Doodle puppy stopped "rolling over" and has become skittish and shy

[Mrs. K]

I am hoping for some really important advice here everyone! :) My 10 month old Labradoodle, Indy, has been a joy since day 1 (we've had him since he was 9 weeks old). He's been easy to train, incredibly affectionate, and outgoing with people.

However, things significantly changed this summer. We put him in doggie daycare everyday (my work schedule changes significantly in the summer and no one is home for 10 hours every weekday) and he seemed to love it. He jumped out of the car every morning to play with all his doggie friends. However, he started to change once he was in daycare for a few weeks.

1) Indy began backing away from/became fearful of people, which is quite odd for him as he usually wants in your face immediately! At first it was just strangers (mostly men), then it became all strangers, and now it's even my husband and me! It's very strange. He just doesn't seem to want human contact, which is odd for his breed. We can't figure it out. When we call him to us or reach to give him a pat, he backs away and has a strange/fearful look in his eyes. He puts his ears down/back when I come near him. He's never growled or shown his teeth, however, and never barks or whines during this time. I know for a fact that he was not abused at the daycare whatsoever, and he's never been abused by anyone outside of daycare either.

2) Oddly enough, Indy LOVES to cuddle. I'll be lying on the couch and he'll jump right up and snuggle next to me every night. He also loves to cuddle in bed with us and has no problem when we pet him during those times. This is the only time he ever shows his belly and lets us pet it--he never does that during the day. He evens cuddles with my father-in-law on the couch--the one person in the world that he will NEVER allow to come near him. For whatever reason, he hates my father-in-law, but couch cuddling with him is okay. Go figure.

3) He has stopped doing certain tricks, like roll over, which he used to do without us even asking. He'd see us get a treat and immediately roll over to get it. Now, he won't do it AT ALL. He is not injured and he is not sick. We just went to the vet and he's perfectly fine. So I don't think it's a pain issue. Any ideas as to how we can get him to do this again? He absolutely refuses to do it and he used to love doing it, so it's strange that he just one day completely stopped.

Do you have any idea what this behavior means and is there anything we can do to correct it? It just seems so out of character for his breed. Now that daycare is over, and I'm spending many hours at home with him again, he seems to be improving with letting us pet him again. It's a huge change from earlier this summer, but he's still not the way he used to be with strangers and it's so upsetting to me. He seems to lack trust for anyone besides me...he's still a little shaky with my husband at times and this breaks my heart.

Any advice would be appreciated--thank you all in advance!

[Noble Vestal Labradoodles]

Sounds like he has entered a Fear Stage. You can google and read about them and the best thing to do is to continue life as normal, ignore his fear and to continue to socialize him. Be aware however that things YOU do can lock in the fear of these things. Dont force it and dont coddle him when he gets scared.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I agree. This sounds like the second fear period. My 7 month old puppy now barks at people she doesn't know well at times. she eventually warms up. she hasn't shown any fear of me but all dogs are different. as to why he won't roll over, i have no idea but that doesn't seem too important. You can always retrain him to do this when he settles down.

[Kyoko]

That's what its sounds like to me, too.

[Tammy & Gracie]

Has he been thru something different? A while back I sent my dogs to a new groomer. One of them, Annie, was normally a floppy, rollover, please rub my belly sort of dog. Immediately after the grooming she refused to roll over anymore and was not floppy. I asked my vet during a regular checkup and he saw nothing wrong with her. We figured she was hurt by the groomer in some way, maybe being burned slightly by the clippers or some physical pain that made her afraid to submit..... I just waited and after 2 or 3 weeks she returned to her trusting self. Needless to say, we never went back to that groomer. I even have wondered if they hit her or something while she was on her back on the grooming table.....

[Mrs. K]

Thanks so much everyone for this advice! I feel like such a nitwit for not recognizing this as a fear stage. I emailed our trainer about this a few weeks back and she said "I've seen this before and it's very fixable," but she never came over to help us out. I therefore assumed that there was something WRONG with Indy, not that it was a stage he was going through.

I will continue to socialize him and just keep moving on. I have a tendency to force him into situations where he might not be comfortable, and I take it this is wrong?? Like, if we're walking on the road and he (out of nowhere) is afraid of a traffic cone or something and pulls back, I usually just keep walking him passed it and try not to take notice of it. He's pulling back with all his might. Eventually, he gets over it and follows me. Is this wrong the way I'm handling it? I really don't want to scar my dog for life!

Tammy--I can't think of anything out of the ordinary except the daycare. We groom him ourselves at home and he's fine with it. He still loves going to stores and in the car...no fear issues there. I can't think of a specific thing that would have sparked this except daycare which, again, he absolutely loved. So I'm not sure. It sounds like they must have done something to Annie when they groomed her that made her cautious for a time. I'm so glad she came out of it though, and so quickly too! Good thing you didn't go back to that groomer...you never know, you just never know. We groom Indy at home to save money and my husband does a fantastic job! I highly recommend it if you have the patience and don't mind your dog looking silly for a few weeks while you learn how to work the clippers right!

I will continue to just help him through this...I guess I got so concerned because it's lasting so long, but Noble I think you're right--I'm sure that I am a huge part of the problem and need to examine my own behavior in all of this. Thanks for getting me to look in the mirror!

[Noble Vestal Labradoodles]

You are doing the correct thing based on the way you described the traffic cone. Sometimes I will even lay treats on things I know my dogs dont like. I leave it up to them if they want to get the treat.

[Mrs. K]

Thanks for the input. I will try the treat thing to see how that works with him, too. When he's afraid of a person, I will give the person a treat, but Indy still won't go near them. Any ideas on how to handle that?

[Noble Vestal Labradoodles]

some dogs can pick up on bad vibes a person gives. dont push it with people. I would rather my dog tell me they didnt like a person then to bite them.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I think there was a more recent discussion too.