My other dachshunds were always brave and not afraid of anything. Oscar is afraid of his shadow. Really! When we go out at night with a flashlight, I have to be very careful where it shines because if he sees a shadow, mine or his, he wants to run back inside.
He was afraid of the potato bags when I set them out.
Vince dug holes to plant the poles for the tomato trellis and he stuck 5 gallon buckets in the holes to keep them from filling up with water. Oscar walks through a maize of 5 gallon buckets in the downstairs garage but yet those three new ones in the yard scared him and he didn’t even want to walk on that side of the house.
So far, his food and water bowls were just regular bowls sitting on the floor but I bought a cute little dog stand today with a holder for his food and water bowls so they’ll be up off the floor and better for his neck. I washed the bowls, filled them, put them in the stand, and put in where his previous food/water bowls were.
He went to get food and water. I wasn’t even thinking about him noticing it was something new but he did and stopped in his tracks, started backing up and growling. Then he began barking at it. I had to coax him over there to get a bite of food but any little movement or noise and he about jumped out of his skin.
It didn’t take but a few minutes before he was comfortable eating and drinking out of the new bowls cut I think it’s funny what a chicken he is.
I always felt like Speck was such a good watch dog. He was so brave and if anyone tried to get close to me, Speck would have died before he would have let them get near me. I can see Oscar running away if a stranger came in the house.
Today we were out and the water meter guy came by. Oscar was all excited to see him so maybe he’s not afraid of humans . . just afraid of everything else.
Shauna Trueblood says
When I got puppies once I was told to expose them to as much as possible while they were young. Noises, car rides, people, anything and everything. The more I exposed them to the less afraid they would be. And it did work, they were not afraid of much, they loved riding in the car, they accepted people easily, and the only thing they really barked at were kids in the park across the street, but I think that was because they wanted to go play with them. I will say I learned that taking the min the car a lot really helped, they never were afraid of it. My sister-in-law has a dog terrified of the car no matter where they go.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Our dogs have never been afraid of riding in the car and I think it’s because they’ve always ridden in the car. Once we took the car through one of those super duper drive thru car washes and I truly thought Speck was going to have a heart attack but we’ll just not go through car washes with Oscar.
One of my concerns is that Rita is deathly afraid of thunder and she goes into a full panic when it thunders and I don’t want Oscar to learn that behavior. Today it thundered a good bit. Rita went into panic mode and Oscar stayed close to her like he was trying to comfort her and he never acted afraid.
Shauna Trueblood says
I have had a dog scared of storms, he just never got comfortable. Both dogs I have now are scared of storms but I have found cdb oil/hemp oil really does help. In fact we had major storms tonight, but I got the oil into them before it started, and while it bothered both of them they were not in panic mode like they normally are. In fact my lab only had some labored breathing, he didn’t do his normal I have to sit on you during a storm routine. My little dog slept by my chair almost like it wasn’t happening. He did whimper once when we got some hail. Luckily we did not get a tornado, but it looks like we may have had several in the area.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Stay safe. I did try the cbd oil for Rita and it didn’t help. I’m sad to say that she seems to be losing her hearing a bit so unless the thunder gets really noisy, she’s been sleeping through it.
Hope the weather didn’t do too much destruction in your area.
Nelle Coursey says
I think he will be ok when he gets older. He is still exploring this new wild world! I think he will be as protective as Speck.
Sandi says
I have 2 little doxies and one is afraid of storms but that’s all. Yours is adorable! Hugs,
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Thanks. I was really concerned Oscar would learn that fear from Rita so hopefully he will not. It’s so hard on her when we have thunder and I never want another dog to go through that.