My dog is suddenly afraid of the hallway

Question
Sandra,

We have lived in the same house for 1 and 1/2 years and my dog is suddenly afraid of the hallway. He will go down it to get into our bedroom, but when he goes to leave the bedroom to follow us into the rest of the house, he begins to shake and cry. There is like a 5 foot area that he is afraid to walk through. I have been trying to coax him with treats, but he will only walk through it if I am right beside him. I do not know why he is all the sudden afrain of the hallway. Please help.

Natalie


Answer
Anything could have scared him.  Maybe a big clap of thunder, or construction noise, or even a strange sound on the radio, at the moment he was passing by that area.  Dogs are very "superstitious" sometimes and are discriminative enough to react if the noise or scary thing happened during the return trip versus the "to the bedroom" trip.  I would not try to tug on him or force him.  Instead, pepper the floor of that area with a line of his very best favorite food treats in teeny weeny pieces (be sure other animals are out of the area and can't get to it, lest they cause a tiff and he be even more scared).  Let him eat his way down the hall.  Repeat often enough to change his emotional reaction to the area:-)