Hypervigilance triggered while walking dogs

[AngelPrin]

I know we’re all different….. my dog saved my life. She is a rescue and was approx. 1 when I had my ‘incident’ that broke the camels back for me. Hyper-vigilance was an understatement immediately after. She learned to do it with me. I started to realize that I was ok when she was with me. So we looked into training and she became a task trained service dog with a niche for patrolling - so we had to give those tasks a ‘name’ too.

For me, she resolves my problem 10000%.

Not ideal for a ‘pet’ but she was un purposefully then purposefully trained and here we are.

I wish you the best!

 

[Guest]

I've been struggling with this a lot. My dog is sweet and well behaved, but there are so many triggers and things that remind me of my flaws, especially when taking her on walks. I live in a mixed rural/suburban area, where there are hazards everywhere.

Unrestrained dogs running up to us with no owner in sight.
Deer give birth in the neighborhood and are aggressive towards dogs when their fawn are young. We've been stalked a few times by them.
Last winter, we were walking along the main road and a pitbull charged at us from the bushes, grabbed onto my dog, and didn't let go for a minute or so. She was fine (she's a big dog with lots of fur), just a ripped ear and $400 in vet bills. That certainly didn't help with my anxieties about walking her.
My dog likes looking out the window when we go on drives, and that same dog (or at least one that looks like it) lunges at her, sometimes with the owner losing control and the dog ending up in the street. It feels like the world is out to get us.

I fear these experiences are making my world smaller and smaller. There's one path that has been a safe place to walk so far, but I'm dreading the time when something bad happens there and it's added to the list of scary places that I end up avoiding.

Owning a dog has been wonderful and brought me out of my comfort zone, motivated me to improve my situation and work on myself so I'm better able to handle the uncertainties of the world. Given me a reason to keep going. But it's also been insanely stressful, as someone who is so used to avoiding and escaping problems.

 

[whiteraven]

all the sensory input is very difficult to navigate when I'm not feel totally grounded and rested. Add to that a dog who is unpredictable by its very nature and it is leaving me wondering if I am capable of dog ownership.

Not all dogs are unpredictable. Maybe it would help to research breeds and then invest in training with the appropriate one.