Hayley22

Delphi is GREAT with new situations and meeting new people and animals. I take her absolutely everywhere with me, so she's been to shopping centres, parks, pet shops, friends' houses, my boyfriend's work... You name it! She even comes with me when I see my psychologist. He jokes that I'm getting therapy for my dog too, for the price of one! She always seems really confident, happy and friendly. She's had a couple of play dates with friends' dogs, and has even had one with two little kittens, who she loved!

But when we go for walks around my neighbourhood, she becomes timid and scared. I don't know if it's maybe the sound of cars? (She has heard cars before in difference contexts.) Or the wide open space? (She's has been in parks with lots of space.) But often she will sit down and just look at me. I know this look, because she used to give it to me often in the house when she first arrived. I would put her down and call her, and she would look at me as if to say, 'Pick me up, please!' Now of course she runs around the house like a mad thing. I haven't been that diligent with set walking times, because we're always out and about anyway, so perhaps she just isn't used to that context of being on the leash. It just struck me as very strange. This evening for instance, she saw a man walking down the street, sat down and just watched him quietly. She wouldn't continue walking. Then as he came closer, she ran behind a bush!

I really want her to be a confident little dog, as I know that simply by virtue of being so small, the world can be overwhelming.

How do I help her become more confident without pushing her too much?

She is 18 weeks old today. Could she be going through a fear period?

I should also mention that at her puppy socialisation classes she has had a few incidents of being frightened by a large, rambunctious puppy whose owner doesn't have much control over him. (This is despite the fact that she is practically between my feet the whole time.) This dog has since been asked to leave the class, and the trainer is working with him and his owner privately. As a result, whenever we go to classes (we have been to four so far) she sits by the wall of the garden, eats grass and avoids eye contact. She wants to be on my lap or close to the wall. Could this experience have caused her to be timid on walks? She had a private play date with a Yorkie pup from the socialisation class and had an absolute BLAST, but as soon as she's in that group she freaks out.

Sorry about the long post!

fjm

Protect her. Both of mine spent the first few classes under my chair, or even on my lap - often I sat on the floor with them to make them safe. If something worries her when you are out, move so that you are between her and the scarey thing. Don't let people pet her unless she initiates contact (giving them a few scrummy treats to drop helps with this!). Keep calm yourself, as she will pick up on your tension and anxiety. Bit by bit she will realise that the world is a friendly place, but each frightening experience means several steps backwards, as you have found. At 18 weeks she is probably going through a fear periiod, too.

Poppy was a rather shy pup, and went through enough fear periods for a whole litter. I taught her that she was safe between my feet, and that I would always step in to protect her. And we stopped going to one class where there were a couple of over-enthusiastic pups with ineffectual owners! Each time we made progress, and then went backwards again, I told myself that she wouldn't be fully adult till she was at least 2 years old, and if we kept at it by that time she would be a well adjusted dog. And she was! Not a complete social butterfly, still inclined to wait and watch for a few minutes to be sure about things, still not keen on people looming over her, but confident, sociable and happy.

There is an excellent presentation by Suzanne Clothier on why we should rethink the old idea of never comforting your dog when it is frightened in case you reinforce the fear:

__________________

To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,
where doing nothing was not boring- it was peace.

~ Milan Kundera

Hayley22

Thanks, FJM, for an (as always) insightful and helpful post.

I do try to protect her in situations like this. It is my natural instinct. I have had people tell me that doing so will make her insecure; thankfully, I haven't taken this advice.

I find it interesting that she is SO outgoing in some situations (pretty much every time she meets a new person) and timid in others. But I suppose it corresponds to what she is used to and what she is comfortable with. Probably because we haven't been doing a lot of traditional walking-around-the-neighbourhood, she isn't completely comfortable in that environment. Similarly, with classes, because she has bad associations with it, she is timid. I would definitely not be going back this coming Sunday if the trainer hadn't told me last week that the dog would be removed. After three similar incidents, I wouldn't have wanted to continue exposing Delphi to such a negative experience. The owner is well-meaning, but basically she has rescued a powerful mixed breed, who probably didn't have a very positive puppyhood and consequently has quite a bad case of dog/people aggression. I'm thankful that the trainer has not decided to give up on him, while at the same time making a decision that protects the rest of the class.

Thanks for the posting the video - I haven't watched it yet, but I will tomorrow; I'll let you know what I think. I suspect I will agree with the general tangent.

As a general socialisation question: do you think it is sufficient that Delphi comes with me everywhere, interacting with people and dogs we happen to meet, or is a continuation of classes necessary? I have signed up for a six week 'course' of puppy classes. I am debating whether to go back for the next class (it kind of works like human school: puppy socialisation, then pups 1, pups 2 etc.) or to do obedience with her at home (I have a great book on clicker training, and have been doing the exercises with her) and continue taking her out with me whenever I go out. I just don't know if the classes are worth going to...

liljaker

Yep, protect her and I see she is a toy, so you need to be her advocate for a bit. Big dogs with high energy can be scarey if they are not used to them. Even Sunny, who need to gain much more confidence, was dog socialized before I got him and he is almost 4; however, a rambunctious large dog that wants to play makes him move out of the way and hide behind me like, "no way" so I would just be sure to control and not reinforce if he is scared. I had to work on that with Sunny, as occasionally he sees something and it's like "whoa......what is that???" and gets cautious. I have to keep my voice tone normal and say, "it's fine......just a man...... c'mon keep going" and he is ok. If I baby him, pick him up, or agree it's scarey, it just reinforces it. The next time he sees it it might be, "whoa there's that scarey thing again.....and he sort of waits for me to react and when I don't he trots past it." I'd be careful of larger dogs for awhile though, too.

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fjm

I would try again with the classes, but let her just sit and watch if that is what she wants to do. She may well bounce back after a session without the aggressive dog, and enjoy herself. If she seems really stressed, then perhaps discuss with the trainer what the best approach might be - I did two puppy socialisation classes with Poppy, just to give her the extra experience of being around a lot of dogs in a very controlled environment. But if you do decide not to go back, it sounds as if she is getting lots and lots of happy times out and about with you, so she certainly won't be short on socialising.

Have you tried making a chart of all the different people, places and things you want her to know and love? There are several examples on the web, and they are very useful to make sure you don't miss anything important. Umbrellas and snowsuits can come as a nasty shock to pups born at the wrong time of the year to meet them before they are 9 months old!

__________________

To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,
where doing nothing was not boring- it was peace.

~ Milan Kundera

Hayley22

Thanks for your reply, Liljaker. I agree that one should keep the tone 'light' and keep calm... I think as soon as I see a big-ish dog I tend to tense up: need to work on this one!

Hayley22

I LOVE this idea! Am going to search online for an example!