Question by Dogs are the kindest creatures: Poodle scared of strollers, baby due soon. Some tips to help him in addition to what we are doing? Thanks?
My 2 year old minature poodle, he likes kids okay and have never barked or growled at a child. But he is terrified of baby strollers. He doesn’t like dog strollers either unless he is in one.
For some reason he has an irrational fear of strollers. Now maybe it has something to do with he equates the stroller to something a dog uses (he uses a stroller every once in awhile when we go to an event down at the fairgrounds, thats the rule carried or in a dog stroller. He loves people but he isn’t too fond of other dogs. So maybe he is thinking dogs are in the stroller.
Never the less out on walks when he sees a stroller he starts barking. Now yesterday he did rather well. We had him out walking and he came across several strollers it was an unseasonably nice day. He starting to bark under his breath so I put him on a tight leash, did our command “beside” (He knows that means he has to walk beside me) whenever he tried to bark I told him “Uh Uh” and then praised him each time he walked by a stoller without making a peep. Using the “beside” command every time we passed by.
he did rather well after the first stroller. He isn’t food motivated so we have to motivate with praise.
He did well but he still gets rather ansy and nervous around strollers. He is a quick learner and this is something we have been working on for a while.
Now other than what we are doing is there anything else we should do to help him understand strollers are not something to be afraid of?
ADD: Now I wanted to add that our Terrier has had no issues with anything like this, just our poodle. So I don’t know what it is, maybe something big that is on wheels that is coming at him scares him?
We have a stroller but my mother has it right now and she said she will be bringing it over right before the baby comes.
She just can’t get it to us any sooner. So it will either be the week the baby is due or when the baby comes home from the hospital.
As far as the dog stroller we’ve already sold it, our local fairgrounds shut down last month so no need for it anymore (again the rules there was dogs can come but have to be carried or in a stroller)
so we can’t even try desensitizing using his.
Best answer:
Answer by 420
Get a dog that acts like a dog. Not a dog that act like a cat.
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