Nervous Reaction (to A Wheelbarrow!)

[spooksnscout]

I had an interesting walk with Scout this morning.

She pretends to be quite a confident young lady, but does tend to be a bit nervous at times :wub: . We were on one of our regular routes along a very quiet farm track, where we rarely meet anyone. This morning however, the farmer appeared, pushing a wheelbarrow. He left the barrow on the track and disappeared back into his farmyard. Scout stopped in her tracks and refused to walk towards the offending, and obviously VERY SCARY barrow (w00t) . After a few minutes of snorting, she barked several short sharp barks at it, but would not walk towards it - we were about 25 yards away from it. Then she tried running backwards (thank goodness for martingale collars, because she would have definitely done a bunk if she could!).

There was absolutely no way she was ever going to walk past the barrow even with handfuls of tasty snacks as encouragement, so in the end, and much to the amusement of the farmer who had by now reappeared, I picked her up and carried her past :clown:

I've never experienced anything like this before with her. She will stop stock still and stare at things quite regularly, but after a few minutes is ready to go on. Today she was having none of it!

Did I do the right thing by carrying her past it? Once past it, she was quite happy to go back and sniff it (it contained his recycling, so probably smelled quite tasty :teehee: )

 

[Suerose]

Isn't it funny what spooks them? When Grace was young she was alarmed by things she didn't understand - like a man on his shed roof! :unsure: And she would bark then too. I think it was fine that you carried her past, it showed that you weren't afraid of it and so she didn't need to be either, and then it sounds like she found the courage to investigate a bit. Grace does a lot of stopping and staring as well, rather sweet except when I am in a hurry :wub:

 

[kayoneill]

I had an interesting walk with Scout this morning.
She pretends to be quite a confident young lady, but does tend to be a bit nervous at times :wub: . We were on one of our regular routes along a very quiet farm track, where we rarely meet anyone. This morning however, the farmer appeared, pushing a wheelbarrow. He left the barrow on the track and disappeared back into his farmyard. Scout stopped in her tracks and refused to walk towards the offending, and obviously VERY SCARY barrow (w00t) . After a few minutes of snorting, she barked several short sharp barks at it, but would not walk towards it - we were about 25 yards away from it. Then she tried running backwards (thank goodness for martingale collars, because she would have definitely done a bunk if she could!).

There was absolutely no way she was ever going to walk past the barrow even with handfuls of tasty snacks as encouragement, so in the end, and much to the amusement of the farmer who had by now reappeared, I picked her up and carried her past :clown:

I've never experienced anything like this before with her. She will stop stock still and stare at things quite regularly, but after a few minutes is ready to go on. Today she was having none of it!

Did I do the right thing by carrying her past it? Once past it, she was quite happy to go back and sniff it (it contained his recycling, so probably smelled quite tasty :teehee: )

It worked for you, that's the main. No point making a drama out of a situation that may never recurr . At least it's easily done and over with. They are funny what does and doesn't phase them. It'll be interesting if she remembers the experience and get any anticipatory anxiety next time you are on that route. Bet the farmer is still chuckling .

 

[haycroft]

how funny

ive experiance some of this with my young lucy

once, after a walk we popped into a pub BUT there was a scary lion statue outside(only a little one)

she was snorting ,pulling back and was really frightened,encourage her with treats but in the end i just brought my other whippy up with her to have a loook then she felt confident enough to sniff it

another time i was walking her on her own along a pavement and alady was coming by way with a cat basket and again she stood still and was so anxious and frighten by this this..as the lady got closer i had ask if she could stop and allow lucy to sniff(luckily it was empty),she was still wery of it though and kept looking back to see if it was following us

arent they funny..both my first and second whippys were so bold and nothing fases them but Lucy totally different she can get quite nervery

i dont like to pick them up but at times for saftey its best to

hopefully the wheelbarrow wont be so scary next time