance crew in my community drives through, pillows, THE WIND, and of course you can't forget the dreaded vacuum! You name it, she will probably run away from it. It was tolerable in the beginning, but now when I go to take her for walks to make her business happen, she is just constantly looking around, jumping, jittering... making a stink! She is so sweet with people and children, it breaks my heart! When we do go outside to make business the neighbors have asked me if she is abused! I could never do such things to her! She is just so skittish one would think that I suppose when she freaks out on her leash! (Which is a choker because I had her on a harnass but she would just pull me everywhere when she would run away scared)!
Can anyone offer me some advice on what to do with my girl? The vet told me it is not good to have a scared bully, but I just cant seem to get her to calm down with her fears.
BTW, this is Tootse!
She's a sweet face!
I don't even know what I would do in your situation. There is a dog trainer in my area who comes to the house and observes the dog and then spends a couple of hours with you, working with the dog. You may be able to call your local Humane Society for names of trainers in the area. It may well be worth the money to help your baby adapt to life!
Timid dog
We have a rescue who is afraid of a lot of the same things and we've been working with her since Feb to get her less afraid. But since your dog is only 10 months old and hasn't had a tramatic life, this is something else. You'll need to slowly get your dog used to things that are frightening, one at a time as not to overwhelm. But, you might want to talk to a trainer and a vet. If this goes on and is really bad or gets worse, you might want to think about prozac. It helps our rescue a lot.
However, our previous bulldog was afraid of a lot of things and got over them with time.
Good luck.
Poor Baby
Is it possible for you to walk her with someone who has a dog?It might give her some self confidence. if she has squeaky toys, gentley squeeze it and if she comes give her a treat...bulldogs do love their treats :)
Good Luck
Our Newman is a nervous, scared guy too...
if I walk into the kitchen, he runs from the connected family room because he doesn't like the noise of water running or dishes banging around. He doesn't like grocery bags, vacuums, and a lot of the time he will stay in the den which is quiet compared to the rest of the house. He was 8 months old when we got him and was raised by our breeder in her kennel, so he wasn't used to being in a house full time. He's gotten better in the 3 years we've had him, but I can tell he is still nervous. The breeder said that when he was a puppy, his mom used to pick up her stainless steel dinner dish and bang it around, don't know if that stayed with him or not. We just try to keep things as calm as possible for him. It's funny though, he loves it when the grandkids are here, plays with them and isn't scared of people at all. Good luck with your guy, just keep working with him, a trainer that uses positive reinforcement would be helpful. He's a cutie!