My lab pup is almost a year old and in the past few weeks has been growling and/or barking at things at night when we go for our last walk or potty break.
It’s hit or miss on what triggers him, sometimes he’s totally fine, other times, someone walking with a flashlight really spooks him. I know this is a fear period and I have seen it progress and change over the past couple weeks. It started with Halloween decorations. Sometimes he’ll even see a random person during the day and get scared as well. He usually recovers quickly during the day and realizes it’s just a person, or an inanimate object, but at night it can take a while.
If your pup experienced a noticeably fear period around this age how long did it last?
I’m finding it hard with the time change, our evening walk is fully in the dark now and he sounds super big and scary when growling/barking. And I can see my neighbours sometimes getting scared of him. Sometimes they are just walking home from work/school and I feel bad making them uncomfortable. My dog is my first priority but I don’t know how to help with this, aside from mostly waiting it out. Maybe once a day he will see something and be scared of it. Our routine is move over if we can, sit, treat, treat, treat. Or I stand slightly in front of him if he isn’t taking treats and have the leash short until he can focus again.
Is the end near? I know there will be waves of it, but I feel like we’ve hit one for almost a month now and the early dark has made everything worse.
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