Has your dog ever shown terror or panic?

We had an interesting situation on our walk today. Everything started out fine. We got around the corner and Misha was smelling plants and bushes like normal.

We got about half way up the next block when Misha put on the breaks. I stopped and looked around. I didn't see any animals, motorcycles, or anything that might upset her. There was a man putting things in his truck. However, we have passed him many times before without a problem.

We got to the corner and she was in full panic mode. I got her to cross the street and she was shaking. A few steps in, I picked her up to calm her. Her heart was palpitating. Normally, if we pass something scary (i.e. person wearing a backpack, bag blowing down the street, skateboarder, etc.) she is fine once we are passed the object. Not this time. The more I walked down this street the more terrified she became. Even when I held her, she kept looking back with fear in her eyes as if waiting for a chance to flee.

Eventually, I turned around. No sense freaking the dog out. And, it's not much exercise for her if I'm holding her the whole time. She ran to the corner dragging me behind her. We crossed the street and she pretty much made us run to the next street. Once we were there, she stopped, slowed down her breathing and was fine. We crossed the street to walk down a different street without any problem. She was fine for the rest of the walk as long a we stayed away from the next corner and the next street.

Isn't that weird? Has this ever happened with your dog? I suspect she could smell something that I could not. We have small wildlife in the area. Maybe there was a dead or injured animal hidden away that she picked up the scent on. I have never seen her panic like this before on our walks. It was unusual. I'll see if the same thing happens tomorrow.

 

Our recent dog used to be a stray dog in our community that we decided to adopt. And we understand why he seems to be scared to a lot of things like when someone is holding a stick (maybe he think he will be hit) and he was not comfortable being out.

 

Dogs smell and hear more than we do. I'm sure she had a reason to be scared but you are a human so you didn't sense anything. As you probably remember, Homer is terrified of my neighbour's mower. It took me a while to realise it. At the beginning, I had no idea why is he shaking and trying to hide. I heard a distant noise of the mower but to me it was rather quiet and insignificant.

 

I've read about a dog who had that same problem. Have you ever considered that it might be due to another animal.

A friend of mine had a problem like this with her Shih Tzu. Everytime the dog went out to potty, it would come in shaking. Eventually, the dog just froze in the yard and the owners had to carry her back in.

The culprit was an owl on the tree a little further down the yard.

Try checking out your aerial view. I hear some dogs are really scared of owls.

 

This happened once with my dog, but not to the extent of panic. We were on a walk and suddenly he refused to go any further. He also had his tail tucked between his legs which usually signifies fear. I turned around and he was fine. I'm sure he was sensing something I could not.

 

Dogs have keener senses than we do so it's very possible she sensed something that triggered a memory linked to a fearful experience. Personally our chow hasn't had such an episode. Usually we have a hard time stopping her investigating places she wants to go instead of avoiding something.

 

Thanks for all the interesting responses. Since this incident, it has not happened again. We walk by the same spot almost every day.

I suspect something was different that day. Misha is afraid of many things, but usually once we pass the person, animal, object, whatever, she is fine. Usually it is a person with a backpack standing at the bus stop. LOL Once we walk by, she forgets about it. This reaction was "You can't make me go down that street!" I suspect Haopee is right that it was another animal. We have a wide range of smaller wildlife in this area and a lot of birds.

She is quite a contrast to my previous dog, the Lab. Sierra was not afraid of anything. It was funny yesterday walking Misha. An elderly man crossed the street and started walking behind us. He was using a walker. Misha did not know what to make of this. She was beginning to panic a little. We were almost home, so she didn't have to worry about it too long.

 

Our dog (called Dutyko) behaves weird as well sometimes...I would not call it panicked, but rather angry. There is a family in our area; quite nice, normal people. Whenever any of them walks past Dutyko, he starts barking so frefutty, even hysterical. I guess they must have a pet (possibly a cat what makes him so waxy. Anyway, he acts like the same with random people walking down the street. In this cases I try to calm him down with nice words - this actually helps, more or less.

 

This an an unusual saddest story that ever happened to my neighbor's dog 2 years ago:
As usual my neighbor brought his dog for a walk one day. The dog saw another dog on the other side of the road and ran off to chase the other dog. While so doing, a huge truck came in front of him and stopped right on time. But I think the dog was too panicked that he got a heart attack and died on the spot. This is a true story and I am not making it up. It was really shocking to all of us.
My neighbor was really demoralized and mourned for months.

 

My dog is scared of fire works btw!! I forgot to mention mine..oh and also he is afraid of lighters and fire!