As you will see from the title, I have a bit of a problem and I am unsure as to a) what the problem is and b) what to do about it. I am afraid this is a bit of an odd one so please bear with me.
This began when I was on holiday for a wek and my mum very kindly looked after Ellie for me in my house. My step dad and mum took Ellie for a walk down by the canal near my house, by a canal bridge. They got Ellie on to the side of the canal, at a good distance from the road and let her off the lead, just as I would have done. Apparantly she absolutely freaked at something (they couldn't see what it was or determine what had scared her and she bolted. She paid no attention to them calling her back (too freaked out by something) and she ran into the road. Fortunately the road was not particularly busy and the oncoming traffic which eventually arrived stopped whislt my mum got a hold of her and they vowed never to take her there again.
I had this story related to me when I got home and my mum asked if something had happened to her in that area or had she behaved strangely down there before. I replied that she sometimes would sit at the side of the road when I needed to cross it (on the lead at this stage obviously) which was in the bridge area but that she always came eventually with a bit of persausion and it had never really occurred to me that it was a big problem. I was very surprised at this behaviour as Ellie's recall has a;ways been great and I was surprised to hear that she had been so freaked that she had ignored them. I put it down as 'one off' and hoped it wouldn't happen again.
About a week later I was walking Ellie down the side of the canal (off her lead) and we were walking towards the road and the bridge. We were some way from the road (long before I would call her back to put her on the lead to cross the bridge) when suddenedly she bolted - totally freaked out. She bombed right down the side of the canal down to the road and straight through a fairly narrow gap under the fence that I usually have to coax her through. By the time I caught up (she ignored / didn't hear my calls) she was racing up the busy road on the pavement. She finally responded to my calls and turned around and started to come back to me. Unfortunately at this stage she was on the other side of the road to me. I couldn't get across the road because of the traffic and sure enough she ran straight infront of an oncoming van which hit her. Awful though this was she was VERY lucky indeed as the van caught her back end as she ran diagonally in front of it and it more clipped her than hit her. There was no damage done other than to both our nerves.
Now I know someone is going to say 'how stupid calling her back when your on one side of the road and she's on the other' but please understand I was in a flat panic at this stage and not thinking straight at all. I did also try to get the traffic to stop but to no avail. Anyway its done now and there is nothing more I can do about it, although I probably did it all wrong.
Now before this Ellie had never been particularly traffic shy - although its often difficult to tell with her as sometime she spooks and you never really know why, she has always been a bit highly strung. Now however she had a reason to be traffic shy and I expected the worst. However the very next day we walked along a quiet road for a little distance and she was fine and has been ever since. This is what makes me think it could be to do with this area.
Since then we have had two incidents - the first was when we were walking over a canal bridge somewhere else. Again she tried to bolt (but was on the lead) so couldn't but she was petrified and I had a job to control her. The next was yesterday in the area where the orginal incident happened. Obviously I am now very careful anywhere near a road and make sure she is on the lead way before a danger zone. However on crossing the brdge over the canal she freaked out again and tried to bolt. Again I struggled to control her. We ended up with her dragging me away from the road to the side of the canal wher she sat shaking like a leaf refusing to move. I didn't know how I was going to get her to move. When she is in this state she is too scared to eat so food is useless as are any of her toys. i really cannot distract her. its all rather upsetting.
Now again i am guessing many of you more experienced folk are going to say - 'I would need to see this - get a behaviourist to go out with you' and I am on to it. I am going to ask my trainer Lynda to come out with us and see the reaction I get so she can hopefully determind what the trigger is and obviously try to help us, but I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this, as I have had several myself. Some of these are as follows
1) something has happened to her in this area that I don't know about - when she has been with my dog walker maybe? I have asked the question and have been told no but I guess I will never know
2) can Ellie smell something - hear something that my senses won't pick up that is freaking her out?
3) is it possible for dogs to not like bridges? I find this a bit difficult to comprehand as there are so many different types of bridges that I wouldn't be convinced that Ellie would have a concept of 'bridge'
4) could it just be that bridges are narrow and as such traffic passes closely and therefore she just doesn't like traffic?
Any suggestions thoughs would be appreciated guys.
Thanks
