Buster was very nervous of traffic but with a lot of work has got quite good, he is still a little wary of vans/lorries though and stands still untill they have passed us if we are right next to the road.

I ususally walk Buster in the evening (I had dropped his morning walk, following a limp he got from stumbling and haven't felt brave enough to re-introduce the early walk again for fear of over-doing his leg as he has ED), I decided that he is ready for another walk so took him out this morning.

We get to the bottom of our street and there were 2 lorries, 1 parked on either side of the road partly on the pavements, leaving only just enough gap between them for a car. The lorries had lots of tubes coming out, pumping insulation into the houses on both sides of the street. Along with that there were a few tall ladders up at the houses, all with men drilling holes into the walls. All in all there was a LOT of noise. We got within about 20ft of the lorries and Buster stopped still, I tried to entice him forward with cheese, but he got even more nervous :(

One of the workmen came down from his ladder and asked if I would like them all to stop drilling so the dog could get past them (ahh, how nice of them :) ), but I declined as it was obvious Buster was aslo frightened of the lorries and the ladders :( So the man tried to entice Buster (crouched down, patting his knees, with an excited 'come on boy' :-D ), it seemed to be working untill Buster had realised how close he had got to all the scarey machinery and then he bolted towards home :( Luckily, as I am so OTT with being able to control him, the fact he has 3 leads on (halti, chest harnes & standard collar) I was able to stop him within a few feet, if he was only on his lead to the collar I would have been dragged home (LOL, I knew that one day I would be gratefull for being so concious of the 'what-if's' and insiting on all those leads 'just in case')

I crouched down (seems to be more encouraging for Buster when he is nervous) and tried to coax him back towards the lorries, all this did was make him even more worried and he started to shake :( :( I new he had gone past the point of being able to to be encoureged past the lorries so we went back home.

I'm suprised that the noise seemed to effect him, as we had all of that at our house yesterday when the workmen insulated our wall-cavities and the loft, the only thing he was bothered about then was seeing a man go up a ladder the on the outside of the window (he thougth it safest to try to hide behind me, however, I encouraged him to focus on me and gave him a treat when he ignored the ladder). He never bothered about the noise from lorries pumps or the drilling, which was very loud (we were advised to remove breakables from the window-sills as the vibrations would knock them off, so you can imagine the noise from that).

I had considered taking Buster back down the road today, just to watch the lorries/ladders from a 'safe' distance, but decided that he's had enough for today. I'm pretty sure they still have a few houses to do in our street but don't know wheather to take Bust out to watch them tomorrow, or wheather it would be a futile task, as fear takes a lot of getting over and after a few days I will never be able to repeat the 'training' so any progress will have been forgotton??
If it was just ladders, or just lorries, or just noisy lorry pumps I would have no trouble in encouraging him past it (if he had got nervous), but the combination of alll of them together was far too much :(

Sorry for all my waffling - well done if you read all the way to the bottom :-D

poor both of you, mastifflover, it sounds very stressful--my dogs have not been thrilled with the builders next door using power tools etc and one of the dogs has become really difficult with incessant barking at the window cleaner (loves the man, hates him on a ladder on the other side of the window). I spoke to a behaviourist last week in desperation and he suggested putting a ladder up and climbing up myself just to acclimatise the dog...I don't know whether this helps at all because it sounds as though there are so may different triggers for your dog in his environment. Maybe try a homeopathic remedy to help him with confidence? Good luck with Buster and I hope you are able to calm him down.

Poor Buster, bless him! Thank goodness for all your leads though :-D  I think sometimes if a dogs really worried it can sometimes make them worse if we are really trying to sort of cajole them into doing something as it can make them feel more pressured.  What I would do in a situation like that is when they start showing signs of worrying is stop and give them something to do that they know really well, like a silly trick maybe a hand touch and get them doing a few things that can be rewarded for.  It can change the way are feeling and just get them in the frame of mind of 'ooh yes I know this' something that they have a conditioned response to then they can take food rewards and generally start to relax, then I would take another few steps closer and work forwards that way.

I think if it was me I probably would go back out tomorrow, (I think you were wise to leave it for today) but stay a good distance away and do some of the above and just get him doing stuff he knows and rewarding him and if he seems really relaxed then maybe get a little closer but I would keep it completely pressure free and just be guided by how comfortable he is :-)

> I think sometimes if a dogs really worried it can sometimes make them worse if we are really trying to sort of cajole them into doing something as it can make them feel more pressured.  What I would do in a situation like that is when they start showing signs of worrying is stop and give them something to do that they know really well, like a silly trick maybe a hand touch and get them doing a few things that can be rewarded for.

