Common Fears and Phobias In Dogs

• September 15, 2022
• Posted by Admin
• Dogs, Cuddly Tails, News

Dogs can suffer from several fears and phobias that have a negative impact on their health. A fearful dog tends to tremble, cower, bark, drool, and even develop destructive behavior. In order to attend to these symptoms and protect your dog from fears and phobias, you must first know them yourself.

These are the 9 Common Fears and Phobias In Dogs:

Unknown people bring uncertainty for dogs as they don't know anything about them. This uncertainty can cause fear of strangers in dogs and make it difficult for them to socialize. Therefore, when introducing your dog to someone new, don't force her to interact with them. Instead, give her enough time and let her approach when she wants to.

This fear arises when a dog hasn't socialized enough with men. Due to lack of socialization, the dog isn't familiar with their large bodies, facial hair, and deep voices and might develop a fear toward them. However, in more severe cases, it can also be due to abuse by a man.

To cure this fear, you can introduce your dog to men in a non-threatening situation and inform the men to not make eye contact or approach your dog.

This fear may arise when a dog misinterprets a child's affection as threat. The solution here is to give your dog plenty of time to socialize with children. For grown dogs it's difficult to do that unless a professional is involved. However, puppies can be easily taught to live with children.

Loud noises like fireworks, thunder, high-volume music, car horns, etc. can trigger fearful responses in dogs. A dog afraid of loud noise would tremble, lose control of his bowel, become destructive, have a tucked tail, wide eyes, or flattened ears.

To prevent allergies, avoid walking in parks and areas with high pollen density. You can also stop walking in the early morning or late afternoon when the pollen growth is highest.

For treating this phobia, you can slowly get your dog used to loud noises or treat them with sedatives or anti-anxiety medicines.

Dogs who fear being left alone suffer from separation anxiety and show destructive behavior as soon as their owner leaves. This destructive behavior includes excessive barking, chewing items, and peeing in odd places.

A dog who hasn't learned to climb up and down on stairs as a puppy would develop this fear. He might abruptly stop near the stairs as he doesn't know how to move further. To solve this issue, pet parents can play interactive games that involve going up and down the stairs and reward them for good behavior.

Previous bad experiences and lack of exposure with car rides are the two reasons for this phobia. A dog who gets car sick, was left in a shelter home by a car, or had other negative experiences wouldn't want to ride in a car. This fear can be cured by encouraging your dog to get inside the car using treats and then going on small rides.

A pup's first visit to the vet involves being restrained, vaccinations and needles, strange smells, and many other new but unwelcoming activities. This first impression creates a natural fear against veterinarians in a dog's mind.

This fear is easily cured by paying some social visits to your vet and rewarding your dog heavily for calm behavior.

Dogs learn and react on connections and they can link negative experiences with certain objects, resulting in a fear toward them. For example, a dog might consider the noise made by a vacuum cleaner threatening and then start fearing the vacuum cleaner itself.

These types of fears can be avoided simply by keeping such items out of your dog's sight. However, when that's not possible, you can slowly introduce him to such objects in a positive environment.

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