My dog is now afraid of....

calico2222

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the floor!
The laminant floors, to be exact. The scaredy cat is Skuttles, our 2 yr old lab/aussie shep mix. I love her to death and she's such a sweetie...but she's really not the sharpest knife in the drawer.


We've had hardwood laminant floors in the family room ever since she was a puppy and we tore up the carpet in the living room last year so she's used to them. But last week, DH let her out of her (and the other 4) out of their crates in the morning and during their normal mad dash for the front door, Skuttles' feet apparently slid out from under her and she took quite a tumble. She wasn't hurt..wasn't even limping and played outside like nothing was wrong.

But now, in the mornings she makes the mad dash with the other dogs....to the bedroom door (bedroom is still carpeted), which is about 5 ft. And stops. Then VERY gingerly walks across the wood floors one foot at a time, whining the whole way. Once she gets to the dining room, which has linoleum, it's another 10 ft mad dash to the living room. Again, she stops, and does the ginger tippy toe thing (complete with more whining), until she gets to the front door! It's the funniest thing!!
(Picture Bambi when he is trying to walk on ice in the movie)

It's only in the morning too. When they come in after their morning potty, she goes tearing around the house like normal and she's fine for the rest of the day. Then the next morning it's the same thing.

We really thought she'd get over this by now. We could understand the first few days, but it's been over a week now. Do you think I have to do anything to help her over this, or will that happen all by itself.
 

2dogmom

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Aww poor thing she must have scared herself pretty good! Normally they get over it and since she's only doing it in the morning, she's associating her spill with her morning race outside and not the flooring. You could try lying down on the floor and coaxing her to come near you with a treat or a toy, but since she's ok with the wood floor most of the time anyway I'm not sure what that will accomplish.
Whatever you do, don't force it, otherwise you could make her really scared of the flooring.
 

plebayo

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First of all, do not be squishy and try to comfort or overly encourage her over the flooring, you can inadvertantly reward her fearful behavior.

What needs to happen is you need to walk her across the scary floors consistantly, she needs to be calm, not whining, just walking. You should have good forward motion and ignore her and just keep walking forward. This could turn into a serious phobia if not dealt with properly. You can give her affection once she has walked across the floors and is calm, not whining or being weird. You just need to use consistancy, she'll get over it.
 

mismaris777

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Originally Posted by Plebayo

First of all, do not be squishy and try to comfort or overly encourage her over the flooring, you can inadvertantly reward her fearful behavior.

What needs to happen is you need to walk her across the scary floors consistantly, she needs to be calm, not whining, just walking. You should have good forward motion and ignore her and just keep walking forward. This could turn into a serious phobia if not dealt with properly. You can give her affection once she has walked across the floors and is calm, not whining or being weird. You just need to use consistancy, she'll get over it.
I completely agree- DO NOT coddle her when she is scared, it will just encourage the behavior/phobia. Don't say stuff like, "it's okay, sweetie, you can do it" and get all mushy and lovey, she will take it as praise and think what she's doing is the right and okay thing to do. Ignore those feelings- but don't ignore the behavior. Everytime you see her getting better at it, praise her afterwards, but don't shower her with love like crazy, just a "good girl" should do it. Another thing I've seen work well is using a leash- don't pull her across it- put it on her BEFORE she's on the linoleum, like when she's on the carpet or something. Then, start walking with her, and when she stops, you stop. Put a little tension on the leash, not facing her, and when she takes a step totally let up and praise a bit. That way her brain keeps moving forward and not backward. But you need to make sure you're not pulling and tugging on her leash, and words really won't help to get her moving. If you pull/tug, it will just make her brain stop and she will get worse. This method doesn't necessarily work with all dogs that have this prob, but it's worth a shot. And possibly do this when she's not afraid, in the afternoon/evening, and she will get that walking on it is good, not bad. And it actually makes you happy, she should love that.

Be prepared for this to take time- it's not an 'overnight success' thing, it's a gradual thing. Just don't completely ignore this, keep an eye out if it gets worse.

Hope everything works out for Skuttles! I'm sure she'll be fine!
 
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calico2222

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Thanks for the advice! Believe me, no coddling is being done. When there are 3 other dogs barking to be let outside at 6:00am and she's the one holding up the works she doesn't get "come on baby, you can do it". I don't force her, but I do walk in front of her so she can see it's safe. At that point, I just want my coffee!

And it's only in the morning so it's not the floor that she's really afraid of. Maybe one of the other dogs bumped her and made her slide so she's trying to hang out to get to the back of the pack; she is definitely the omega in the group and gets picked on a lot. But it seems like she's associating the "mad dash" to the door with falling, more than she is the actual floor. Does that make sense? Because she's fine with the floor any other time of the day.
 
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