If the issue is strictly behavioral rather than physical or medical, it falls to you to try to figure out the unpleasant association your dog has made with going through a doorway and make modifications to ease her anxiety. Perhaps curtains blow as she crosses from one space to another, and that unnerves her. Or a space feels too cluttered to her. Or a neighbor’s dog barks and lunges from the safety of his own yard, leaving your pet intimidated. Can you take your dog out through the front door instead? Or put up a fence or other barrier that will keep your pet from seeing the aggressive dog? Can you remove some things that have accumulated near the doorway? You could even carry your pet to what she perceives as a safe distance from the problem, provided she is not too large.
Visual cues. Dogs’ depth perception is limited compared to humans’ due to the fact that their eyes are farther apart than ours. That eye placement is great for scanning wide terrain but not as good for navigating close-up spaces. So what to you is an innocuous strip of wood between two rooms might be a worrisome divide to your dog, one that appears as a real barrier rather than simply an aesthetic demarcation. If your dog has difficulty recognizing how raised a curved doorway saddle is, she may jump over it as though it is a true obstacle — or try to avoid it altogether, especially if the flooring on the other side won’t give her any traction.
Treatment begins with ruling out medical problems — or treating them if they’re found. Sometimes arthritis medicine or a weight-loss plan can make a dog more physically comfortable moving from one room to another, especially if there are stairs or slippery surfaces involved. Even a resolution of pain from something like an ear infection may make a dog more willing to cross thresholds again. Pain can really limit willingness, along with mobility.
Scary associations. You might wonder why a doorway can become a problem all of a sudden when everything had been fine for years. But the dog may have had a negative experience that you missed but which has stuck in her mind, and she can’t get past it. Perhaps a door bumped your pet as she passed it, or she stubbed her paw by accident on a raised threshold. Or maybe one time, just as she was leaving the house for a walk, a scary, aggressive dog from up the street starting barking at her. Or a firetruck zoomed down the street with lights flashing and siren blaring.
Seemingly out of nowhere, your older dog balks about walking from the family room to the kitchen, or jumps over the back-door threshold to go outside as though there is an electric jolt under her feet.
Dogs Who Are Scared of Doorways
While it may not be extremely common, some dogs have a fear of doorways. While this can be hard on the owners, it is something that can be fixed with some training!
Why is my dog all of a sudden scared to go outside?
Some dogs who are scared of going on walks may not have pain, but their vision or hearing could have deteriorated, making them perceive things differently than before. Even something as minor as a foreign object stuck on a dog’s eye or eye floaters can cause sudden fear in dogs.