Puppy Fear Periods During Development
- Greg Roder
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
What is a puppy fear period?
A fear period is a time when dogs are more sensitive and aware of the world around them. Essentially your dog’s ‘danger brain’ activates more readily, even to very minor triggers. They may be more concerned about new objects or experiences, and even things that they previously liked can become stressful or anxiety-inducing.
Fear periods are a normal part of puppy development designed to help dogs learn what they should be afraid of and what they should avoid for survival.
When do fear periods occur?
During puppy development, puppies may go through an average of four fear periods – but not every puppy will show signs of every fear period. When they do occur, these fear periods are approximately at the following ages:
Between 8 – 10 weeks
Between 4 – 6 months
About 9 months
Between 14 – 18 months – this is also when a pup goes through the adolescent/teenage phase and forgets everything you taught it. Just calmly persevere.
Understanding Fear Periods
Dogs who show stress or trauma in these developmental stages, if not understood and managed sympathetically, can experience larger, related behavioral problems or consequences later in life. As a result, it’s crucial to be sensitive to training needs during this time. Fear periods are often misunderstood, thinking that the pup is being defiant or difficult. However, they’re actually just being uncertain or worried about things in the world around them as their awareness and consciousness develops.
Fear periods can take everyone by surprise - but don’t panic. It can be helpful to keep a list of things your puppy is nervous about, so your whole guardian family is aware of these challenges your puppy is experiencing. You can try to incorporate those things into future training sessions – after the puppy starts to come out of that period of sensitivity. This is a very important part of puppy development and if handled correctly, you will avoid any ongoing fear or – as a reaction to fear - an aggression problem. As your puppy enters a fear period, he will suddenly become frightened of something that he used to be okay with or used to ignore. Your pup could react by hunching down, shaking, backing away, hiding, running away or submissively urinating. Or your puppy could display more pronounced behaviours such as growling, barking, raising his hackles or showing teeth.
You might be surprised to discover that your puppy becomes afraid of balloons one day, but comfortable around them just a day later. Try to remember this is a normal stage of development. It can be tempting to want to quickly show your puppy there’s nothing to be scared of. But remember, there are no shortcuts through a fear period. Your puppy is taking in an overwhelming amount of information about the world. They’re looking to us for reassurance and guidance. It should be our training goal whenever possible to make those experiences safe, fun, and positive. Even confident and well-socialized puppies go through a phase of feeling concerned about something that might seem silly to us. Fear periods are a developmentally normal part of growing up for dogs and something for us to be thoughtful and intentional about preparing for. Don’t force your puppy to engage in things that scare them. Instead, give them the space to explore and choose to engage at their comfort level.
Either way, once you recognize one of these behaviours at the age range mentioned above, you should plan opportunities to expose your puppy to new places and introducing them to new things, or even temporarily avoid them (and if you can, don’t schedule any veterinary appointments during a fear period).
How to help your dog through their adolescent fear period
Be patient and understanding
These fear periods may be frustrating, but it’s a normal part of your puppy’s development and can have a big impact on their future behaviour. Be patient with them. Don’t force or lure your dog to approach something that scares them. Let them decide how close they want to get and reward them for any progress they make.
Proactively plan training sessions
Don’t radically change your normal puppy play, training and feeding schedules or environment too much, as this can add to their uncertainty. Keep your dog’s schedule, rules, and expectations as stable as possible and try to avoid exposing them to too many new or overwhelming things all at once. Negative experiences at this stage can shape their future reactions to similar scenarios and lead to future anxiety issues.
Create as many positive experiences for your dog as possible. Instead of surprise, unplanned encounters, either avoid what is currently frightening them, or at most, expose your puppy to new and/or scary things in a controlled and positive way. For example, if your puppy is scared of the vacuum cleaner, then simply don’t run the vacuum cleaner when they are in the house – or even within earshot. If your pup is scared of the dog next door barking at the fence, then keep the pup away from that exposure – or sometimes sit in your yard with the pup and when next doors dog barks, call the pup to you and reward it with a treat and reassuring words, but don’t try to push this – fear is not overcome by forcing overexposure to the fearful element - that is called “flooding” and worsens the fear.
Stay positive and reassuring
Keep things positive and fun. If your puppy is scared or anxious, try to comfort them and make them feel safe. It is absolutely fine to provide a stressed or anxious dog reassurance in these moments. Don’t scold or punish your dog for being afraid, as this will only make them more fearful and insecure. Instead, be calm and supportive, and praise your dog for being brave and confident.
Puppy socialisation – beyond meeting other puppies
What are you trying to achieve by socialisation?
Teach your puppy to enjoy the presence of people. We need to ensure that it does not matter a person’s age, ethnicity, size and shape - all are fun and enjoyable. Especially work on exposure to small children in a calm and managed way.
Teach your puppy to enjoy being hugged and handled (gently restrain whilst giving high value food rewards and plenty of praise. Examine ears, paws, tail, mouth, collar attachment, etc) – remember the “Doggie Zen” lesson (see Zen and the art of companion dog training on this website).
Teach your puppy to enjoy giving up objects when requested – train the swap cues in which you cue “Give” and swap the object for a treat.
Teach your puppy about different environments, walking on different textured surfaces and encountering different objects – including small platforms, ramps and hurdles, so that they learn that whatever you suggest they do, wherever you take them, they will be safe and have fun.
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