We have been very lucky with loki so far, he was good in the house by himself, goes off leash when theres not too many distractions. The fear doesnt seem to be going away, hes still terrified of most people, bikes, skateboards, bridges. All the exposure these last couple months havent made much improvement. And now he is starting to terrorize the house when im at work. he was fine before and i dont know if its because hes maturing (7 months now) or if its because Justin works out of town, but the last time justin left he didnt act like this. So im confused and sad because i feel like im failing him, hes a wonderful dog with us but i need some advice. I did kennel him today when i went to the store and he destroyed everything in the crate and pulled stuff nearby to the cage and shredded it. He gets 2-3 hours of hike/run a day so i dont know what else to do. This is new behavior.

He should be hitting the nasty teen years, for one, so...keep at it..
If he's used to being out when you're gone, you might need to work on his crate training, starting with just leaving for a few minutes and coming back. I used to sit outside my window to spy on her and see how she was doing. I think the neighbors (I live in a big apartment complex) were going to call the cops once, though..
2-3 hours might not be enough for him anymore. Also, what do you do for mental stimulation?
Everyone goes through rough patches!

It could also be separation anxiety. It doesn't always show itself from the beginning and can reappear for various reasons.

I agree with starting with crate training from the beginning and make sure when he is in it that he can't get to anything he could destroy. I do this with Pippa when I leave and she doesn't even mind her crate.

Also, sometimes simple exposure to a fear doesn't do the trick. I'm not super experienced with that, plenty of others here are, but when I realized Pippa was affraid of busses, I started carrying treats on our walks. When I saw one coming I made her sit and treated her when she didn't freak out. It took a while and she still doesn't love them, but it's gotten a lot better.

But we definitely all have days (or weeks...) where we feel like we aren't doing the best for them, but it does get better!

Thanks ! Its hard to start over because I work all week so not a lot of time to ease him back into it. I did move his crate back to the spot where it was when we originally trained him to love it. Im hoping that might help a little bit. Its now in his favorite spot in the house. He usually has a few toys in with him, and a dino bone, I tried a ball with holes for treats to come out and he just didnt get it. Im hoping its just a growth spurt or something, since its so opposite his regular behaviour. So for now I suppose I'll just try and wear him out before I go to work and hope he naps!

Thanks for the advice!

Oh and I did try the treats when hes getting fearful but he completely ignores everything and tries to run away from it.

Crispin has/had some pretty bad fear issues. We had to work in stages to get him where he is, he's still got a ways to go, and we're afraid of backslides because they do happen during fear periods. We've got him in classes and have had to do some private lessons with a behaviorist for it.

We use two different tools with treats and things he's afraid of. I'd recommend googling "Open bar, closed bar" and "Look at that" for these two different ways. The first associates treats with something he's afraid of, but it only works for a certain proximity and when he stops it's time to pack it up, let him get away from the trigger for awhile, and try again later. The second prompts him to look at you when he sees something abnormal or that sets him off. You can use this to teach him to look at you any time he's unsure about what to do or if something's safe.

Not taking treats when he's afraid is pretty normal. Just like teaching a stay you have to manage distance, duration, and difficulty. If he's taking treats while the scary things are far enough away, around certain things that are only kind of scary, or for a short period around scary things you're on the right track and can use it as a base. I can say from our experiences it can take quite a bit to work up to being close to a trigger for any period of time.

If you're really struggling with his fear it might be time to bring in a professional. Sometimes it's hard to tell if exposure is helping him get used to the things he is afraid of or making it worse by making him feel helpless to get away from those things because he's forced to be around them.


No advice on the crate or shredding. Crispin does that too if he gets bored. We've just had to be super consistent with when he gets crated and making sure he only has safe things in the crate. We've also had to start super locking it because true to his breed he figured out locks and has escaped the crate before.