Henri is a nervous dog. He doesn't have a lot of confidence. I don't know why. He was born in a shelter and we got him when he was pretty young. I don't think anything bad happened to him at the shelter and I know we did our best to give him the best experience at home. I remember when we picked him out, the guy at the shelter, somewhat jokingly said, "Are you sure you want that one? He is the whiniest of the bunch." I guess it's just part of who he is.
He has always been afraid of smoke or the smell of smoke. It's not a bad thing to have concern with since smoke usually accompanies fire. I'm sure it's not pleasant to their sensitive noses, but to run and hide because we're grilling in the backyard, that was surprising. He has gotten better with this, though he is still very tentative about being outside at the same time and don't burn anything on the stove.
It was a month after bringing him home and it was the week of July 4th. Henri had/has lots of energy and since he was too young to go to the dog park, we had to take him on walks.The neighbor was nice enough to wait until we had passed his house, but we weren't far, probably just one house over, before he set off a bunch of fireworks. Henri screamed (as close to screaming as a puppy can get), cried and peed himself. The poor thing. We had to carry him home, trembling. I'm sure he would have been afraid of fireworks anyway, but this experience probably scarred him for life.
I try to do things with Henri to give him more confidence. He seems to go back and forth. Sometimes he's confident, sometimes he's not. Even when we're running, he hears a car, truck or semi coming on the roads around us and he's turning around, checking to see where it is. I know he's looking to me not only for direction, but for reassurance of safety. I'm hoping that as we continue to run, his confidence will grow and that he trusts that I'm not going to take him into bad situations or let anything bad happen to him.
I don't think he'll ever get over fireworks though.
Now to lighten things up. We beat the sun today!
He has always been afraid of smoke or the smell of smoke. It's not a bad thing to have concern with since smoke usually accompanies fire. I'm sure it's not pleasant to their sensitive noses, but to run and hide because we're grilling in the backyard, that was surprising. He has gotten better with this, though he is still very tentative about being outside at the same time and don't burn anything on the stove.
It was a month after bringing him home and it was the week of July 4th. Henri had/has lots of energy and since he was too young to go to the dog park, we had to take him on walks.The neighbor was nice enough to wait until we had passed his house, but we weren't far, probably just one house over, before he set off a bunch of fireworks. Henri screamed (as close to screaming as a puppy can get), cried and peed himself. The poor thing. We had to carry him home, trembling. I'm sure he would have been afraid of fireworks anyway, but this experience probably scarred him for life.
I try to do things with Henri to give him more confidence. He seems to go back and forth. Sometimes he's confident, sometimes he's not. Even when we're running, he hears a car, truck or semi coming on the roads around us and he's turning around, checking to see where it is. I know he's looking to me not only for direction, but for reassurance of safety. I'm hoping that as we continue to run, his confidence will grow and that he trusts that I'm not going to take him into bad situations or let anything bad happen to him.
I don't think he'll ever get over fireworks though.
Now to lighten things up. We beat the sun today!
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