Some context: We rescued him from an abusive environment when he was about 3 months old. It took about a week for the poor guy to trust us enough to be around myself and my partner without peeing in fear, he would hide under our bed or in his kennel all day.
Now after 3 months of owning him and lots of positive reinforcement, you’d never tell he had a rough life before us. He is the typical high energy, loving and super social lab puppy we were hoping he’d become, HOWEVER we cannot knock his fear of cars/traffic.
Walks are a nightmare, we have been trying slow exposure with short walks outside with high value treats. Soon as a car approaches it is instant panic, his brakes go on and he refuses to walk. We try to make him sit and offer treats but absolutely nothing we try will break his focus on traffic. If it isn’t completely stopping it is him pulling with all his might to get away/home. We will give him lots of pets and attention to reassure him he is safe and it’s okay but nothing works.
He is better at night when there is less traffic, however as a young female with a partner who works out of province for a month at a time it is not within my comfort zone to walk after dark all the time. I’ve been taking him to a gated softball field to play and get his energy out, but with work and obligations and for the quality of life for the puppy I’d love to be able to walk him in the mornings right from our house.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, we a heartbroken that he is so scared.
submitted by /u/cozmo360
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