Problem: Mia is now afraid of Everything. More specifically she's afraid of the laundry room, the refrigerator and the hall closet. She's not just a little afraid or weary, she's all out terrified. The only way she'll walk the short distance from the office (her safe room) to our kitchen door is by slowly and super low to the ground walking to get to underneath the kitchen table. When she walks she looks all around the whole time as if something might jump out to attack her. This all started on Friday when she decided she was afraid of the laundry room. On Saturday we turned on the ice maker, and then it was all down hill from there so we turned it off but it didn't matter.
I don't think it was just the turning on of the ice maker that made her so afraid, something must have happened to really scare the life out of her and we can't figure it out. We've given her a few days to try and get over it, we've tried multiple tactics. On Sunday, I tried luring her into the family room (past the fridge) with many many many treats but that proved fruitless. She even let most of the treats sit there uneaten. At one point I got her to go really close to the scary machine, but she still won't just walk past it. Then later I decided on hard love, and dragged her past these scary things. That didn't do much. I've tried walking along with her petting her and saying "it's Ok, good girl, it's ok, etc." still nothing. Daddy tried picking her up and putting her in the family room, and that just got her stuck there. She's happy once she gets in there and is happy to stay there.
This is all very bizarre behavior coming from a dog that usually enjoys exploring and roaming around. She usually will follow me around everywhere, even into the laundry room, but now she's resigned herself to just stay in the office and whine and cry if she's super frustrated but she still won't budge.
I think she's slightly better today, somewhat braver, but overall she's still not in the right set of mind. We will call her trainer if this keeps it up through the week, but it's really just very confusing. We're not aware of any trauma occurring... she's mostly happy, eating normally, eliminating normally, and sleeping well.
Any thoughts on how we can help her?
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