Normal adolescent fear period behavior?
My 11-month-old pup has been acting WAY more anxious than normal in the past 48 hours, and I’m trying to figure out if it is just a fear period or if there is reason for more concern.
We rescued her at 4 months and she's now 11 months old. She has been an incredibly excitable and confident dog and rarely if ever showed signs of fear.
2 days ago, seemingly without explanation, as soon as we got outside she became very scared: tail tucked, shaking, whining, and pulling to go back inside. No explicable reason other than that the air may have smelled a little weird? We live in a city, so that is to be expected at times. Ever since then, she seems reluctant to go on walks and generally way more nervous than normal (jumping at the sound of cars going past, birds calling, etc). Sometimes she’s been in a total panic, and sometimes it’s just more on edge than normal and we're able to go on our normal walks. In the past day she's also become increasingly aware and afraid of our ceiling? She’ll look up at it and cower/back away, and she refuses to get on her bed. But eventually she has been able to calm down/ignore it. She also tends to get better over the course of each day, evenings are calmer than mornings.
She has no other symptoms- still eating and going to the bathroom normally, her ears don't smell off, no pain when squeezing her legs. We did call the vet, who wasn't that concerned and thought it was something environmental because it tends to be better when she's inside. We have an appointment early next week for them to examine her.
Does this line up with any of your experiences with fear periods? Or any ideas about what it could be? A lot of things line up with my reading about them (timeline, reevaluating environment) but this just seems quite severe. I would also welcome any advice on how to help her feel a little less afraid! I feel so bad seeing her like this. We have been giving her lots of treats and trying to keep the vibes very positive.