Your dog used to walk past everything. Now a wheelie bin is a monster, a man with a rucksack is a threat, and the bin lorry has ruined Tuesday mornings.
Somebody has told you this is the second fear period. It is worth knowing what that phrase does and does not mean before you plan around it.
What the phrase refers to
Trainers and owners use it for a stretch in the second half of the first year. A confident adolescent dog becomes wary of ordinary things. It is usually described as lasting weeks.
It is owner and trainer language rather than a precise developmental milestone, and reported ages vary a lot. Treat it as a description of what you are seeing, not as a diagnosis or a timetable.
It also sits on top of the rest of the stage. Around the onset of adolescence dogs respond less to the cues of the person who raised them, and that responsiveness returns later. So a wary dog is often also a dog who has stopped answering you.
What it looks like in real life
Stopping dead and staring at something your dog has walked past 100 times.
Barking at an object rather than at a dog or a person: a statue, a bag on a hedge, a parked bike.
Startling at a noise and then staying jumpy for the rest of the walk.
Wariness of a category rather than one thing, such as men in hats or anything with wheels.
Being fine on the way out and difficult on the way home, or fine on one route and not another.
The one rule for the next few weeks
Do not make your dog go and check. Working below the level at which your dog reacts is the condition for learning near something frightening, and distance is how you get below it.
Let your dog look, and let your dog decide when to move. A dog who is dragged toward a frightening thing learns that you arrive with frightening things.
What to do at the moment it happens
Stop walking. Keep the leash loose and say nothing in a bright, fast voice.
Move away 10 to 20 feet on a curve, and let your dog watch from there for as long as they want.
Feed a few pieces of food on the ground while your dog looks. Stop feeding when they look away.
Then pass at whatever distance your dog can manage, even if that means the other side of the road.
If your dog cannot take food at all, you are too close. Add distance rather than repeating a cue louder.
Then 3 to 5 minutes a day on purpose
Pick 1 thing your dog has become wary of, and find a quiet example of it.
Stand at the distance where your dog can still eat from your hand, which is usually further back than you expect.
Pay 1 piece each time your dog looks at it, for 2 minutes, then leave while it is still going well.
Move 3 feet closer only once your dog can look, eat and turn back to you 8 times in a row.
Never finish with your dog closer than they are comfortable. Ending on an easy repetition is what makes tomorrow possible.
Relaxation is trained as a behaviour in its own right, in short repeatable sets below your dog's threshold. A settle on a mat at home is part of this work, not a break from it.
Manage the month around it
Walk the dull routes at the dull hours while this lasts. A quiet lane is a better place than the high street.
Keep walks shorter rather than dropping them. A dog who does not leave the house for a fortnight rarely comes back braver.
Do not book the busy things now. The village fair, the pub garden and the group class can wait 6 weeks.
Swap some of the walk for sniffing and food searching, which settle a dog where more distance covered does not.
Behaviour change is built from management plus reinforcement together, and this month the management half is your route.
Three things that make it worse
Walking your dog into the middle of the thing so they get used to it. That usually ends with a more frightened dog.
Correcting the bark or the flinch. Punishment-based approaches are associated with fear, avoidance and defensive aggression, so the noise stops while the fear stays.
Deciding your dog is being dramatic. A dog who is genuinely worried cannot learn anything useful while they are worried.
Reward-based methods are what the veterinary behaviour guidance recommends, and reward-based training is associated with higher reported responsiveness and fewer reported problem behaviours.
Safety note
Get help now if your dog is frightened of most things rather than a few, or cannot eat outdoors. The same applies if they have growled at, snapped at or bitten when cornered. Severe fear needs a veterinarian and a qualified behaviour professional who works with reward-based methods. Book the veterinary examination in any case. Sudden behaviour change warrants one, and pain frequently presents as a change in behaviour rather than as obvious lameness. A dog who has become frightened of being touched, or of stairs and jumping, is a dog to have examined rather than trained.
How long this takes
Owners usually describe weeks rather than months, with progress that moves around from day to day. Do not judge it on one bad Tuesday, and do not judge it on one good one either.
Nobody can promise you the dog you had at 6 months old. Distance, food and a dull route are what get closest, and most of this work is deciding where to stand.
If this is one of several adolescent things happening at once, the Assessment will sort which to work on first. It is free, takes about 3 minutes, and asks for no email address.
Today's version, in one line: 20 feet back, food on the ground while your dog looks, and no approaching.