I brought a 12 week old puppy into the city from Montana, and she is not adjusting well to the city at all.

She’s almost 16 weeks and she still flinches, shivers, and/or flees or flees from every typical Manhattan sound or sight that you can imagine. She loves meeting people and other dogs, and she’s happy at home and in the park, but everything in between is rough.

Socializing her has been exceedingly difficult cus I can’t even take her around the block without having to carry her cus she’ll freeze and try and take off in whatever direction we came, or yank me towards a nearby parked car and try to hide underneath it.

Even tho she’s already 21lbs I don’t mind carrying her, but a dog that’s living in the city that’s terrified unless they’re at the park or at home is not a happy dog.

I’ve asked for advise on Dog Training subreddits and people have suggested gradually incrementing the stressor at a rate she’s comfortable with, and that makes sense, but these people clearly don’t live in Manhattan.

As soon as I step out of my apartment building the stimulus intensity goes from 1/10 to 10/10, and it all happens so quickly that my poor pup doesn’t have time to recover from each individual startle. Ever 20 seconds it’s a bus, engine revving, ambulance, or just some dude yelling.

I’m also working with a certified trainer, but the advise I got from them has been hit or miss. Some days my pup responds decently (never well), and other days she seems to regress.

Has anyone had a puppy like this that successfully adjusted to nyc, and if so, how did you help them do it?