German Shepards have a bit of a reputation for being big, tough dogs. But that doesn’t mean that these pooches can’t be scaredy cats, too! Sam the Shepard is a perfect example of this.

Now, we all have our irrational fears (don’t talk to me about sharpened pencils, seriously) and some of those worries are a little more irrational than others. It’s hard to tell why we’re scared of these sometimes random, harmless things, but often times the fear is simply uncontrollable.

For Sam the Shepard, his irrational fear is…his family’s hardwood floors. We’re not sure if he’s afraid of ALL wooden floors or just the wooden floors in his house, but either way, it’s a big enough fear that he can’t even walk across the wooden boards.

When the video begins, Sam’s owner is down one end of a long, narrow hallway. You guessed it — it’s a wooden hallway. She’s calling out to Sam, asking if he wants to come see her down the other end of the hall.

Obviously, he does! His head is poked around the corner into the hallway, his ears perked up and excited. But no matter how much she calls and encourages him, Sam will not step out into the hardwood hallway.

Sam even tries to run away at one point and we can hear him crying behind the wall! So heartbreaking.

Finally, a man walks around the corner where Sam is hiding from the floor boards. The woman behind the camera asks if he’ll walk some down the hallway since he’s afraid to do it alone!

With his human guide in front of him, Sam bravely steps out onto the hardwood floor and makes a quick break to the hallway rug. He seems pretty calm on the rug, so we wonder if it’s the sound of his nails on the wood or the feeling of the wood under his paws that bothers him? We’ll never know.

But once he’s out on the rug, Sam’s friend has left him, off to do other things around the house! He looks around him, seeing hardwood on all sides, and is pretty clearly petrified to move forward.

So, he doesn’t. You have to watch the video below to see what clever technique poor Sam has to use to muster up his courage and get off that rug! It’s not hard to feel bad for the sweet dog, but we also couldn’t help but chuckle at his smart, funny method of conquering the hardwood floors.

We think it’s safe to say Sam won this round. Sam the Shepard: 1. Hardwood floors: 0.