Collect Questions

Can anyone tell me what the age for the 2nd fear period is?

Archie seems to be going through a tiny one... just now we went for a little walk and a bunch of motorbikes zoomed past... he stopped dead and stared, as if he has never seen one before which is a bit weird as he sees them every day...

I don't think he was scared.... more like OMG what's that




The secondary fear imprint period usually occurs at some stage between 6 - 14 months. It may not last for very long. Don't reassure the dog. Keep calm and 'normal' and your behaviour will serve to show the dog that the person/event/noise/object/situation is of no consequence. Continue training through this period so that the dog is confident in your leadership and will be sure that you know what you are doing when you fail to react to 'scary' things




Yep I actually made him heel when this happened to distract him and he did I usually give a couple of commands when he does something like that and he sort of forgets about it... but is the a 'reaction' ?




If all Archie did when he saw the bikes was to stand and stare, then it does not sound like a fear reaction. If he was scared I would have expected some more obvious reaction such as pulling away from them, trying to hide behind you, barking, growling, and in extreme cases peeing, shaking, trembling.

Archie's reaction seems more like interest. If he is used to seeing/hearing motorbikes one or two at a time then the sound/sight of a group would have attracted his attention. He was probably thinking "they should be locked up for making all that racket"

Is he showing any other out-of-character fear/nervousness with familiar objects?




Finn is going through one too at the moment. He is scared of the lolly pop men/women at the schools for crossing the road. He hid behind me and refused to walk forward and yet 5 minutes later we met a traffic warden and he was jumping about to get patted (maybe he knew she was a boxer owner)

Thanks SB now I know to just ignore his behaviour




Yes SB sometimes with little kids who play too rough, and also kids on scooters who race past him although that's quite a wise thing to fear IMO He just scoots to one side a bit when he sees stuff like that, which is ideal I think.

Also a couple of days ago we went to a different park, which I used to take him to when he was smaller, and met a woman with her 3 dogs who used to play with Archie a lot.... well I couldn't believe it but he put his tail right between his legs when he saw them... I ignored him and he got over it after a while though...




BTW isn't 'freezing' also a sign of fear in dogs? I'm sure I read that somewhere?




If you notice you will see that all dogs freeze for an instant when something occurs which occupies their attention or concerns them. Very often the freeze is a precursor to flight or one of the other responses. Some however do remain in the freeze state hoping that whatever disturbs them will go away. Another "F" employed by dogs if to 'fidget' or 'fiddle around'. This is a kind of displacement behaviour designed to shift the focus from one situation to another.




interesting have never heard of this before .




If you notice you will see that all dogs freeze for an instant when something occurs which occupies their attention or concerns them. Very often the freeze is a precursor to flight or one of the other responses. Some however do remain in the freeze state hoping that whatever disturbs them will go away. Another "F" employed by dogs if to 'fidget' or 'fiddle around'. This is a kind of displacement behaviour designed to shift the focus from one situation to another. Very interesting thanks SB

Archie fidgets a lot lol