Anxiety When Outside?

[DiCavfan]

Hi everyone, my greyhound Bambi has been with us for 7 weeks.  She has had a partial tail amputation in that time, which is still in the healing process.  She is fine in the house and garden, but as soon as she exits the premises, immediately she won't take a treat.  She seems to be on high alert all the time, and can't relax when out.  It's clear she is somewhat noise-phobic, doesn't like noisy buses or motorbikes.  She is pretty indifferent to other dogs when out, and indeed people.  She's just "in the zone".  Can't treat train her because she is so anxious.  Any ideas?

[greysmom]

If you're not forced to take her outside the house for toileting, I would just stop.  She's been with you such a short time (and with additional trauma) that she's still really just settling in and adjusting to her new life.  Let her decompress for a bit longer before working her around to going out in the world.

Remember, she's *never* seen a bus, or motorbike, or anything that makes loud noises on the street before in her life.  Why wouldn't she be frightened by them???  And forcing her to be in the middle of all the noise and movement and commotion of even a quiet (to us) suburban street won't help at this point.  You have a garden, so don't worry about taking her for exercise walks for a bit.  Play with her outside, and let her get used to the noises from a distance for a while.

Once she's truly settled in to home life, you can start to SLOWLY introduce her to street noises.  Just stand inside the house (on leash, obviously) with the door open, giving her YUMMY treats!  You may need to up your treat value significantly in the beginning, and/or use a very high value treat only for this training.  Once she can do that step, stand outside on the stoop.  Then down the walk.  Then on the sidewalk.  Etc, etc,etc!  Until she can actually feel comfortable walking out the front door.

Lots of time and patience!!!!  And relax and enjoy each others company!

Good luck!

[HeyRunDog]

Been there with Grace and as greysmom said slowly introduce her to the traffic noise. I would walk Grace towards the end of my quiet road until she just began to feel uncomfortable with the noise of the traffic on the main road. I would then just stand still ignoring Grace for a few minutes then turn back and either go home or continue our walk in a quieter area. I wouldn't give her any treats or praise until we had turned back so she wasn't being rewarded for being afraid. Every couple of days we would go a little closer and repeat the exercise.

After a couple of weeks she would totally ignored the traffic unless a particularly noisy motorbike went past. Now very little traffic noise frightens her. Just got to get her not to be frightened of the sound of children screaming especially if they are kicking a ball

[hudsy]

I’ve been working on the same agoraphobia issues with my Grey I’ve had since February. As previous posters mentioned, best thing to do is to take your time and don’t force it, but do challenge the dog little by little to expand their comfort zone. 
 

I found the backyard a pretty ideally way to allow them to safely experience street sounds while still having an escape route back inside.

 

Worth mentioning, they might start being fearful when they even see you going for the leash, if that’s the case slip it on them and give treats and praise for indoor walks, then if you have an entry way or garage works as a next step (since it’s “outside”, but not full outside).