My poor dog is a neurotic dog.
We adopted him from a shelter a little over a month ago. They told us they were not sure how old he is. (Vet estimated 10-12 months). They told us he most likely had been abused.
We met Bob at the pet store, where his adoption shelter had a booth. As we shopped for his supplies that day, it looked like our dog hated us and hated life. He was slumped on the floor and refused to move. The shelter people told us to just gently pull him, which resulted in us mopping the floor with our new pup. Really, that happened.
The next few days we learned he was afraid of walks, leaving the apt, stairs, and bridges. (there’s a small bridge in the small park attached to our apt) It took us 3 days to conquer his fear of leaving the apt, a week to overcome his fear of stairs, and virtually no time to figure out how to cross bridges. He loves walks now, as we knew he would.
Recently, it clicked with me that he has another fear.
A couple of weeks ago I took him to a lake for our longest walk together, and he loved the new experience. (We found that he’s scared of car rides this day too. We normally put him in the kennel for car rides and it was his first car ride sans kennel.) During the walk, we walked over an overpass, and on one side there was a guardrail and heavy traffic on the other. He started to freak out and dash INTO traffic and pulled with all his might. Lucky for both of us, he’s only 30 pounds.
It wasn’t til 3 nights ago that I made the connection. The reason why he darted into traffic was because he’s scared of guardrails. Anything he can see through and down. I never noticed this because I take the closest staircase to take him out. The staircase has one side where it’s walled up and the other side is a guardrail. He walks practically against the wall but I never thought anything of it. It just suddenly clicked that he’s afraid of the guardrail. I tested and confirmed my theory two nights ago by taking the farther staircase. The pathway to the staircase and the staircase itself is contained by guardrails on both sides. Poor Bob freaked out. He shook and tugged and cried; I remained gentle, patient, and firm. The first night I just planted myself on the floor against the guardrail and petted him and held him til he stopped shaking. It took almost an hour.
Last night, he signaled Alan for a walk and I decided to walk him instead. Usually the sight of me holding a leash makes me irresistible. Not this time. He pawed at Alan and looked at me suspiciously. Alan coaxed him to the door and I walked him the long scary way again. I thought we were making progress because it only took us 20 minutes before he was calm. He even sniffed the guardrail. I cooed at him and scratched his belly. So proud of my boy!
This morning I called him for his routine morning walk. He refused to come and then went into his bed, looked me in the eye, and peed all over his bed and paws. Then TRAILED HIS URINE all over the living room and couch. My poor dog chose to pee where he sleeps than leave the apartment with me.
Seriously, my heart cracked.
I feel guilty. Did I push my dog too hard? He made such a huge stride in just two nights. And now I feel like we’ve regressed. We’re back to him being afraid of leaving the apartment.
We decided to let go of the his fear of heights and guardrails for now.