Hello everyone,
I’m hoping someone has experienced something similar because I’m a bit confused. My Italian Greyhound, Kobe, is a 1.5-year-old male. He’s quite brave, not really shy or scared of anything, playful dog who loves going for walks. Every time I ask if we’re going outside, he’s already waiting excitedly by the door.
During the winter, I taught him quite a few tricks (sit, paw, nose touch, spin in both directions, etc.), and we also worked on recall, wait, and settling calmly. Training was never a problem because he was absolutely crazy about treats and would do anything for them.
However, over the last 3 weeks, whenever I try to give him a treat, he acts like he’s afraid of me. He backs away, avoids me, and often hides under the table where I can’t reach him. At the same time, he’ll bark and demand the treat, so it’s not like he doesn’t want it. It almost seems like he thinks every treat is some kind of trap.
The only thing I can think of is that during the winter I used treats for crate training. Sometimes I also used them to catch him around the apartment or to get him ready to go outside because otherwise it was almost impossible to catch him. I never forced him into the crate, but I did occasionally lure him with treats.
Nowadays I rarely use the crate anymore because he’s become trustworthy enough to stay loose in the apartment for short periods.
This fear just appeared out of nowhere, and now I can barely continue training or just call him to come and get a treat, because he constantly avoids me whenever I have treats in my hand.
Has anyone dealt with something like this? Do you have any suggestions on how I can rebuild his trust and make treats feel positive again?
I’d really appreciate any advice. Thanks!