Fear Periods in a Dog's Life

[DogMania]

interesting.

[weaselmouse]

Hi. I thought this was a very interesting topic, and I think it applies to my mutt (well, at least the "fear" part).

The family dog (a female Japanese Spitz) has been with us since April of 2001, and she has always been extremely jumpy/afraid. I don't think it is her personality, because normally she is playful and very, very hyperactive. Anywho, I think her fears are far beyond irrational. They include and are not limited to: mailboxes, the Christmas tree (we have two, and she's only afraid of one), a certain part of our living room, the bathroom (we don't bathe her in there either), two posts on the porch that she runs past every time she comes back inside from peeing, and the middle of our yard. She also has weird OC habits like this "cow path" she's made in the yard that she HAS to follow every single time she goes outside.

I am thinking that since we got her when she was four months old that maybe she had a hard time adjusting from her "fear period?" What do you guys think? She is the most schizo little dog I've ever seen...my cat thinks she's nuts. I need some help with this one. Thanks.

PS Oh yeah, I forgot to mention...we don't know where she came from - could be a puppy mill dog. We got her from a store that has tons of purebred puppies (VERY well cared for, I might add) but we don't know anything about her life before that. She also seemed to be the runt - a bit smaller than average...could have to do with the size of the litter she's from though.

[lizbud]

weaselmouse,

Are you saying your dog was 4 mos old when you got
her from a pet store? That fact alone could explain a lot
about any problems she might have. What is your dog's
name? Do you have any pictures of her?

Oh, did you happen to read the article "So long
to Bad Dogs" in the previous link?

[weaselmouse]

I did not read it but I will! Thanks!

Yes, she was exactly 4 months old. The people at the store trained her very well - the guy that took care of her had her puppypad-trained and had her be still/calm down when he picked her up (she's like two different dogs depending on whether you're holding her - the rest of the time she is racing around getting into as much trouble as she can). Maybe that's why she wants to make everything perfect, so she won't "get in trouble." We always thought she was the runt because of her personality but I read an article online that said she was a little on the hefty side compared to other dogs of her breed...she's a chow hound.

My dog's name is Phoebe - she is really adorable and very photogenic, but I don't have any webspace for a picture. She looks a lot like this dog though (they all look the same, and I am not joking):

http://www.worldclassdogs.com/images...SpitzSide1.jpg

Unfortunately Japanese Spitzes are not recognized by the AKC, so they are not as popular as they should be. Cute though, huh?

[MHMama]

I don't remember any fear periods for Ricky or Lucy Tu unless you count everytime we had a thunder storm. :0)

[ownerof3dogs]

Weaselmouse,

Japanese Spitzes look just like American Eskimos. Are they the same dogs just called a different name?

[lizbud]

It's a very cute looking dog


Found more info on this breed at;

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/japanesespitz.htm

It says the Japanese Spits & the American Eskimos are
two totally different breeds. Does their descriptions of
this breed sound like your dog? They sound like great
companion animals.

[weaselmouse]

Yep! That's Phoebe!

Gosh those pictures look EXACTLY like her. Especially the puppy pictures - that's what she looked like when we got her. It's kind of funny the day you notice they lose their floppy ears - the adults have pointy ears but the puppy's are all floppity.

No, they're not eskies, though they do look exactly alike except for the width of their snout.

Japanese spitzes have this weird fur that doesn't get dirty. We have red dirt here and Phoebe stays white - they were right about them being clean dogs.

By the way...

Yesterday we found a big scrape on Phoebe's paw pad. We have been putting neosporin on there a few times a day, but will it heal up in a few days? Is there anything else we can do?