GSD anxiety about the garden! - ptsd?

[Lintel]

Long story short.
Our four year old GSD got a shock from the electric fence in the horses paddock 3-4 months ago.

He has free access to all areas and touched the fence once as a pup, got over it quickly but didn’t touch the fence again needless to say! It didn’t cause any issues though and he was happy to roam around, help poo pick, bury his bones in the paddock however…

Since he got a shock last time he is not a happy boy, he doesn’t want to go out himself in the back garden/paddock. If he does go out with us he lies at the furthest away gate and looks out or lies at the back door.
I have removed the offending fence, walked him round the paddock on his lead, had lots of positive interactions in the paddock, his special occasion toy, training with high value food but alas no… he is still anxious and not the same happy boy he used to be in the garden.
OH has suggested feeding him in the paddock? I don’t want him eating in an anxious state- if he does eat it at all in there.
Rather stumped. He is a typical GSD, sensitive but not overly so and is generally very well rounded and resilient to life- other than this!

Anyone care to share any experience or anything you think may help?

 

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Joe used to run around in my parents' garden every time we went there until one day he slipped and fell while doing it about two years ago - didn't seriously hurt himself luckily but he's never run there since - we say it's like he has PTSD too! No amount of being silly/coaxing him to play will work there.

While out walking one night someone set off a load of fireworks out of the blue and scared the life out of him, and he refused to walk in that direction down the road for almost two months before one night, hallelujah, a cat (his FAVOURITE thing to go barmy about) ran across the road down that way and instinct got the better of him - and it broke the fear. After that he'd go that way no problem. Greyhounds can definitely be very sensitive souls.

Does your lad have a prey drive or is he a nosy fella? Not recommending a stunt cat obviously(!) but maybe setting up something in or around the paddock that makes curiosity get the better of him? Might just 'break the spell' like it did with Joe. I hope you get to the bottom of it!

 

[Lintel]

Joe used to run around in my parents' garden every time we went there until one day he slipped and fell while doing it about two years ago - didn't seriously hurt himself luckily but he's never run there since - we say it's like he has PTSD too! No amount of being silly/coaxing him to play will work there.

While out walking one night someone set off a load of fireworks out of the blue and scared the life out of him, and he refused to walk in that direction down the road for almost two months before one night, hallelujah, a cat (his FAVOURITE thing to go barmy about) ran across the road down that way and instinct got the better of him - and it broke the fear. After that he'd go that way no problem. Greyhounds can definitely be very sensitive souls.

Does your lad have a prey drive or is he a nosy fella? Not recommending a stunt cat obviously(!) but maybe setting up something in or around the paddock that makes curiosity get the better of him? Might just 'break the spell' like it did with Joe. I hope you get to the bottom of it!

Glad your boy is better now thank you for sharing! The special occasion toy is basically a lunge whip with a toy on the end that really gets his prey drive going! That’s the only thing he is half interested in anymore in that area, we have a cat and she roams about the paddock- thankfully he doesn’t chase her and unfortunately gains no confidence from her either. We shall perhaps need to enlist a fox, he has some prey drive and annoyance for them being in his garden! Anyone got a spare fox going? ?

 

[PurBee]

My gsd female got zapped a couple of times on my electric horse fencing. She got wary for a while but didnt get as put off as your dog. It probably depends on the level of zap.…mine was about 4k volts, and now I’ve now got a different charger for the whole system thats super powerful, and i didnt want my dog getting zapped.

Now i have mostly 3 lines of electric rope - i electrify only the top 2 lines and have the botton rope off/disconnected from the other 2 ropes. The bottom rope is about 18-24 inches from the ground so plenty of places she would run under it and could get zapped.

This works fine as shes always runs under the bottom line. If your dog jumps between lines then thats quite a problem.

If youre able to disconnect your bottom line, then as you have been, fuss her near it to get her reaquainted that the bottom line is safe.

 

[Lintel]

My gsd female got zapped a couple of times on my electric horse fencing. She got wary for a while but didnt get as put off as your dog. It probably depends on the level of zap.…mine was about 4k volts, and now I’ve now got a different charger for the whole system thats super powerful, and i didnt want my dog getting zapped.

Now i have mostly 3 lines of electric rope - i electrify only the top 2 lines and have the botton rope off/disconnected from the other 2 ropes. The bottom rope is about 18-24 inches from the ground so plenty of places she would run under it and could get zapped.

