My little girl is 20 weeks old and is started to become frightened of things that previously were no problem. I have taken her out since 8 weeks and we go to puppy classes every week where she is fine. On our recent walks she has backed off from other dogs coming towards us, tail gone down at groups of 2-3 people and the dustbin lorry completely freaked her. She has always been a tail up dog, but these incidents have shown a different side to her, which I am anxious to reslove before the behaviuot becomes ingrained. Anyone any ideas why this is happeneing now and how I go about increasing her confidence. I can't think of any incident which has triggered this behaviour. Thanks.

Hello

http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?pid=631258;hl=;hlm=and#pid631258</a>  This is a link to what I posted when my pup was 18 weeks old.  She suddenly got so spooked about things which were no problem at all before, like a roadwork sign, tree trunks in the distance, wheeli bin and also some people or even dogs.  Now she is eight months old and she doesn't even pay any attention to most of these things (well, apart from dogs and people of course.  But she doesn't growl or bark at them.). I think I read in the 'perfect puppy' book by Glen Bailey, that they do go through a fear period at around that age, when they are frightened of 'ridiculous' things so to speak.  Well, what I did, I either ignored her or I tried to distract her, just to take her mind on something else. 

Hope that helps!

Nips was exceedingly well socialised - out in my arms from the day he came home at just under 8 weeks, introduced to what seemed like half the world, taken everywhere with me and experienced as much as you could cram into the socialisation window. Nothing phased him although he did have the common sense to dislike Morris Dancing!!!

However, at 17 weeks this apparently bomb-proof little chap suddenly went fearful and started being spooked by quite everyday things like trains, wheely bins, plastic bags and the tractors that pass our house several times a day. All things he'd been introduced to weeks earlier and none of which had scared him. This phase only lasted a couple of weeks and I just used to say, in a cheery voice "don't be daft it's only a ...." and just get on with the walk, helped, if absolutely necessary, by something to distract him. Mainly though I made no big issue about it and at 8 months he's now as unbothered by the various spooky objects as he was at 8 weeks.

thanks both of you, I feel a bit better now because I was worried that I was doing something wrong. Hopefully she will get throught this phase.

Hi bedruthen, yes it could be/probably is a fear stage and she will probably get over it.  Don't force her to confront any of the things she is afraid of during this time - just give her space and time around each thing she's afraid of. 

Do they have fear stages at 16 months? My bitch has suddenly started backing away from the trainers at ringcraft, one in particular. He's never done anything unusual to her, he looks just the same to me, hasn't had a radical haircut or change of clothes, and she's fine with other men. She's happy to take a biscuit from him, but when she's on the table and he comes towards her she leans into me, and when we're doing our 'up and back' she wants to lurk behind me when we come to a stop. Hope she doesn't do it at our show on Sunday! Only thing I can think of is that the club has several terriers at the moment who are either barking or being shouted at by their owners, and the whole noise level of the room has become too much for her?

THey seem to go through different stages all the time while they mature... I guess as they become aware of new things...and as adult instincts kick in. Like any teens really. JUst as you think you've got there  you find you haven't!  There is some good info on stages of development somewhere although the different breeds and lines etc.... all will mature at different rates.

I couldn't find the site I was lookng for but found this... it might be helpful.

http://www.westchesterk-9.com/personalities.htm

Yep continued socialisation, ignoring the behaviour and a jolly hockey sticks approach will get him/her over it soon enough.  It is very common for them to go like this in later puppyhood.