I agree about the cajoling making them feel more pressured. The distraction thing that usually works for Buster is to tell him 'wait' and then reward him for waiting. It sounds a bit silly, but it usually flips him into focusing on me and he'll happily walk forward to me to get his reward for 'waiting' (standing still and looking at me), but in that instance with the man trying to encourage him forward it never helped atall and silly me only tried harder to get Buster to concentrate on 'waiting' then moving toward me, making him even feel even more pressured. :( :(

> It can change the way are feeling and just get them in the frame of mind of 'ooh yes I know this' something that they have a conditioned response to then they can take food rewards and generally start to relax,

That is exactly what the 'wait' command usually does for Buster. You phrase it so much better, it makes much more sense worded like that :)

I had completely forgot when I put up the post that it was Friday, so no chance of the workem being around over the weekend. If they are back in the street on Monday I'll take Buster along to watch them from a 'safe' distance. I think they have some more houses to do near our house, so Buster will enjoy watching them with me from the 'safety' of our front lawn. If it doesn't have any lasting effect with major building type work out in the street (as at most we'll only get a few days practice), it should help to get him more comfortable around lorries as I'm sure the workmen will all want to come and fuss him (he has seen people get out of cars so has that positive association, but he's never seen anybody get out of a lorry).

I'm so frustrated with myself. If there were no workmen around, I would have felt like I had all the time in the world to get past the lorries & noise, but with them there I felt pressured into getting control of the situation quickly and you can't help a dog over-come fear without patience. Grrr, I'm quite cross with myself now I've had more time to think about how I handled it. I should not let the fact that people are about influence my handling.

Oh well, if I learn from it it isn't all bad. So roll on Monday, with lots of lorries, noisy pumps & ladders and I'll find some extra-enticing treats for Buster!

Our dogs have no idea how much thought we put into them, bless 'em :)

ETA, well done to both of you for reading all of my waffle :) and still be awake enough to post a reply when you had finished! LOL

it always amazes me that certain things will spook certain dogs, I can understand the noise as you've said, my girl who is pretty steady is still cautious of buses, I think cos of the air-brakes that made her jump once.

Would you believe that she is scared of paintbrushes?? She is really nervous if she sees them, total cringe down tail between legs... and the only thing I can think of to reason it is that maybe it's the upheaval associated with them, as I have just about finished decorating at OH's, and for a while there were tins of paint, tressles, and other tools lying about - but she only had issues with the paint brushes that had been cleaned etc/ or new ones

sometimes we have to "think outside the box" because we just can't understand how a dog perceives something

I hope your boy gets over his nervousness, he sounds lovely :)

I'm so frustrated with myself. If there were no workmen around, I would have felt like I had all the time in the world to get past the lorries & noise, but with them there I felt pressured into getting control of the situation quickly and you can't help a dog over-come fear without patience. Grrr, I'm quite cross with myself now I've had more time to think about how I handled it. I should not let the fact that people are about influence my handling.

Oh well, if I learn from it it isn't all bad. So roll on Monday, with lots of lorries, noisy pumps & ladders and I'll find some extra-enticing treats for Buster!

I think you absolutely right, we all make mistakes so don't give yourself a hard time - as long as we learn from them then it's not been all bad like you say :-)  It may not be such a bad thing that they aren't there today - you can take Buster out and let him see the the street hasn't been taken over by horrible alien things and let him have a day or two of relaxing before shwoing thim there's nothing to worry about on Monday :-)

My first Dane was utterly terrified of lorries - my own fault for not doing enough road walking when she was a pup. I found that Rescue Remedy took the edge off it enough for her to concentrate on me long enough to retrain her thinking. She never loved them but got to the point where she no longer felt she had to jump over walls and stuff to escape them!

> My first Dane was utterly terrified of lorries - my own fault for not doing enough road walking when she was a pup.

I think this is the broblem with Buster, his mobility was nearly non-existant when he hit 5 months old due to ED, so never got enough early socialisation around traffic :(

The workmen were not about today, I was looking forward to helping Buster get used to thier noisy machinery :(

At least I have learnt how NOT to behave if ever he gets frightened again and the next time I see any lorries/building type work in the street I will take him out to have a look (from a 'safe' distance).

On a positive note he has definately not made any negative association between his 'ordeal' and the street, he's been down it every day and it's as if nothing ever happened :)

My neigbours JRS is terrifed of people sneezing! She does the tail down run and hide scenario. Funny little doggie. I wonder if it is because her Dad (Human) died when she was just a puppy and he sneezed a lot near the end. She must associate it with the atmospher in the family in his last few days. Now at 8 she still remembers.
Aileen