When i take my black 6 month old lab out for her daily walk she is terrified of everything that she sees and tries her hardest to run off the lead and run home.

i have tried training classes but she is even scared to go there!

i am at my wits end!  what can i do to help her get used to being outside and meeting other people and dogs!

thanks

When I opened this post I thought it was going to be about a 14 week old dog but now I see it is 6 months old I am not sure I can help. Has she always been scared? How old was she when she first starting to go out and about meeting strange people, dogs, traffic and so on? Was the mother confident or was she scared as well? Was your pup a singleton? Has she had any illness or traumatic experience?

Even when you have answered the above we may not understand why she is, as she is and may need to suggest that you seek the help of a trainer on site.

Hi

i never got too meet her mother as they took the mother away from her when she was born!

she has always been like this ( i started walking her at 12 weeks)  we introduced her to everything but she is still scared to death.

She has never had any traumatci experiances as we have had her from 6 weeks of age and have looked after her well ( i hope)

advice woudl be great!

thanks

Think the fact that the dam was removed from her at birth may be the answer along with the fact that she was removed from the rest of the litter at or before she was 6 weeks old.

Now how to deal with it, to be fair I am not sure what to suggest, have you thought of trying a one to one training sessions with an APDT or UK Registry Canine Behaviourists member, they will be able to encourage the dog to first cope with them and than begin to deal with other people and things. Most will have a 'stooge dog' that they will introduce to your dog when the time is right.

Have you have the dog checked over by the vet, are you sure she is not either blind or deaf. Think that is the best I can do, perhaps someone else may have some suggestions to make, have you asked the breeder why the dam was removed, was she sick or aggressive, did you believe what you were told. Did the pups seem confident when you went to see them, was she confident in the nest with her siblings. Have you met any of the other pups from the same litter, if so what is their temperament like are they scared or aggressive at all?

Hi all,

I would agree with Jackie H (as usual!) and think about seeing a behaviourist. I think that they will take her right back to the beginning with the socialising and things.  If you try to see it from your pups point of view, she's born and then mums taken away and then just as she's reaching an important part of her 'puppy' stage, whe's taken away from her only security (her siblings) and taken to a new home. Please don't think that I'm suggesting that its something that you have done, I'm not.  She probably sees the whole world as totally overwhelming and this may explain why she couldn't cope at training classes-  Lots of other dogs, all making noise and generally being excited about everything!
How do you react when she's scared of something?  Sometimes the body language we give out accidently re-inforces what the pup is thinking.
Labradors, by design, are supposed to be a mix of friendlyness, willingness to work/have a job, and the ability to get on with everyone, BUT every dog is different and it will obviously take your girl some time to find her feet.  Do you have a friend with a placid, older dog who you could meet up with? 
I'm sure that with lots of time and love she'll come right in the end-the trick is to be happy with any small amount of progress she makes. Don't compare her to other dogs, she's your dog and you're caring enough to know that she has 'issues' :)
I wonder how the other pups in this litter have done, I'm sure that you're not the only one to have problems.
Good luck, stick with it-she'll be well worth it in the end.
Let us know how you get on.
Ali :) 

My oldest dog was very nervous and I couldn't understand where I'd gone wrong with her because I did my best to socialise her and get her used to every day life.....but she still showed signs of nerves (she sometimes displayed nervous agression and when this happened I would remove her from the problem).  We did obedience training together, although at times I think she found it a bit too much to cope with, but on the whole she did really well with it.  As she has matured (she's now five years old) she has become much more tolerant and confident in herself.
I was spectating at a dog show a couple of years ago and happened to chat to a lady there who knew of my dogs breeding, and in fact she told me that she had helped to rear my dogs litter because the dam had rejected them.....this was news to me because when we visited the litter mum was there, but not very involved with her pups, and we were told that she had recently weaned them, I often wonder if that could have affected her and made her nervy?
I'm not for one minute suggesting that anyone get another dog, but having our Ava around also made a difference to how Scarlet behaved so I think it is a good idea to get your dog to mix with friendly dogs.
Scarlet still gets freaked by a few things but it doesn't cause huge problems anymore.  (she used to dislike buses, teenagers, young kids - especially blonde haired boys!, certain breeds of dog (still a problem), cuttlery (don't know how that one came about), fireworks (still a problem), the vacuum and my hairdryer (still a problem).
I thought our Ava would have picked up on Scarlets fear of certain things, but she's quite the opposite and doesn't seem to let anything phase her! ;)
With patience and good training strategies she will improve, most importantly I learn't not to overeact when my dog got fearful because it reinforces the fear and makes them even more scared of the situation.
Good luck!
Mair