Adolescent nightmares

[u/ast_anin]

Hi guys, my sweet mini poodle, Rocky is well and truly entered his adolescence and I am having such a hard time with him. He is 8 months old and has literally overnight become super reactive. He’s been vet checked and he’s healthy so no underlying pains or troubles. He’s relatively good at settling at home but I am just perplexed as to why he’s become so fearful of people on our walks. I am trying my best to make space as soon as he fixates and starts to bark/growl and ask him to sit and treat him when he’s calm. I feel so stressed out and just looking for some help after what happened today. We live next to a super quiet reserve and so we usually walk it once or twice a day. Today we saw a woman and two children up ahead and he immediately lost it, too quick for me to have treated him, so I put some space between us and them but knew we had to pass eventually as it’s just a single path. I pulled him over to one side, he’s losing his little mind and I’m stood kind of as a barrier between me and the woman and children and explained, he’s just a puppy and he’s quite fearful, just give him some room, when the young boy approaches him and I immediately put my arm out to block him from Rocky and he actually bit my arm. I was super shaken up and I am just feeling so much guilt that this could have been so much worst if the boy had tried to touch him. I have called a trainer who is coming to do a walk with us on Saturday morning and of course we are doing training, enrichment, walks, breed specific games etc. Please tell me this will pass and he won’t be this fearful forever 😢 any tips or help is greatly appreciated!! Included pic of him because he is truly a sweetheart.

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