Claire,

Dogs go through fear periods. The first is very young, 2-4 months, second is during adolescence and the third can happen around 2 years old. Do not coddle him when he exhibits fear of something, this reinforces the need to be afraid. You can leave the item on the floor and let him explore it on his own, maybe leave a really good treat 3 to 4 feet away and let him approach the item to get the treat. Thunderstorms can be a big fear with dogs. Play with him when a storm approaches, work on teaching him tricks, commands, anything to distract him, but do not baby him. Fear is not a happy state of mind so please be careful about reinforcing it.

Good luck

Lynn K

the gate, the vacuum, chairs, anything large being carried, balloons, blowing bags....

That's really funny. We were just talking about it last night - how it works in our favor because he won't go anywhere NEAR the garbage, even if there was a big juicy bone in it! The black plastic is the Boogie Man.

To contribute to the conversation, Grover is afraid of everything too. Also in our favor, a baby gate fell on him when he was a puppy tearing around the house. (Awful! I know! ) He bumped it with his butt and it came crashing down.

He's two now, and won't go NEAR the gates... barks at them if they get knocked over... comes running full speed if I'm in the room with a crashing gate to protect me, but won't come near it!

Goofy bullies.

Julia

Or sometimes he will bark ferociously at something that scares him and then look to me for protection..but that's ok..that's what I'm here for

I know Theo went through stages of being afraid of different things. The vacumn he thinks is some big monster that he has to protect Momma from, and he attacks it. Then I go to put a garbage bag in the can and he takes off like the boggie man is after him. He is use to be very aftaid of pots and pans, but when I took one out of the cabinet and it banged and he would start to run I would call him and hold the pan down and let him smell of it good and see that it was ok. Sometimes if I get something from a high place he will want to run, but I call him and reassure him that it is ok. Always let him smell of what ever it is. Hope this helps.

It is so funny, she like to rip rodents to shreds but is scared of any thing long and hard.

And I thought I was the only one with a chicken bully.
MILO IS SCARED OF EVERYTHING even his own shadow.
He barks at the neighbours all the time, he frieks out if something is out of place in the house, he frieks out if I buy a new picture and hang it on the wall, he frieks out if the newspaper flaps on the table from a breeze in the house - we got a new head board for our bed he didnt come on the bed for a good month just barked and barked and barked, Scared crapless of baloons!

I heard alot of bullies are like this!!!

One minute she's afraid of the sewing machine, the steam cleaner, plastic bags, the shovel - pretty much any large inanimate object...
The next minute she's trying to kill cars.
She also does the belly crawl and piddles when she meets a brand new person. It's so embarassing!!

My Snuggs is scared of:the vacuum,when you blow bubbles with gum,and thunder.I try and reassure her that none of these things will hurt her! Heather