Bridge Fear / traffic shy / bolting dog

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Ocelot0411
Posts: 593
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 7:30 am

Bridge Fear / traffic shy / bolting dog

Post by Ocelot0411 »

After a long absence (for reasons I will not bore you with) I am back, so a big 'hello' to those I already know on here :D

As you will see from the title, I have a bit of a problem and I am unsure as to a) what the problem is and b) what to do about it. I am afraid this is a bit of an odd one so please bear with me.

This began when I was on holiday for a wek and my mum very kindly looked after Ellie for me in my house. My step dad and mum took Ellie for a walk down by the canal near my house, by a canal bridge. They got Ellie on to the side of the canal, at a good distance from the road and let her off the lead, just as I would have done. Apparantly she absolutely freaked at something (they couldn't see what it was or determine what had scared her and she bolted. She paid no attention to them calling her back (too freaked out by something) and she ran into the road. Fortunately the road was not particularly busy and the oncoming traffic which eventually arrived stopped whislt my mum got a hold of her and they vowed never to take her there again.

I had this story related to me when I got home and my mum asked if something had happened to her in that area or had she behaved strangely down there before. I replied that she sometimes would sit at the side of the road when I needed to cross it (on the lead at this stage obviously) which was in the bridge area but that she always came eventually with a bit of persausion and it had never really occurred to me that it was a big problem. I was very surprised at this behaviour as Ellie's recall has a;ways been great and I was surprised to hear that she had been so freaked that she had ignored them. I put it down as 'one off' and hoped it wouldn't happen again.

About a week later I was walking Ellie down the side of the canal (off her lead) and we were walking towards the road and the bridge. We were some way from the road (long before I would call her back to put her on the lead to cross the bridge) when suddenedly she bolted - totally freaked out. She bombed right down the side of the canal down to the road and straight through a fairly narrow gap under the fence that I usually have to coax her through. By the time I caught up (she ignored / didn't hear my calls) she was racing up the busy road on the pavement. She finally responded to my calls and turned around and started to come back to me. Unfortunately at this stage she was on the other side of the road to me. I couldn't get across the road because of the traffic and sure enough she ran straight infront of an oncoming van which hit her. Awful though this was she was VERY lucky indeed as the van caught her back end as she ran diagonally in front of it and it more clipped her than hit her. There was no damage done other than to both our nerves.

Now I know someone is going to say 'how stupid calling her back when your on one side of the road and she's on the other' but please understand I was in a flat panic at this stage and not thinking straight at all. I did also try to get the traffic to stop but to no avail. Anyway its done now and there is nothing more I can do about it, although I probably did it all wrong.

Now before this Ellie had never been particularly traffic shy - although its often difficult to tell with her as sometime she spooks and you never really know why, she has always been a bit highly strung. Now however she had a reason to be traffic shy and I expected the worst. However the very next day we walked along a quiet road for a little distance and she was fine and has been ever since. This is what makes me think it could be to do with this area.

Since then we have had two incidents - the first was when we were walking over a canal bridge somewhere else. Again she tried to bolt (but was on the lead) so couldn't but she was petrified and I had a job to control her. The next was yesterday in the area where the orginal incident happened. Obviously I am now very careful anywhere near a road and make sure she is on the lead way before a danger zone. However on crossing the brdge over the canal she freaked out again and tried to bolt. Again I struggled to control her. We ended up with her dragging me away from the road to the side of the canal wher she sat shaking like a leaf refusing to move. I didn't know how I was going to get her to move. When she is in this state she is too scared to eat so food is useless as are any of her toys. i really cannot distract her. its all rather upsetting.

Now again i am guessing many of you more experienced folk are going to say - 'I would need to see this - get a behaviourist to go out with you' and I am on to it. I am going to ask my trainer Lynda to come out with us and see the reaction I get so she can hopefully determind what the trigger is and obviously try to help us, but I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this, as I have had several myself. Some of these are as follows

1) something has happened to her in this area that I don't know about - when she has been with my dog walker maybe? I have asked the question and have been told no but I guess I will never know

2) can Ellie smell something - hear something that my senses won't pick up that is freaking her out?

3) is it possible for dogs to not like bridges? I find this a bit difficult to comprehand as there are so many different types of bridges that I wouldn't be convinced that Ellie would have a concept of 'bridge'

4) could it just be that bridges are narrow and as such traffic passes closely and therefore she just doesn't like traffic?

Any suggestions thoughs would be appreciated guys.

Thanks
emmabeth
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Post by emmabeth »

Eee, crumbs! I was just wondering how you guys were doing the other day, sorry to hear of Ellies accident - and I know what you mean about blind panic and calling a dog back and then realising too late that they are crossing a busy road to get back to you! I have done exactly the same thing.

It is entirely possible that theres something about that bridge that upsets her.. something she can hear or smell that you cant - is it in a particularly windy area? Sometimes the wind can cause funny sounds blowing through/over a bridge.


