My dog is afraid of the outside world

Question
Hi,

I have a 2 1/2 year old Jack Russell Terrier/Chihuahua mix. From the time she was a puppy she was afraid of anything that created wind. The A/C, the ceiling fan, a space heater, the outside wind, just air movement in general. As she got older she got better about inside air movement but not about outside air movement. That's not my real concern, but I wonder if that plays into the problems I have now.

She's currently afraid to go outside day or night. When she does go outside, reluctantly, she sits at the back door and just shakes and she looks like she's on high alert and every little movement from a tree or our other dog makes it worse. At night I have to walk out with her or she won't go to the bathroom.

In the afternoon and evenings I'll open the blinds to let some light in and she will lay on the bed in my room and watch everything going on outside and shake the entire time. She always wants to see it but is afraid of whatever is out there at the same time. She'll even start growling when a person or dog walks by. However, the minute I have her outside and around other people and dogs she's perfectly content...but only if I'm out with her.

She's never been aggressive towards other animals or people. She's been afraid of other dogs since she was a pup. I took her to training classes and she stayed in the corner most of the time and would just watch everyone in that same high alert phase she has when she's put outside. I've walked her around pet stores and parks to expose her to people and animals and I think it helped her somewhat with dogs. She's weird with people though. At the vet she gets so happy she pee's a little bit every.single.time. At the pet store she's more skittish. When she's at home she's thoroughly excited by visitors and will sit perfectly and look like a relaxed sit, not a high alert sit, when I answer the door for the UPS guy or the pizza guy.

I would really like to know what I can do to help her. I'm fairly certain I've somehow helped exacerbate the problem without realizing it and would like to fix whatever that might be. Do you have any advice to help me, help my dog, be OK outside by herself?

Answer
Peeing "a little bit" is not a sign of happiness, this is submissive urination, a sign of high anxiety.

This dog needs to see a veterinary behaviorist.  Some fear is inherited but the type of high sensitivity to stimuli that you describe might be neurological or of biologic origin.  First stop, veterinary behaviorist:

http://www.veterinarybehaviorists.org/
http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/

How much of this fear is "nature", how much "nurture", how much acquired is not something I can determine without a very complete overview of the dog's life.  I am willing to help you but I want to see what a veterinary behaviorist recommends.  After complete exam (and this won't be cheap and will include full blood chemistry, stool and urine analysis, baseline neurological exam, opthalmological and auditory testing, etc.) re-post with results (including any medications the dog has been given, and I think she will be given medication of some sort) using followup feature (so I can see original question/answer).  When you re-post give a full account of this dog's life: when you acquired her, from where, under what circumstances, how old she was, how many litter mates there were, if you ever saw the dam (mother), what training you've done and how old the dog was when you began it, what sort of counter conditioning you've attempted: in other words, everything you can think of that can help me assess the problem.