Suddenly Fearful

[Karen & Maple]

Maple is now 14 months. She's been well socialized with dogs and people and exposed to many environments. Until recently she's alway been friendly and inquisitive. She's had a few episodes recently where she totally panics- barking, yelping while trying to run away. Happens with random passerbys or when she meets a dog bigger than her. I think it got worse while on our east coast road trip from which we just returned. Perhaps this has something to do with it? She seemed to do so well traveling.
I'm trying to figure out the best approach/ response. So far I've tried to remain calm, distract her, speak slowly calmly to her. 'You're ok, let's move forward'. I thought the fear stage would have been a while ago? I'm hoping someone will tell me this is just a late stage of puppyhood. In the meantime, what else can I do to help her progress.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

My Murphy is fearful of some other dogs, and I spent years trying to train him to calmly pass by these dogs.  He was never able to do this with any degree of consistency.  My trainer and I agreed that he was just too fearful and we changed our strategy to  turning and walking in the opposite direction so he doesn't ever have to actually pass the other dog face to face.  If that isn't possible I turn to the side and put him in a sit...and I stand between him and the other dog.  It is really important that you remain calm....they really do know if you're not.  I verbally correct his "state of mind" when he's in that "hyper vigilant state"  and watch for him to calm....then I and softly tell him "good boy".  This method works most times.  If the other dog is really aggressively barking and lunging at Murph he will not calm down and I know to just remove him from the situation as quickly as I can.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

 If she isn't as fearful as Jane's Murphy, time and continued calm exposure to things might clear up the problem. If I think my dogs will react to a dog as we are passing, I put them in a sit/stay and they calmly watch the other dog go by, even if the dog is barking and lunging.  I don't know why this works for my guys but it does.  Ned dislikes many boxers (go figure) and will bark and lunge at them - if I put him in a sit/stay,  he might rumble a growl, but that will be it. 

To continue my dogs' socialization, especially when exposing them to something new, we go near whatever I want to introduce them to and sit and watch before venturing closer.  I have done this for extreme sounds - like heavy traffic, or trains; as well as crowd situations - like playgrounds, skateboarders, bicyclists, playgrounds, etc.

[Karen & Maple]

Thanks ladies. I'm putting these suggestions into practice.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

The age of 14 months is included in the 2nd fear stage for puppies so maybe part of what is going on is the timing. The trip may have added to the situation.

http://ice.ucdavis.edu/~robyn/Korina/BCIdeas/Criticalperiodsinpuppy...

It is also important to let her know that YOU are in charge of dealing with any situation that causes her fear. So she knows that she is safe and can trust you to protect her. Tara watches us constantly for clues about how to react in new situations so we have learned to behave in ways that show her we are in charge and she doesn't have to deal with it.  Some things we do are step between her and the object,  remain calm, and walk away like we are totally unconcerned about it. It sounds like you are doing well with these things.  At times, we also have her sit or lay down as Nancy mentioned so she has something to do and knows what we expect of her.  I did read that soothing sounds can reinforce the fear so it might be good to avoid  doing that for now.