I think for now id avoid walking that way, and concentrate on doing lots of positive, confidence building things like clicker training - first fun stuff and then perhaps some stuff geared more towards teaching better self control and distance commands such as stop and a distance down.

I definately agree with you having someone see exactly whats going on as well, another pair of eyes on a situation is always good.

Anyway - good to have you back on here and hugs for the Doberpig!
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Mattie
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Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2007 5:21 am

Post by Mattie »

lovely to hear from you again but sorry about Ellie Phant, hindsight is wonderful, pity we don't have it first but then it wouldn't be hindsight. :lol:

I agree with Em, at the moment keep her away. Do you know if she has a problem with her eyesight?

In situations were she freezes in panic, TTouch will help.
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Fundog
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Post by Fundog »

Ocelot, I actually have personal experience of what your Ellie is going through. My Annie has had a fear of bridges and piers, busy crosswalks, etc. And although she has improved immensely through great patience, she still has a big problem with metal sidewalk covers and storm drains, meter covers, etc. She will not step on them, but will pull away to sidestep or go around, or, if it's small enough, will even leap over it. I don't know why she has this phobia, but she has had it for all the five years I've had her.

However, let me tell you how we've gotten over the bigger problems, which are the bridges and intersections. With the intersections, at first I had to pick her up and carry her (she was just a pup then, so I could). Nothing bad happened to us while I carried her, so then she would walk on lead, with a lot of coaxing. Mostly at first I only walked her across quieter side streets, with less traffic-- she was okay with that. I would walk her down the path parallel to the busy parkway, but not cross it at all. When she got used to all the cars whizzing by, she started to relax more. Another thing I think helps it that whenever we get to a street corner, I tell her to "wait" before crossing. We both watch the cars pass by, and eventually (it took several months) she began to trust that I would never lead her into the street in front of oncoming traffic. Also, on the quieter, smaller crosswalks, I often would practice with her, just crossing back and forth several times, over and over, before continuing with our walk. I praised her everytime she crossed without stopping.

Now for bridges and piers: There was a time when she absolutely would not step on these, no matter what. If I unclipped her leash and tried walking on, she would not follow me. Instead, she stood on the bank and barked at me to come back. Instead, what I had to do was take her to a wooded path with a very small bridge crossing a creek. I picked her up and carried her across, praising her for staying calm in my arms. Later I set her down on the bridge, halfway across. She had nowhere else to go. I kept a hand on her for reassurance, and just kept talking to her. It took a few minutes, but then she realized we were still okay, and nothing bad had happened. After she began to relax, I was able to coax her the rest of the way across. The next time I took her to a larger bridge, unclipped the leash, and just walked across, while whistling for her to follow. Annie did not feel comfortable being left behind, so she followed. And that was that. She has no more problem with bridges. But she still will not step on any metal sidewalk covers or storm drains.

Admittedly, the methods I described to you were used long before I had ever heard of Victoria Stillwell. If I had seen her show back then, I would have made sure to take some treats with me-- although Annie will not eat when she's nervous, so I don't know that it would have worked or not. Praise and tender reassurance seem to be more calming for my Annie in a fearful circumstance.
Ocelot0411
Posts: 593
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 7:30 am

Post by Ocelot0411 »

Thanks for the welcome back guys, its appreciated and thanks for the sound advice - as always :D .

Mattie, I have just been googling TTouch and seen that there is a course 'Intro to TTouch' on 18th of Jan in north leeds which isn't beyond the realms of reason distance wise (your neck of the woods isn't it?). Its with someone called Janet Finlay - do you or Em know of her and is she any good?

Fundog - thanks for sharing yur story with me and there are indeed some striking similarities there, however Ellie is fine with bridges in woods and parks, so I think our issue is a proximity to traffic one or sometihing about that particular area? :? Ellie has been in traffic ever since she was a pup and we do the sit and wait thing too. She has never been terribly confident in traffic but this 'freaking out' thing seems to be a fairly new development. I do very much take your point though that its largely about confidence building and reassurance. We will keep working at it on much quieter roads away from this area until my trainer can get to us and identify what the issue is.

Thanks again all.

PS Doberpig / Ellie phant is back to her very spoilt - princess like 'peel me a grape mum' ways, so I think she is ok :roll:
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Mattie
Posts: 5872
Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2007 5:21 am

Post by Mattie »

Pm me your email address and I will send you information on how to do TTouch.

There are a lot of people doing TTouch now, I went on a workshop with Marie Miller, she is awsome, she had her back to me when I brought Joe into the hall. Joe is terrifield of dogs and there were 10 of them there and he started to panic, this starts with him shaking all over then develops into screeching and trying to get away, but before he got to this stage, Marie turned round and asked what was wrong.

Marie then told one of her helpers to put a body wrap on him and do TTouch, within 5 minutes Joe was fast asleep totally relaxed and was working with the other dogs for the rest of the afternoon.
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