Quote: Cheri Grissom

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I mentioned earlier that he's scared to go in buildings. It's not possible to take him to the vet for "practice visits." Before the pandemic, I could have just taken him there often to get him used to it. I did get him into a pet store, but he was pretty stressed.

I also found out he's scared of drive-through windows. I'm not sure how I can desensitize him to this, since I very rarely get fast food. I had pulled up to the menu board where you place your order, pulled to the first window to pay, turned around to look at him in the back, and saw that he was shaking like a leaf.

He actually seems to be stressed any time we are in the car in a congested area. He's not bad at all if we are driving along, but pulling into any parking lots where there are lots of cars and people milling about will get him shaking.

I welcome any suggestions I haven't thought of besides continuing to try to desensitize him on all of these issues.

Also, I'd love to hear what everyone else is doing with their dogs this summer, formal training, informal training, or just for fun.

Any progress in these areas, Cheri?

I sure would like to hear, too.

The one thing I thought might present some desensitizing opportunities was the stress around congested traffic. That seems to suggest some well-planned brushes with and then withdrawal from vehicle congestion.

The drive-through issue might be worked with at a bank drive-through ...

Are you thinking that he might've been involved in a car accident? And I guess it's possible that the entering-buildings thing could be connected ... or entirely separate ...

Very true, Bob. Wait until you get the wife a miniature.

Connie, I was thinking bank drive thru also or I would probably make a point to drive thru ,at least once a week,a food establishment, grab a coffee, something, and toss him a high value reward . You could bring your own treat . I am guessing he gets freaked by those obnoxiously loud speakers, and the scream to place an order. I do get my my dogs something at the drive thru, then I have to train them that we don’t stop every time

You could do mock sessions and drive thru when they are closed.

 Quote: Tammy Moore

Connie, I was thinking bank drive thru also or I would probably make a point to drive thru ,at least once a week,a food establishment, grab a coffee, something, and toss him a high value reward . You could bring your own treat . I am guessing he gets freaked by those obnoxiously loud speakers, and the scream to place an order. I do get my my dogs something at the drive thru, then I have to train them that we don’t stop every time

You could do mock sessions and drive thru when they are closed.

I like this, Tammy.

I always start desensitizing at a non-reactive level. Driving through a closed drive-thru, including stopping where you stop when it's open, sounds like a perfect first step. Then step by step to the real experience. I like the small but high-value reward even when it's a closed drive-thru ... good to associate the experience with excellent rewards.

I've been giving thought to the details of briefly experiencing a congested area. Maybe it will require a particular area -- one with "escape" routes into parking lots or onto side roads.

Thanks, Tammy and Connie for the new suggestions. I see it's been about three weeks since I last posted, and I've not had a lot of opportunity to to work on the desensitizing.

Since I last posted, I did get discouraged about taking him to my usual park for walks. He had been doing well, but then the last couple walks we took, he seemed to regress a bit and was showing signs of stress and fear, just walking down the blacktop path. He's constantly looking around to see who's there (usually nobody). If he sees a person far away, he can't relax, has to keep looking. If a tree limb makes a noise in the woods, he's looking around worriedly. Interestingly, the one thing he's not the least bit bothered by is people riding bikes past us.

I don't want to force him to go for walks at the park if he really doesn't care for it and it's causing him stress. We have acreage that I often walk around, and he really enjoys that, so I've taken a break from the park until I can figure out how to handle it.

To add to my challenges, a second dog joined our household about a week ago, a six-year-old female Doberman. She's very laid-back, easy-going, and dog-friendly. I wasn't sure how Hunter would behave since I've not had much opportunity to see him interacting with other dogs. I had been told by the rescue that he lived with another dog in his previous household and got along fine. He was also fine when my sister who lives up north came down for a visit one day and brought her dog.

We had been planning to get a second dog all along, and I had been thinking that maybe it would be a positive influence on him if it was a calm, confident dog. That seems to be the case with the new girl.

We've only taken the two of them together in the car one time so far, but we had to stop at a gas station. I stayed in the car while my husband pumped gas. Hunter was very interested in the other people he saw outside, pumping their own gas, but not in a stressed way.

So, just baby steps for now. Letting the two dogs get used to living with one another. Will do more car rides with the two of them and start to go to places like drive-through restaurants, shopping center parking lots, etc. Maybe when I take him/them to the park next time, we'll just get out of the car and sit at a picnic table for a bit and watch people go by from a distance.

P.S. I don't have any reason to believe he's ever been in a car accident. What I do wonder about is whether he's remembering when he was taken to a busy county animal shelter, taken out of the car, into the building, and unceremoniously left there, never to see his family again.