Extremely Shy Puppy

M

MaggieMae

Forums Enthusiast
Everyone here has been so nice and helpful about our puppy that everyone said didn't look like a Sheltie. I'm sure some of you have run into this problem before. The BYB won't address it so I'm asking for any training advice you have.

Buddy is extremely shy - he even backs away from us at first and then will come forward. He's afraid of strangers, cars, trucks, bicycles, almost everything. He's 5 months. Today he nearly pulled out of his collar and got run over when a car went by.

Do any of you have any advice or will he always be very timid?

Thanks in advance!
 
I haven't done nearly the amount of sheltie rescue as others on this forum; but here's what I've learned:

Time. Patience. Distant exposure.

And a harness for the dogs that can back out of collars.

Sasha was terribly abused when we got her....raw places on her face, dirty, emaciated, trembling. It took months to get her over her fear of FOOD; as apparently the $#@@%*! who had her before us would lure her in with food and then beat her with the metal food bowl. She was afraid of men, food, chains, metal bowls, loud voices...It took months and lots of trial and error to find a way to get her to eat other than me sitting on the bed facing away from her with the food in my hand behind my back. You'd never know it now as she lunges for treats. I still don't feed her in a metal bowl...but she doesn't go into spasms at the sight of a metal bowl any more.

Praise the responses that you want. Invite friends over but tell them to pretty much ignore the dog (don't look, don't pet, don't talk to the dog). But, have the friend leave a little treat behind them everywhere they go in the house. Eventually your dog will go up to new people that come to the house because they'll associate food with the new friend.
 
Thanks so much for the advice! I'm going to follow it to the letter. We did have a harness for him and he chewed his way through in about an hour. If anyone knows of a chew-proof harness it would be great! I'm really afraid he will pull out of the collar and get hurt!

Thanks again!
 
MaggieMae said:
Thanks so much for the advice! I'm going to follow it to the letter. We did have a harness for him and he chewed his way through in about an hour. If anyone knows of a chew-proof harness it would be great! I'm really afraid he will pull out of the collar and get hurt!

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

You could try the martingale style collar. search the forums for martingale- you might go into overload :wink2:
 
Either buy this book or borrow it from the library.

http://www.amazon.com/Help-Your-Shy...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256005393&sr=8-1

I'm not even half way through it, and it's the best dog book I've ever read. It's very easy to understand and not confusing at all. Also, I'd buy a clicker.

My dog is extremely terrified as well. As soon as my clicker arrives in the mail we're going to work on that. There's also some videos on YouTube that will help you understand why dogs have fear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epOUthYQM80

Thanks to Romeo for giving me the link above. :biggrin2:
 
All great advice. You might also find he is going through a fear stage.

Take your pup to lots of active places - like the local shops, carpark, past the local school or playground, so he can get used to different sounds. I would start where there are kids or people - if he is ok with people then he will be distracted from the sounds by all the people patting and admiring him!

I would also suggest teaching him fetch. I have found this helps immensely with my shy Tully. Once she became ball obsessed she focused so closely on the ball that it meant she becomes less fearful of the things around her. It has really helped with her interactions with other dogs and stopping other behaviour like chasing bikes, barking at cars etc.

Also, do you know any other small dogs? Dogs learn best from other dogs so it would be great if you could walk him once a week with another dog so he can learn confidence. Altho I had another dog at home, it helped Tully to mingle with friendly dogs outside our pack - esp dogs of the same sex.

Good luck. I know it can be trying sometimes having a shy dog but you get to feel such a sense of accomplishment when you see them bloom.
 
I second the use of Martingale collars. I've used one on my boy since he was a pup and never had an issue with him slipping the collar.

If you want to try another harness, try Lupine products (scroll down to see the two different harness styles they have: http://www.lupinepet.com/dog/sm_dog.php). Lupine guarantees their products for life, even if they are chewed through. I have a Lupine Martingale and lead for Edan currently and they still look as good as the day I bought them.

Another thing you may try to help him get over the shyness is to enroll him in classes with other dogs and handlers. Even a basic puppy behavior class will help both him and you.

Jessica mentioned clicker training. I'm a firm believer in clicker training! I've actually seen the difference in how fast Edan learns with a clicker versus without the clicker. It's a positive training technique where the distinctive sound of a click marks the correct behavior and is reinforced by a treat or other reward. How can this help you with his scared reactions to things? Simple! Have him focus on you right before something "scary" happens. Click/treat for him looking at you. Click/treat for him continuing to look at your and/or if he looks away and looks back at you while things are happening around him. If he reacts in a way you don't want to the environment, don't reward and start over. Eventually the 'scary thing' gets replaced by 'if this happens, I get a treat'. You can slowly phase the treats out as the behavior you want becomes consistent. You can get more information at http://www.clickertraining.com/.
 
Shy Shelties

I third the use of martingales!! The harness was good for us when Iris was very small... for safety reasons, although she got to pulling, and hard! 15 lbs isnt much but when its yanking on your arm for an hour or 2 its not so fun, with the martingale she choked herself the first few times getting the hang of it . She would try to pull and realise that it sucks to pull with a martingale on haha... the only time its not that effective is when another dog is walking by, but then again, a wall of fire would not stop her if another dog is walking by !!

Everyone else seems to have given you great advice though ! Really good idea about the treat and the guests, Im going to put that to the test this evening ! haha

Yes lots and lots and lots of exposure!
 
I fourth the martingale collar. They are a must.....you never know when your dog might try and back out of its collar and harm him/herself. I don't leave my martingale on our dogs....just put it on for walks. GREAT invention.

I think exposure at a very slow pace is an excellant idea. Maybe even look for a puppy kindergarten class nearby. This will be a great way to get your pup exposure under an expereinced eye.

Good luck and keep us posted please.
 
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