4.5 month rescue poodle mix amazing inside, reactive outside? Fear period?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for perspective because there is SO much information online about reactivity/fear periods/guarding that I’m starting to overanalyze everything.

We have a 4.5 month old rescue poodle mix (left at a shelter with two littermates). She arrived a week ago. We live in a busy townhouse neighborhood bike lane, train, lots of foot traffic and dogs. Household is me, my husband, our 10-year-old, and a 2-year-old cat. We “share” the backyard with the neighbors homes, fences in between but pretty much connected. Almost every neighbors has dogs.

The good:

She’s incredibly cuddly and very people-oriented with people she knows. She learns extremely fast (sit, down, working on leave it/stay/recall). Great in her crate, sleeps through the night, mostly potty trained.

She LOVES playing puppy zoomies in the backyard and is also a highly skilled sock finder. If there is a missing sock anywhere in this house, she will locate it immediately and proudly present it. 😂

At the vet and with a trainer she barked initially but warmed up quickly with treats and did great. Visitors are fine as long as she doesn’t see them arriving. Dog store visit was mostly fine too.

What we’re working on:

Still building tolerance with our cat (seems more curious than aggressive, baby gates in place).

Backyard barking, this is the big one. She has a deep bark and will bark at neighbors walking by, gates opening, etc. If we’re actively playing she ignores everything. If she’s just out there and hears something, she goes into bark mode.

Near our house / front door: if people are walking toward our direction, even just passing in front of our house and coming toward us on the sidewalk she barks a lot and sounds intense. If someone walks directly toward us on a walk, same thing. If I jog or create distance, she disengages.

Dogs are mostly a trigger, though today she saw one across the street and just kept walking normally. 

Inside she’s wonderful. Outside (especially near the house or when people approach our “bubble”) she sounds very serious.

Does this sound like a normal fear period at this age? Early guarding/alert behavior? Environmental sensitivity?reactivity?

I’m trying to manage exposure thoughtfully without either avoiding everything or overwhelming her. Would love to hear from anyone who had a similar puppy and what helped most at this stage.