Hi I'm new here...I have a 4 year old female basset hound who is just the greatest dog ever but she has a horrible fear of new shoes. Whenever someone in our house gets a new pair of shoes she won't go near them she's afraid to walk by the shoes if they are sitting on the floor and it takes days of someone wearing the shoes before she gets over this. Any ideas what would cause her to be so afraid of them? We are thinking maybe the smell and they don't smell like us but we're not sure.
Thanks for any advice,

Jodi

lucky you!!!!!

Yeah it would be lucky if she wasn't so absolutely terrified but she doesn't chew up anything so I am lucky in that regard.

Maybe from trauma? My dog was terrified of brooms for a few months, because my grandmother hit her with it when she was here before. Of course when we found out why she was so afraid, we didn't let my grandmother do anymore cleaning while she was here, but that didn't solve my dogs fear.

What did help was slowly reintroducing her to the broom. I lay the broom on the floor and sat next to it, and told my dog to come. She was reluctant at first, but eventually she came near the broom. It took a few days for her to actually get close enough to touch it.
Then I moved the broom upright and did the same thing, telling her to come and that it was okay. She's totally fine with brooms now, although she's still a little afraid of my grandmother.
It may take a few days or weeks, but you have to keep at it, until the dog understands the object itself is not that scary.

We've had her since she was 8 weeks old so no trauma there she's never been much more than yelled at when she was a puppy for chewing up my cell phone It just seems like the behavior is getting worse and she is more and more afraid to walk by new shoes and won't go near anyone thats wearing them.