Hi all! Me and my partner have adopted a going on 6 months old dachshund mix about six weeks ago. She is doing great in our home: she feels safe, she likes her play pen and crate, she is almost fully potty trained, and no noise in the apartment scares her – she’s unphased by the vacuum and popping bottles of champagne!
But we live in Manhattan on a pretty busy road. We’ve gotten her used to going potty on three trees right outside our apartment complex and she feels pretty safe there. However getting her off the block towards a higher traffic avenue is impossible. She starts shaking and crying immediately. If I take her outside of our higher traffic service entrance (where the dogs SHOULD be coming and going from) she cries and shakes so much. She also won’t even accept treats because she feels so unsafe so I can’t even work to create positive associations with that space.
We are working with a trainer who has suggested we just carry her when she starts acting fearful. We’ve been doing this for now but she’s also getting really big. We know she LOVES walking because she doesn’t leash pull in Central Park or other smaller parks even closer to us and feels right at home there. We are lucky to live so close to the park too, but walking the five blocks there is so hard right now because she just gets scared as soon as she sees cars and trucks on a bigger avenue. Even at the dog park she tends to hide under benches when a large truck is a couple hundred feet away.
The only time she does walk off our block and all the way to the park IS however when we have one of her doggie friends with us. She will follow them into oncoming traffic easily when guided by one of her three best friends. I really want her to feel as safe with me as she does with them as her friends can’t join us daily for a walk!
Any advice appreciated. I’m sure our trainer will help over time of course since we’ve just had one in person lesson and one phone call, but she really isn’t improving just yet.
submitted by /u/shreebee1029
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