Sounds familiar! Lexi had a minor meltdown when the neighbors put up one of those giant inflatable holiday decorations. It was a big skeleton on a bicycle.
I usually ask her to go up to it. If she seems really worried, I go up to it first, and then Bentley goes up to it (oh, big brother will do it? No big deal!) and then I ask her to touch it and feed her. She usually gets over it immediately after that.
I had to have Riley sniff & touch the holiday decorations durin Christmas and Halloween (flags and plastic ghosts...oh the horror!) He had hesitated, but went up to it to sniff and never had issues with it until it changed. Hmmm....Lexi and Riley are like long lost siblings the way they act similar
We have not had a major meltdown yet since the other day. He still gets very stressed when strange dogs go past our house. Rally class is on Wed, so fingers crossed he will be better.
In good news: suddenly we are no longer terrified of the teeter in agility class. In the beginning of class he actually ran out of the ring into his crate because the teeter was in the ring! But we walked past it on leash so he got cookies for looking at in, then being near it, then sniffing it. He went up it without a hitch, getting Lots of cookies for being on it and he was jackpotted for riding it down slowly (trainer holding the end to prevent it from banging). By the end of class he was riding the teeter on his own, banging it down as well!!! He actually was so pleased with himself (and the cookies he got for being on he teeter) that he would run up to it and ride it on his own after our runs!!! Lightbulb switched on!
Now let's hope that his confidence on the teeter will help him be less fearful......