banana46

Thank you both! Yes, I was worried that by holding off on walks after a big fright I was teaching him that the noises were in fact something to be afraid of! At the start I was definitely guilty of trying comforting him when he was afraid. I'm glad to hear that I can keep trying to get him out of the house daily (even if he only lasts a minute). We're working on 'look at me' at the moment, so that's a great tip. I shall also try my best to exude confidence and hopefully that'll rub off on him! And we'll definitely take him for an adventure with the walking group in that case. Hopefully he'll get out of the car despite the noises if he sees a bunch of greyhounds! Also, his name is Fig :-)

I've read through almost every post I can find about fear of noises/spooks etc., but haven't really found a situation that completely matches what I'm experiencing with my new grey. We've had him for six amazing weeks. We've bonded so well and he's the absolute perfect dog inside our apartment. He loves to play with us and give us cuddles and has shown no signs of sleep startle/aggression etc. When we first met him, he ran up to us and licked our faces/ran around us in circles. We didn't walk him for a whole week, as recommended by the adoption agency. However, we did take him for little walks through the apartment complex we live in so that he could suss out his environment and pee(we have a courtyard with a garden, which we let him use as a bathroom as well, but the dog pee smell soon got so intense and nothing we tried would make it go away!! And don't get met started on the flies!!). Anyway, at first, he was completely unbothered by everything: traffic noises, people, barking dogs did not phase him and he would just keep walking and sniffing. If he saw a person, he would try to sniff them and was so, so confident. After we waited a week, we tried a few short walks and they went really well. Then on one walk about two weeks in, we ran into a few problems. He witnessed his first electric bike and a screaming child who ran up to him with her arms out. This was all in one walk in the space of about 5 minutes (and on our way home as well). He was absolutely freaked out. He doesn't freeze, but tries to bolt when something scares him (sidenote: because of this, we now use a no-pull harness, which has been a lifesaver). As I know that you need to wait for dogs' cortisol levels to come down after such a terrifying experience, we waited several days to attempt another walk, but he was now much more fearful of everything. So, we decided to do late night walks instead so that the chances of us running into anybody would be much slimmer. This was going really, really well. He was becoming confident again and marking his territory left and right. He was beginning to get into a routine and letting US know when it was time to go for a walkies and jumping out of his skin with excitement when it was time to go (tail wagging and even the odd zoomie in our living room when we said the magic 'walkies' word and got the harness/leash out). But then, one night a couple of weeks ago, we were just out of the apartment complex and an extremely loud car went past a few streets away. It was one of those ones that has been decked out to sound like fireworks are coming out the back of it. Needless to say, it absolutely terrified him and he ran all the way home, basically dragging me along the road to get there. Now, he basically won't go further than 10 metres out our door without coming home as soon as he hears any noise whatsoever or sees a person. I don't know why he's decided he's afraid of people as well. We have been having some success driving him to a really quiet spot a few suburbs away where there's a walking track that's not near any roads. He absolutely loved doing that until yesterday when he heard an electric gate opening and freaked out. We've also tried taking him far out into the country suburbs of the city we live in, but no matter where you go, there's always some car or motorbike that drives past, so we can never really seem to completely avoid a noise that he doesn't like. He'd never been fostered or anything and he's quite young (1 year, 8 months), so I am aware that this is all new for him and obviously very overwhelming. He was living in an extremely rural area before moving in with us far, far away from civilisation, from what we understand. Another caveat: even though he mostly gets scared on walks and wants to come home, he still gets really excited to GO, even if the walk ends up lasting all of 20 seconds before he freaks out. One of the biggest issues we have is that he's not particularly food motivated. He won't eat if he's really scared, which I believe is pretty normal. He also won't eat if he's enjoying his walk!!! When he's in happy sniffy mode, he has absolutely no interest in even the highest value treats (BBQ chicken, cheese, hot dogs - we've tried it all!). This makes it really hard for us to reward him for doing well on walks. It doesn't matter whether he's hungry or not - he seems to find sniffing the world more rewarding than tasty treats!! Also might be worth mentioning that even when he freaks out on a walk, as soon as we return home, he returns immediately to his happy, loving self. The sad thing is that when we do have a successful walk, the effect it has on his mood is so amazing to see. We know that it's a slow process and that with time, he will probably improve. However, I want to make sure that we're doing the right thing for him. Due to our working schedules, we have to leave him for about four hours a few days of the week in the morning. We've installed cameras, so we know he doesn't mind this and literally just sleeps the whole time. However, I do worry that he may experience separation anxiety or isolation distress at some point and if we can't tire him out by walking him in the morning, he might become destructive or injure himself somehow while we're gone. We leave him with food enrichment things, but you never know what might happen. Anyway, I was wondering if anybody has experienced a similar situation or would be able to give us some advice. If he freaks out on a walk, should we wait several days every time or keep trying, but keep the walks so short that he the chances of hearing a scary noise are greatly reduced (there's always some motorbike or person talking loudly, so scary noises are somewhat unavoidable)? Is it worth taking him out our gate every day and letting him decide when we come back inside? Or is that too much for him? Any advice on what to do when he bolts? Should we let him go in the direction he wants to go? Obviously we don't want to force him to stay near whatever's scaring him, but should we let him escape the situation but turn him in a different direction than the one he wants to go in? We've been trying everything the adoption place suggested, but it just seems to get worse or at least stay the same. (Sidenote: we are planning on meeting up with a friend who has a greyhound, but their greyhound isn't particularly confident on walks, so I'm not sure if that'll help that much. There's also a greyhound walking group near us, but they tend to go to parks and places that are pretty busy, so I'm not sure if that's the best idea either to build his confidence).