[Ben]

I wouldn’t put the crates outside for a number of reasons. But I think the trainer’s idea is to expose them to the “outside world” in a way that doesn’t stimulant them as much as the mall does. Basically they need to work their way up to being in a place as busy as the mall. There are lots of options. Anywhere where they will come across other people, cars, dogs, bikes, skateboards, etc. Ideally not everything at once. A park with other dogs / people may be a good place to start, and parks are nice b/c there are lots of space. The idea is to take them somewhere that triggers their fear and make it a positive experience, and then they’ll learn there’s nothing to be scared of. It sounds like their fear is genetic since they have had such a nice upbringing. My dog is naturally more suspicious / fearful also. He used to be scared of skateboards but now it’s not a big deal. He still doesn’t like them but he can deal with it, and if he gets to worked up I can give him a heel, focus, or sit command. The fear may not ever go away but they can learn to obey you in the midst of being scared and that is reassuring to them.

[Fiona]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the tips, I agree I should try other ways before putting the crates outside, read somewhere that best time to socialize puppies are the first four months, I did try to do more socialization around third month, but seems still not enough, might be a little bit late now at 9 months?

[Ben]

9 months is a great time to start. Robert did a podcast with Avi Cohen and Avi talked about buying a 18 month old or so german shepherd that lived on a farm it’s whole life – essentially it had no “socialization.” But he took the dog through an airport and had no problems – the dog remained confident and calm in the face of all the new stimuli. It prompts the question what is the value of early socialization. That’s a big topic on it’s own, but my point is that your dogs probably aren’t acting fearful because they didn’t get socialized enough. It’s probably more their personality, driven by their genetics. You may well be better off having not done the typical home depot socializing trips all the time. But a lack of socialization wouldn’t be hard to overcome at 9 months with gradual exposure. If you’re dealing with a genetic issue it will probably be something that never goes away fully, but you can certainly control and manage it. Either way gradual, structured exposure is the place to start.

[Ed]

I agree with Ben. One perhaps silly idea might be to have a TV on showing common life scenes and traffic. Something like a Law and Order marathon 😂

[oldSAP-Charlie]

I also agree with Ben. Desensitizing the dogs little by little. I’d start with just walking the dogs outside with minimal people/cars/activities initially. Then slowly and gradually go to areas with a little bit more activities (a tad busier street then where they’re used to.) Ans so on.