Our 4.5 month old golden is in a sensitive stage or minor fear period now that she's teething.
I first noticed it started when she was suddenly afraid of the broom, rather than chasing it around and barking at it/trying to play with it. Then, a soccer ball that we kick around outside for her to chase suddenly became very very scary, and she is conflicted about chasing it (bc fun) and running away from it (bc scary).
On her walk 2 days ago, she wanted to turn around and go home after a very short time in a park she loves going to, and then a garbage truck came through and she lost her goddamn mind, when in the past they made her nervous, but always a level of nervousness she could handle and work through. I was starting to become suspicious by this point.
The final nail in the coffin for me figuring out it was a sensitive period is I planned to take her on a short hike yesterday, and we got maybe 50 yards into the hike before she decided she had enough and started moving back to the car. She kept looking at a bridge (~1 mile away) that had traffic moving across it. But traffic is one of the things I worked hard at desensitizing her to in her socialization period, since we live in a busy suburban area & I wanted her to be able to deal. She's been so good with loud traffic up until this point (although shes still not a fan of tractor trailers).
She's still very excited to see others dogs and people, and she's still excited to start her walks but I feel like her overwhelm/fear threshold has been moved back about a mile.
I'm not sure where to go from here; should I keep her inside to prevent her from being exposed to something that can make the fear permanent or should I just take steps back in socialization and go back to sitting in the trunk of the car at parks/parking lots and let her get reaccustomed to the sounds of the world in a safe and familiar environment? We have a group training class tonight but I'm not sure I'm even comfortable taking her because I don't want her to struggle in class or in dog-heavy environments in the future if she gets overwhelmed. There are a few dogs in the class that overstimulate me with their behavior/barking, and I don't have her supersonic hearing or smell.
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