jessicaameyerr

My doberman Prince is 9 1/2 months old and we live on the outskirts of Oxford in a little town called Wantage. Being in England we often walk into town and down to the local shops, and I often take Prince with me to get out of the house.
He's been to puppy school so is well socialised and walked beautifully on/off lead until we get into town...I'm not sure what it is but he suddenly become really jumpy and scared. He's never had.a bad experience in town, and we've taken him there since he was able to go outside...
A bit if advice on how to settle him down etc would be really lovely!

Here he is


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dobermama

Sounds like he is going through his second fear stage. It is a normal part of puppy development.

I have found the best way to deal with it is to more or less ignore the unwarranted and unwanted fear behavior and "mark"/praise the more stable calm behavior. I am sure if you search "second fear stage" on this site or google you can find more information.

What you do NOT want to do is become angry with him, or punish him for it! You also want to make certain you aren't feeding the fear by showing affection for it either- coddling can make this sort of thing permanent.

It is a very frustrating time, but with your steady and calm leadership he will outgrow it.

avianantics

What worked well for me with Wheeler, was to have him sit/stay when he was behaving insecurely. I didn't talk to him, pet him or otherwise give him any attention. We just stayed where we were until he relaxed. Then I praised, treated and we went on about our business. This stage passed fairly quickly with no lasting issues.

__________________
Shelly Wing
AKC GCH/UKC CH Lyndobe's Wheel of Fortune, "Wheeler"
AKC Ptd Lyndobe's Loquacious Charm, "Lola"