Can anyone help me PLEASE

Breeze is nearly 1 year old now (in 2 weeks time) and I can't walk her along roads as she is petrified of traffic. Yesterday, she pulled me through a hedge to get off the road. I bought her a halti today as she is a very powerful dog and at 35kg and growing (she is filling out now) I really want to conquer this quickly.

As a puppy, I did take her for walks along the road and she was fine, but as she gets older and bigger, she has got worse.

Has anyone go any ideas to stop this unwanted behaviour?

Hi
Years ago when i had a dog that was worried by traffic I used to find a busyish road with a nice wide path and pref a nice bench to park my bum on and sit talking quietly and praising and let her just watch the traffic from a safe distance but feeling secure as well.
Then i would walk a little way at only oncoming traffic better for them to see and hear than cars to surprise them.  Then again let her just watch the traffic and she gradually overcame her fear.
To the day she died she still hated large trucks but this worked for me i always started doing this at quiet times of day and gradually changed to busier times of the day.
This worked for me and took alot of time effort and praise but was worth it.
Mandy

My BC puppy isn't frightened of traffic but would have been a car chaser if I had not trained him otherwise(due to his high drive working breeding)

I took him to the seaside(only 5 minutes away)& sat on the promenade about 50 foot from the roadway. I treated him & praised him every time a vehicle when past & he didn't react & ignored him when he did. I took JD my bombproof Cavalier with me & treated only him if my puppy reacted to the traffic(JD totally ignores vehicles)When Rjj(my puppy)was totally ignoring the traffic I moved closer the next time & repeated the treat & no treat

It took around 4 weeks of every other day & now he has no interest in traffic at all. I think having JD there did speed thing up BTW

I took Sam our staffie with yesterday as he is fine with traffic but it wasn't fair on him as I should have him on a lead near the main road, not that he would run into the road, but because its my legal duty to have him on one, but I had to let him off yesterday as she tried to drag me, so today I took her on her own. I was told once to ignore this behaviour and carry on walking and ignoring it.

Hi,

My dobe was very worried by traffic until she was about 7 months old, at which time daily training started to pay off.  I took her to a nearby car park every day for 2 months and just walked her round praising her a treating her when she wasn't trying to pull away and if I started to see her getting worried would just get her to sit and the give her a reward.  I also after a while of doing the car park routine sat on a bench that was set a way back from the road and just let her watch the traffic going by and praising her.  Also walking her a long the pavement when she had gained more confidence.  She is great with traffic now, it did take a lot of hard work but was well worth it.  Make sure you don't push him too fast, work on it regularly and lots of praise.  Also make sure you have a link from the halti to his collar just incase he manages to pull out of it if he panics, that way at least he won't be able to get loose.

Hope you get it sorted.

Karen

Thanks for the advice. I took her to the park first to get used to the Halti before I venture on the road. Unfortunately, is only a small path with a grass verge, so I will find another busy road where we can sit on a bench and watch passing traffic.

Good idea about having a link to her halti and collar, never thought about that.

I took our puppy and stood on a footbridge over a busy dual carriageway. He could see the traffic and hear it but it wasn't too close to him. I did this for several days a week for about a month and then found some roads with wide verges/paths and he didn't mind the traffic at all whereas previously he had been quite scared of it. Still haven't encountered an emergency vehicle with its lights and sirens on though so that might be a different story!

Hi Sarah

As the others have said it really is a case of habituation and at a safe distance ;)  Often we socialise youngsters for a few months with anything and everything we can think of but after a while if they've been OK it's easy to let things slip and forget that they are still developing mentally and so that type of socialising really has to be ongoing until around 2 years (in my breed make that 5 :D )

Patience, perseverance and oodles of opportunity to overcome her nerves will pay off in the end.

good luck, Teri :)

Just wanted to say hang in there. My puppy always had problems with traffic as I got him a little late. It's taken lots of patience and slow progress. Short stretches of walking on the main road, only doing as much as he could handle and many, many days where he seemed to make giant strides backwards. He's 11 months old now and doesn't even look at the cars anymore. So you will get there eventually. Good luck.