Husband scared puppy by going "rrruffff"!

This morning while my husband was playing with our new puppy Spencer, my husband made a dog barking noise, not loud, but it sounded realistic. He used to do this with our big dogs all the time.

Spencer ran away and hid under the table! He refused to come out for my husband. He came to me and I picked him up and carried him to my husband, and he didn't seem scared when my husband petted him, but he still won't come to my husband!

Will Spencer "forget" that my husband did something scary? Is there anything my husband can do to seem less scary now?

Your husband will need to rebuild Spencer's confidence in him - ideally ask him sit or lie on the floor so he is lower and doesn't look a threat, Cavaliers generally cannot resist someone lying on the floor!

Ask husband to throw a few special treats around him, offer toys and play - basically not to push himself on Spencer at all, but to let Spencer come to him.


Cavaliers are very small puppies, some are completely bombproof but others can be a bit scared of things especially if they have not been very well socialised.

He should get over it. Everyone has told me this breed is so sensitive, but I never really realized it until I finally got one. One time when we were practicing the "leave it" command, Coco grabbed the leave it item and I grabbed it out of her mouth telling her "NO!!!" and then she was afraid of me for the rest of the day. Yep, she is just sensitive!!! She got over it though, I did not practice leave it at all for probably a month lol. To regain her confidence in my I took her on walks and played and tried to do a lot of fun things with her, and she forgot all about the whole thing