Panic!

We've had 2 mysterious episodes since E got here where he suddenly panicked and bolted. The first time, his 2nd day here, he was in his crate with the door open, and he had a longline attached (2 very thin light leashes connected together). The longline was secured to a heavy chair next to the crate. The idea was that he could come out of the crate and be in the room with us, but could not have full freedom.

The door to the back was open and was visible from his crate, but was out of reach. He suddenly bolted so fast and hard out of his crate that it bent the ring on his choke chain and the choke chain fell right off. He ran outside. We were stunned. It takes a LOT of force for that to happen. There was nothing obvious that triggered the episode. No noise, etc. Since he was so new here, we thought he wanted to get outside and made a mad dash for it. He came back to me with a treat, and I checked him- no injury. We repaired the choke chain.

Yesterday (day 4) I started to clicker train him and we were in the living room, the longline was on, again secured to a heavy chair. I was standing. He seemed less comfortable with me standing (it's a much more dominating position from his perspective). Suddenly he panicked, ran from me, got snapped back by the leash, cried out in terror and dashed into his crate (which was really NOT in reach, so he was being pulled hard on the buckle collar). I quickly released the longline to relieve the pressure on the collar, and sat in front of his crate and kind of talked to him. He settled down in the back of the crate, not wanting to come out. I didn't want a training session to end like this, it's important that they end on a very upbeat note. So I talked softly to him for few moments and then gave him a treat and gently took the leash and led him out of the crate. He came, but reluctantly. I started C/T-ing for short eye contact, and he brightened visibly, as though getting back into the game helped him forget his moment of terror. Boy, I wish I had a dog psychic who could tell me what was going on in E's mind.