My 12month old cross has always been quite a confident and happy little chap up until the last few days. Usually on a walk he may casually go and greet another dog with a sniff and a wag, perhaps a game of chase me but it seems he has instantly lost all of his confidence over-night.
He will walk to within a few metres of another dog, and regardless of size or stature, will bolt with his tail between his legs. He hasn't had any bad encounters with another dog since he was 12 weeks old and as I said, has always been quite self-assured. I'm quite confused as to why he is becoming so fearful of things, as it is not only dogs that are making him go abit funny.
We were crossing a road that we cross daily when a carrier bag (usual occurance as there are terrible litter problems) blew past in the wind. I thought he was going to drag me out into the road and no amount of re-assurance would get him to go and have a look at the grotty bag on the pavement.
I know he his still young, and perhaps this is something he will grow out of? I think that when they get afraid you shouldn't molly-coddle them as this can make it worse but am I right to ignore this behaviour? I can't seem to find a right time to encourage him as this has become quite sporadic (if that makes sense) He is generally fine with dogs/people/situations that occur on a regular basis but now and again even the most familiar face will spook him.
Any advice on how I could help him re-build his confidence as I hate seeing him so freaked out
Thank you
Vikki

Dogs can dog through a second fear imprint period, it's more common in males. My Buster went through this, it was a nightmare at the time, but it quickly past with the right handling by me (I had inadvertantly started to molly-coddle him, then I realised I was making him worse). I wrote a blog on it as it really worried me, Buster new fear was of our own living room

Here's a bit on the second fear imprint period (you need to scroll down as it covers all stages of development from 3weeks)

Encouragement (rewards/praise) can be given for any advancement in behaviour ie. steps in the right direction. I've also learnt while Buster was going through this that distration and subsequent rewards for doing the 'distracting' behaviour worked well, eg. Buster decided it was frightening to come back in from a walk, so I would 'distract' him with a 'wait' command, (he knows this to mean 'wait, listen for next commnad, follow next command then get a treat'!), he would then be ready to listen to me, I would take out a treat, tell him 'gentle' and he would walk towards me to take the treat. That took a lot of reps, but it got him past the fear of comng back in through the door (it had taken me over 20 mins before using that technique to get him back in ).

Thank you mastifflover, what an interesting link (I read the whole thing :) ) and it describes his behaviour down to a tea. I do hope it passes quickly as I can never judge what is going to spook him next!

Lol at your Buster, bet that was a pain in the butt if it was tipping down! No chance of Mason not wanting to go inside...Inside = the bar, the bar = pork scratchings! :-o
Thanks again!

It seems easier to tackle when you know it's natural doesn't it :)

> Lol at your Buster,

Oh it was a pain!! I quickly became a laughing stock with neighbours spotting me stuck on my front lawn day after day, trying my hardest to encourage this huge, quivering wreck to follow me indoors, he weighd more than me even then so there was no chance of pulling him in! Oh well, it taught me some new handling skills and the art of how to distract him, so in a way I'm glad it happened.

Best of luck with Mason and I'm glad you enjoyed the link :)