This works fine as shes always runs under the bottom line. If your dog jumps between lines then thats quite a problem.

If youre able to disconnect your bottom line, then as you have been, fuss her near it to get her reaquainted that the bottom line is safe.

Thank you, the area he got zapped was pretty poorly electrified, so much so OH can hold onto it. Really needing to renew all the fencing to ensure it keeps the fatties in! Unfortunately I couldn’t unelectrify the bottom line, as one of the fatties is a shetland.. is a miracle he even stays in!?

 

[CorvusCorax]

It's a superstitious behaviour. You know it was the fence that 'hurt' him.
He may think it was the entire field.
Or grass of that type/in general.
Or whatever he may have been looking at, at the time he felt the unpleasant sensation, like a tree etc. I've seen dogs get phobic about bins or wellie boots, because that's what they were looking at/passing by when they received a correction for chasing lorries/chasing the pet rabbit.

Electricity can feel different to dogs than it does to us, he could have been wet when it happened, etc etc. Weak to us isn't the same for them and they can be much more sensitive to electical pulses than we are.

I don't understand what you have against feeding him there, it's basic counter-conditioning?

 

[PurBee]

Thank you, the area he got zapped was pretty poorly electrified, so much so OH can hold onto it. Really needing to renew all the fencing to ensure it keeps the fatties in! Unfortunately I couldn’t unelectrify the bottom line, as one of the fatties is a shetland.. is a miracle he even stays in!?

ah! All bets are off with a shetland ? i’d love one too but already have a houdini horse and with a shetland my 3 rope fence would have to become a 6 rope affair!

 

[Lintel]

It's a superstitious behaviour. You know it was the fence that 'hurt' him.
He may think it was the entire field.
Or grass of that type/in general.
Or whatever he may have been looking at, at the time he felt the unpleasant sensation, like a tree etc. I've seen dogs get phobic about bins or wellie boots, because that's what they were looking at/passing by when they received a correction for chasing lorries/chasing the pet rabbit.

Electricity can feel different to dogs than it does to us, he could have been wet when it happened, etc etc. Weak to us isn't the same for them and they can be much more sensitive to electical pulses than we are.

I don't understand what you have against feeding him there, it's basic counter-conditioning?

Thanks, definitely no wetness as we actually had a nice summer(who knew!)… that’s long gone now though and back to smelly wet dog! I’ve no doubt it certainly hurt him more than it would us though!

I just feel with the feeding that I wouldn’t particularly want him eating in an anxious state- which he would be in the paddock. He isn’t a big ‘foodie’ anyway so whether he would even feel comfortable enough to eat his food there is another thing.

 

[Fellewell]

They don't have those big ears for nothing ;-)
We had one Shep who always let us know when the kids had ordered a pizza. For ages we couldn't figure out how he knew but he would take up position by the front door and wait. Then we figured out that he'd learnt to associate the sound of the tracking signal on the pc with imminent arrival of a stuffed crust! Switched to phone order, no reaction.
I have a bitch here who will react to the washing machine alarm at least two seconds before I hear it. She gets no reward from the laundry of course, she just can't figure out why it happens, frankly nor can I. Who needs Pavlov!
I would guess your Shep can hear every pop and crack from the electric fence and he's now learned to associate that noise with whatever 'attacked' him. Have you tried turning off the entire circuit to see if he relaxes and maybe desensitise from there?

 

[Lintel]

They don't have those big ears for nothing ;-)
We had one Shep who always let us know when the kids had ordered a pizza. For ages we couldn't figure out how he knew but he would take up position by the front door and wait. Then we figured out that he'd learnt to associate the sound of the tracking signal on the pc with imminent arrival of a stuffed crust! Switched to phone order, no reaction.
I have a bitch here who will react to the washing machine alarm at least two seconds before I hear it. She gets no reward from the laundry of course, she just can't figure out why it happens, frankly nor can I. Who needs Pavlov!
I would guess your Shep can hear every pop and crack from the electric fence and he's now learned to associate that noise with whatever 'attacked' him. Have you tried turning off the entire circuit to see if he relaxes and maybe desensitise from there?

That’s hilarious! They are so clever with those solar ears! Full circuit is off and the whole electric fence removed from that paddock as they are now in the winter field. - might try turning that off and see if it makes a difference, definitely couldn’t do it long term though or they’d be a couple of fat ponies roaming the village ?

 

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That's a really good point about the hearing, I'd forgotten that some electric fences make that click, click, click noise!