The Garbage Truck Monsters!

Tuesdays are tough for Westley, my daughter's smooth coat collie puppy.  Tuesdays are trash day and those big, noisy, monsters are all over our neighborhood for several hours and they really bother him.  If he's in the yard and hears them, he races inside looking for Ozzie.  If he's out on a walk, he freezes first and then frantically tries to get away.  Poor guy.  When Ozzie was his age, garbage trucks were his kryptonite too, along with bikes, skateboards, and scooters.  So, what's my point in telling you all of this?  This is all very normal behavior for a puppy this age.  Puppies go through fear stages and Westley is going through the one that often occurs in late adolescence. Puppies can get through these fear stages and come out confident and capable, but many do need a bit of assistance from their humans.

First and foremost, the humans need to understand that the puppies are truly scared.  Telling them to "cowboy up" and dragging them toward and through what scares them isn't the solution.  Neither is avoiding what scares them.  Rather, you need to expose them to the scary stuff, acknowledge that it's scary and help them work through their anxiety.  This might mean stepping off to the side and holding your puppy.  Or, it might mean standing on their leash.  It might mean that you need to bring really good treats with you to desensitize your pup to the scary things and countercondition them so they start to view those things as not so bad because good things happen too.  There are handling techniques that you can use as well to help reset your scared puppy when they get overwhelmed.  No one method or plan, however, will work for every puppy.  You may need to experiment and you definitely need to not get frustrated.

Some puppies move through these fear stages quickly, while others seem to get stuck there.  Westley has shown fear with regard to garbage trucks the whole time he has been here.  Of course, the trucks only come on Tuesdays, so we only get to work on the behavior once a week.  He was actually a bit better today, willing to take treats and be redirected, which was definitely progress.  For Ozzie and his fear of wheeled objects? It took months of work to get him past his fears.  He still notices scooters, bikes, and skateboards to this day, but he is less concerned overall, unless they try to share the sidewalk with him!

If you have a puppy who is displaying fear, don't panic!  It could be a fear stage and that's something you will want to work through together as a team.  As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.

Westley seeking refuge Tuesday morning behind his protector, Ozzie. 

 All the garbage truck noise literally wore him out, as you can see.