Hi there,

My boyfriend and I just adopted a rescue dog 2 weeks ago. They saved her from a shelter so we don't know any of her history (the shelter found her as a stray).

She's a submissive dog and very subdued. The rescue foster family said she was very afraid of crates (probably from being at a kennel) so we haven't crated her during the day. She's been very good at home on her own tho - no destruction and she doesn't relieve herself in the house.

We live in an apartment in the city and you have to go down some interior stairs to get outside. Our dog, Molly, doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence or at least she's adjusting and can't go down the interior stairs on her own yet (she's fine outside). We've been carrying her down the stairs and she's resisting more and more. We've been trying some techniques to build up her confidence and I think that's working - like teaching her to recognize her name, to sit, and to gradually get down a few stairs.

So one problem is getting her down the stairs, but we've seen some progress there so I think we're on the right track.

The bigger problem is that she's now TERRIFIED of going outside. The first week we had her she was great! She had no problems going outside and none of the city noises bothered her... not even fire engines blaring past us!

Then all of a sudden, starting in the second week, she has been absolutely terrified to go outside. Nothing physical happened to trigger this and I'm assuming this is part of her adjusting to being in a new home and environment.

We've been trying to coax her with treats, gradually go outside - like sitting on the front stoop for a bit, distracting her when she gets really freaked... but we haven't seen much improvement at all.

Does anyone have any advice?? It's getting so bad that I'm just thankful any time we can get her out to relieve herself... and there have been times when she's so freaked out that we have to take her back in side (and sometimes no choice b/c she's pulling and clawing on the ground to go back so hard :-(

Any advice would be appreciated!!

I noticed penpapercoffee had a similar problem about a year ago but I wanted to ask this again to get some additional advice. I think my situation might be a little different too b/c we don't have a yard for her to relieve herself at least.