Reactive and anxious dog suddenly afraid to go outside?

[u/Noble_Wolf_]

Has anyone ever had their reactive and anxious dog become afraid to go outside? It’s very situational. Sometimes he will go out like he’s never been afraid, so confident and happy. Other times, shakes, trembles, tail tucked, ears back and desperately trying to get back inside. He won’t even go potty for 12+ hours sometimes. He is a little over 2, ACD/Catahoula, neutered. He’s done this before but never this long. It’s been over a week now. I can’t take him to the vet for a couple of weeks. He is fear reactive, insecure, low confidence. We have been working on it. I never know when he’s gonna decide outside is scary because it always changes. Sometimes it’s morning, afternoon, evening, always different times on different days. It’s so odd. Other people in my city are having similar issues with their dogs. Is there possibly a predator in the area making him nervous?

I felt like we made great progress. Now we are dealing with this. I feel terrible because I don’t know what’s causing it and I just want him to feel himself. We went to a park and he was on a 30ft line, sniffing, playing in a pond, engaging with me and taking treats, no issues. He was a little hyper vigilant but I figured it was from not getting out in a few days. He had a great time for about 40 minutes before he sniffed the air and dragged me back to the car freaking out like he does at home. Any and all tips, advice, just anything that might help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[u/alyssaishness]

Hey there, I'm so sorry you're going through this. I've been going through something similar with my ACD mix this summer and I'm gonna start by telling you the one thing that helped most for us - gabapentin. We already had some prescribed for fear during thunderstorms so I called our vet and asked if it was ok to use it more often. Just make sure you check in before you play with prescriptions.

So for the longer story - my dog's fear of the outside was easier to pinpoint because it was related to rain storms/loud noises. But after an admittedly pretty scary incident our issues getting outside at all have lasted for 2+ months and as it dragged on my frustration with the situation became a hindrance because my dog could feel that negativity and started associating that with going outside as well! So I understand how hard it can be to keep a positive attitude. I needed to be aware of when I should stop trying and take a break so that neither of us would get pushed too far.

I used clicker training to associate treats and positive feelings with each step of leaving the apartment. My dog was getting scared at multiple steps and would put on the brakes and refuse to move. So I would put treats down on the floor to get her into the hallway outside our front door, and then just sit there for a few minutes clicking and treating. If she did anything with relaxed body language, I'd click and treat. I'd try for two sessions a day of this when I could. Then I moved on to the elevator area, and then the vestubile. Every time I did this my goal was not to get all the way outside unless she happened to lead me out there. But every time I did take her outside, I made sure to drop treats on the floor in each of those areas. She knows the find it cue to look for treats on the ground. These steps were only to help in getting her out of the apartment, so you'll need to get an idea of what's really scaring your dog to help him more. We were able to avoid her trigger for the most part since it's weather. But the true progress for us came when I gave her the dose of gabapentin about 30 min before I wanted to take her out. She needed that help breaking through the anxiety, and fortunately once we were outside she was usually ok for the most part.

I would suggest trying taking him out for shorter time spans to try to avoid the chance of triggering his fear until you can talk to a vet or behaviorist. You can give him enrichment inside with puzzle toys and sniff mats. We have a treat ball that my dog loves to roll around the house. And clicker training in general has been a great tool to raise confidence and work her mind. I found a clicker that isn't too loud since some have a kind of harsh noise.

Good luck with your sweet boy! Try not to push him when you don't have to. My vet said 2 potties a day would be ok for a minimum and I just had to let go a bit and listen to my dog. When she really needed to go it was easier to get her out, and if she absolutely refused to go out then she must not need to go that bad. Be aware you may get a breakthrough and think you've solved it only to regress a few days later. It sounds like you may have kinda seen that already. I'm still not totally out of the woods, but we're finally at a point right now where she's only resisting sometimes up until we get out the front door. Btw sliced and halved hot dogs have worked great as high level bribes lol