I'm in such an irritated mood right now, my dog used to be fine with noises and thunder n everything, now he hears the stupid disney fireworks off in the distance n he doesn't wanna go into drive or play tug or anything n I just end up getting mad at him because he's developed this fear that never existed when he was a young pup. What happened to him? It's ever since he was about a year old suddenly loud noises freak him out, I'm wondering how he'd do around these noises when working with a helper, but when it's just me and him out at night he wants to go home every chance he gets n won't play tug for more than 5 seconds.

Pay attention to your reaction to his reaction. You should not even notice his reaction. I usually don't have this problem with my dogs, but I have had it with other peoples dogs.(my dogs have different problems) If they try to freak out, I just keep going and the walk is extra long that night.

I think Jeff said it well.

I find some male dogs can be very hormonal around about this age,and become almost schitzi to things that never fazed them before, it could just be this, just be patient and do not act irritated the dog will pick this up they are far better at reading body language then we are, ignore the behaviour and if it persists go back to socialising find a low noise enviroment like a car park and build it up slowly, use your discretion as to how much to increase his exposure to various noises , I would do this every other day..If this does not work he may be situation frightened, and you will have your work cut out
trying to correct this.
Keep us posted on progress!

I took him out again after I posted last night off leash and totally ignored him, I just started walking around my neighborhood n he'd follow me, n everytime he stopped to sniff the grass I'd start running n he'd chase me, after a few minutes his whole disposition changed, but he was still a lil too willing to go home each time I turned around, so everytime I changed direction towards my house n he'd make that turn to go to the front door between the cars, I'd run away from him again as fast as I could n he'd chase me, everytime he caught up to me I'd pet him n priase him, eventually he didn't wanna go home so much <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

He's 100% fine around traffic or construction sites or general city noises, in fact, he's very confusing to me because things that I expect a dog to be afraid of, he is perfectly fine with, but then theres things that I'd expect him to be fine with that he gets very cautious over. Like if I slap my hand on a box of soda's he'll slink away like he's scared, but if I drop a loud metal bowl on the ground he ignores it. Things that he used to be afraid of he's ok with now, like he didnt like the big plastic trash cans outside because one of them fell over near him, he doesn't care about them now, n he used to not wanna walk by or jump over the big storm drains in the side of the road, now he'll jump up onto the sidewalk right over them or go investigate the noises of rushing water. But if I shake out a trash bag he goes into the other room till I stop shaking the bag, he's alot better about this since I gave him the trash bag n let him play with it n tear it to shreds one day (making sure he didn't start eating the plastic ofcourse).

What I do notice about his behavior is that when he starts barking at someone suspicious he seems to forget all about what else is going on, I'd be very curious to see how he'd react to my helper agitating him in defense (which is very hard to do, the only way we've managed to do this so far is to not let Cujo see the helper prior to training, then go somewhere n have him come at us from a distance in the dark where Cujo can't identify that it's the helper) then have a 3rd person make some kinda noises in the background from a distance - I think he'll ignore the noises and bark at the helper, but his cautious behavior has me questioning his nerves sometimes.

Mike I would not work him in a critical phase, they tend to have strong imprinting, if your helper puts him on the defence and he is not emotionally ready, he could create a long term problem, he could start to develope anxiety around the helper, just be patient this phase should pass , if he has tendency to be on the sharp side then he will always have a qucik reaction, to unknown stimulus but you could help him alot by working through it with him, and expose him to as many different scenarios as possible.I have seen some dogs at our club quartered to early or have a negative interaction with the helper, during the critical phase,
go backwards, in the foundation work, I am also not keen
on early defence work with young dogs, I prefer prey work always first in the foundation period, you can always bring the defence in later..glad to hear he was a lot better
also do not put a lot of pressure on yourself or Cujo expecting him to be doing certain things at certain ages all dogs mature at different rates, be kind to yourself
you could be making a mountain out of a mole hole.. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

You could stop testing him all the time with the loud noise thing. That could be the problem as well. My Shepherd doesn't stay in the room when I am shaking out a trash bag, but gunfire is not a problem. You get the dog you get.

The other thing I was thinking is you live in Florida, right? The wanting to go home thing could be air-conditioning, not just the noise. Something to think about.

I pinpointed what it is that he's freaking out about - and it's really getting on my nerves - there's a construction site accross the road, everytime the dump trucks dump sand, it makes a really loud BANG BANG BANG BANG, n everytime my dog hears it he, well, he doesn't freak out, but he'll pay attention n run to the back of the room and not wanna play with toys. I don't know what to do about it, I thought maybe if he could identify the noise that he'd get over it, so I took him for a walk by the construction site this morning, he was doing great jumping on and off a 2ft brick wall and over a 2ft fence back n forth, he musta done it 40 times this morning, but as soon as the next set of dump trucks came in and started doing their thing he stopped jumping over the fence into the construction site n basically lost all drive.

I must say - his obedience is better than ever when he's scared lol, but it's a highly annoying thing to me because it's so irrational n there's nothing I can do about it. People say "combat fear with food", ha, not this dog, he hasn't even pooped since yesterday morning, I'm pretty sure it's because of his anxiety.

On the plus side, he just started barking out the window at someone walking by my driveway n he seemed to totally forget about the dump truck noises, I suppose that's a good thing.

Well at least you have identified the problem, the thing is how long will they be doing,the construction? Just short of buying him mufflers you are in for the ride, I would not feed for fear response, and I would take Jeff's advice and not keep exposing him unecessarily to the "noise",this could compound it, you are one fastidious guy, leave it alone for a couple of days and see how it goes...
If you must try putting a radio on loud or a TV to drown
the background noise out so it not quite so loud..
And no hard rock hey!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />