# I think my dog is becoming skittish



## AdamB (Sep 13, 2011)

Like the title says, my girl is just over a year old now. She has never showed any signs of being skittish until recently. We live on a busy street in a big city, and across from a fire station, so loud noises are a daily occurrence. Rosey has never acted fearfully until this past week. 

A few days ago we were walking on the street and a women was walking her dog next to us. The other dog was pretty big, I think it was one of those fluffy long-haired french dogs with ears that look like pig tails. After we established that our dogs were both friendly (Rosey hasn't shown any signs of DA yet), we let them sniff each other. But the dogs just stood there and then Rosey took off running away, like she was scared. My girlfriend and I have never seen her do something like that.

Then yesterday, we were out for a walk and we were walking past a truck that was loading some stuff using the electric lift on the back. It made knda of a loud nouse as we were next to it and it scared the  out of Rosey, causing her to try to run in the other direction. I was only able to get her to walk passed it with some coaxing and some treats. There are another couple of minor examples of where she got scared by a loud noise too.

My question is: is it common for a dog to become a little skittish as they get older? She never had a problem with this as a puppy and we've only noticed this just recently. Is this something I need to really work on? or is just reassuring her when it happens good enough? Any advice is appreciated.


----------



## pitifull (Apr 27, 2012)

My Am. Bulldog grew up at the vet clinic that I worked at and he was fine. When I
He hit about a year he started to hate it and would shake in his britches. He is thee years old now and is still that way. I'm no expert but I think that as the mature, certain characteristics will shine through that were not visible when they were a pup


----------



## pitifull (Apr 27, 2012)

I would try and work on it now and get it under control through positive training and repetition, but you have to be careful not to make it worse by using the wrong methods


----------



## AdamB (Sep 13, 2011)

Thanks for the response. I think you're right. I'm going to try to nip this in the bud before it becomes a problem. She super food-motivated, so I'll just have to be sure to carry treats with us on ours walks. Loud noises are unavoidable when living in the city so I'll need to keep working on getting her used to it.


----------



## Celestial88 (Mar 14, 2011)

As said, genetics will often not show through until they're older. My boy was actually rather fearful around 1 year, had a hard time at events, he's perfectly fine now at 2.


----------



## VaBeachTennis (Dec 17, 2011)

Since we are on this subject, I will add my dog's story. She's 7.5 months and intact (she will be spayed next week). She was very outgoing, able to adjust to new surroundings, and stable as a 12 week old (and younger) puppy. At about 5 months or six months she started showing signs of shyness with some people and shyness and submissiveness with dogs. These behaviors usually last for about 20 to thirty seconds and then she becomes very outgoing with the people she met and domineering and playful with the dogs she was initially submissive to. What I have seen is that she needs a LOT of socialization with people and animals. 
Has anyone ever had a dog like this and a similar experience with the breed, age, and sex of the dog? If so, how did she turn out after the 1 year old mark?


----------

