This is going to be a long-winded question about my fearful dog. Bear with me, I need to get all the specifics in as I feel that it's not a simple thing.Quick background: I have an Australian Cattle Dog (named Dino) who is 15 months old. I adopted him in November, when he was 7 months old. He was imported from another country when he was 2 months old and spent his days in a small village yard / cage until I got him. I have strong suspicions that he originally came from a puppy mill.Now, we live in the city. It took him quite a while to start trusting me to leave the house in the beginning - we spent 3 days just trying to get to the front door with lots of treats and praise. Took us weeks for him to start going down the stairs himself.For a while, everything was great outside - we played fetch, we started socializing with other dogs, and things seemed to go great. Then, the winter season struck. This resulted in my dog getting scared crapless by firecrackers and low-flying airplanes.After this, I couldn't get him near the dog park, as this is where he got spooked by a few of the aforementioned loud noises. So, I changed up the spots, I started walking him and playing fetch in any other open grass area that I find (thankfully, his recall is amazing, probably due to his fears). We started biking together and I even picked up skating for a more fun activity. In time, we managed to make it to the dog park again. Yay!A few weeks ago, interesting smells started to get his attention — females in heat were no doubt peeing all around our routes, and the sun's heat was definitely raising a whole new plethora of smells from the ground. It hit him hard and he kinda lost his awesome off-leash habits, so I just doubled down on structured walks, which worked wonders.Now, out of nowhere, he's back to being deathly afraid of the outside. He refuses to leave the house until I snap the leash on him and I sometimes need to pop it so that he gets up and follows me out. When I try to play fetch with him, he will half-ass bring the ball back half of the way, then slowly try to back away from the area and walk towards our home. When I tell him to stop, he ducks in a "low profile, scared dog" stance. If this goes on for a couple of minutes, he will seek out a bush to hide under, as if the heavens were about to rain down.Last time we were at the dog park, it was not pretty as well. As soon as I let him off the leash, he just romped through 3 dogs in his way looking for a fight.Other random facts: he snaps at guests at my house. We have been working at this for a while — inviting friends over and feeding him chicken by the bucketloads whenever he is calm / not snapping. A week ago, as a guest arrived, Dino ran excited towards him and I stopped him before he would try to bite. In response, he peed himself (the dog, not my guest :D )A while ago, he randomly started fearing handclapping, despite the fact that it's a signal that I used to get his attention earlier. And by fear, I mean "I need to hide and I don't even care about this freshly cooked chicken that you are putting in front of my nose!". Then, he randomly stopped fearing clapping.So, basically, I am at my wits' end. This morning, I took him to the vet to have his blood tested, will be checking out results tonight. I have a batch of "VetSpec Calm & Focused" coming in the mail, too — food supplements, which I found by googling "stressed dog". I will also be getting in touch with a dog trainer, which my vet recommended, but I will be honest — I have low hopes there. Dog-training and behaviorism is still not looked upon seriously where I live.It has been almost 6 months since I had him, he is still afraid of the noises of loud bikes or airplanes. And I don't mean "afraid" as in "slightly startled and then easy to calm". I mean it as in "the walk is over, I am now going to try and get home no matter what — I don't want the chicken, I don't want the ball, heck, I don't even want to communicate with you, human".I'll be honest — I have had a few emotional outbursts a few times his nonsensical fears caused him to do something stupid, which I am not proud of. Those shameful slip-ups aside, I am always either calm or cheerful when walking him outside. However, he just shuts down about 20 minutes into a walk and that's that.Thanks for reading this far and any input is appreciated.video: Dino playing fetch happily about a week before his fears struck again http://ift.tt/2sGUTaM via /r/dogs http://ift.tt/2rIBSHI
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