Anxiety or more

[Italysprings]

Hello,

My sweet young dog, Faith, is a year and a halph old. I got her for free from the breeder who breeds show dogs because she was not breathing when she was born and they worked on her for over five minutes to get her to breathe. So she was free to a good home, I had just lost my beloved dog of 12 years. I took her and was never sure if she had brain damage or to what extent but she did remind me of the movie "fifty first dates" because she acted as if she could not remember me each morning and was fearful of me. So over time I realized she had a lot of fear, and I socialized her from day one of getting her at 12 weeks of age.

She is so timid of other dogs, not sure if she had a bad experience with her litter mates, or the older dogs the breeder still had on the grounds, but she will become a statue if a dog barks. Or is aggressive towards her. She runs up to dogs excited to play then as soon as one barks in a playful way she shuts down. I am working with a behavorist who says she just needs to build up her confidence. I just wonder if she could also have some type of brain damage where something misfires, I still cannot get her to go up the steps calmly. She attacks them as if she knows it scares her and she has to do all at once to get it over. If she is focused on something, namely food she will be fine. But I cannot always take food to the dog parks either. Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or even has a pet that was not breathing for arounf five minutes or more after birth?