We have a problem. It started a couple of weeks ago at puppytraining.
As normal, all the puppies were allowed to walk freely for about 10-15 minutes. Mirtillo always loves this. Especially when he gets the chance to go around and 'bite' the fluffy pups. While he was doing his thing (playing and biting) and when I tried to intervene for the third time (there is one pup he just bites and then doesn't let go) he suddenly screamed very loudly like he was in pain. He paniced and ran away (while screaming). When I got to him, he didn't want me to touch him. He was biting at me (not mean, no growling, really in panic). He didn't have anything physical, so we figured that he might had hurt himself during the biting, because he is also losing his baby-teeth. He was pretty nervous the rest of the training, he recovered a bit after about 30 minutes and at the end he was playing again with other pups. (on leash)
When we were back at home, everything was back to normal again. No problems with other dogs we meet while walking.
A couple of days later we went to showtraining. I don't know exactly what happened, but I touched him and again this screaming. Again we thought.. well, maybe his teeth.. (I think the trainers first thought I was killing him.. they were looking at me like: are you normal??)
When we were back at puppytraining a week later and all the pups were allowed to run off leash.. Mirtillo just stood there.. He was scared! I wasn't too worried, because he was a bit too tough, so I thought, well it's ok if he loses some of his 'toughness'..
A week ago we were at showtraining and Mirtillo did great playing with a 14-week old bullterrier. The leashes were a bit strangled and I tried to unstrangle them. In a sudden: a big scream.. and he kept screaming. The trainer who saw it happen said that really nothing happened. (So now it was clear that I really didn't try to kill him the other time) She also said that the kind of screaming Mirtillo produces can trigger other dogs to attack him. And she told me to ignore the screaming, so no comforting. Again he was nervous for the rest of the training. He screamed again when the trainer tried to touch him.
Everything was back to normal at home.
Yesterday we were back at showtraining and he was afraid and nervous from the beginning. I didn't let him play with any of the other dogs. Only some sniffing. After 30 minutes he recovered and he did great.
When we go for our normal walks Mirtillo is never scared of another dog, but yesterday he gave his first on-leash-and-on-normal-walk-scream. Nothing happened. He was just sniffing.
And at puppytraining he isn't scared when all the other dogs are on leash.
Sorry for the long story, but I figured it might be best if I'm as specific as possible. One more thing: the day before the first screaming, we visited friends and their pack of Dachshunds. They have one male, that of course is the alpha male. He wasn't to happy with Mirtillo and made that clear. The others followed. They hunted him down (or tried to). We were there while it happened, so it was 2 seconds, and we had Mirtillo out of there.
Do you have any idea on what might be going on? And maybe any tips on how to react in the best way?
I think Mirtillo gets nervous when the other dogs come to close and he has the feeling he can't go anywhere. I don't know if I have anything to do with it, because a couple of times I was nearby as well (trying to intervene/putting him in stand/unstrangle the leashes)
He screamed once while he played with my brother.. or my brother played with him.. He's pretty rough with Mirtillo.. Tried to explain a thousand times….. but he's... himself.. (this screaming happened after the first screaming at puppytraining)
I hope you can help!