[KatieandCody]

My rescue pup Cody has fear issues. Is it worth trying agility, or should I wait another year, or just not do it? If he could not be scared, I think he would love it. He is a 20 month old hound/border collie mix.

 

[Criosphynx]

What specifically are his fears? How does he react to them?



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[KatieandCody]

Well.. that's a long list

Men is a specific one, but other that it's just anything new or big and loud. Brroms are terrifying, shadows on the ceiling, moving lamps, skateboards, trampolines, trucks backing up, garbage trucks, rakes, big trash cans, I tried making a low (2 inch) jump out of boxes and a broom, and I did get him to go over it after about half hour of treats.

He reacts by running away if he can. If he can't run, he will cower against my legs, brace backwords if you pull his collar at all, and refuse to get near the offending object.

I try to get him over it by playing with Katie around the object, lots of treats, ignoring him and praising Katie, and doing basic commands to distract him

 

[Criosphynx]

Well.. that's a long list

Men is a specific one, but other that it's just anything new or big and loud. Brroms are terrifying, shadows on the ceiling, moving lamps, skateboards, trampolines, trucks backing up, garbage trucks, rakes, big trash cans, I tried making a low (2 inch) jump out of boxes and a broom, and I did get him to go over it after about half hour of treats.

He reacts by running away if he can. If he can't run, he will cower against my legs, brace backwords if you pull his collar at all, and refuse to get near the offending object.

I try to get him over it by playing with Katie around the object, lots of treats, ignoring him and praising Katie, and doing basic commands to distract him

Those are all wonderful strategies (good job!!)

Two of my dogs started out as you describe, continue what you Have been doing, but perhaps lower the criteria for a while (perhaps reinforce heavily for just looking at an object from far away and then raising the criteria)

What I also found that help were "confidence building" exercises... letting the dog win at tug ALOT, rewarding even minor efforts at anything, one confidence exercise that really worked for my pit bull is to teach the dog to weave or heel between your legs...this is a very scary behavior and once they are comfortatble with it they seem to feel safer with other things too.


If you can countercondition him and desensitize him to most of the things you list, im sure agility could be in his future....its a long road, it took 6 months solid of working on this for one of my dogs to be functional around scary things and all situations.



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