If men are a really weak spot for her becuase of her past it might take a long time for her to come around. if she has been abused she probably learned that if she peed on herself the spanking stopped...therefore learning if she gave the most submissive acts she can immediately then maybe no spanking would come. You will have to just ignore the peeing until you can raise her confidence.Poodles are one breed with verities so yeah all Poodles are Poodles
Tuesday will be 2 in May. The people I got her from (well the husband) would spank her because they thought she was the one killing their geese. Turns out is was their other dog but Tues got in trouble for it so now when I have to grab her collar or get vocal with her she pees and when meeting new people she pees. Its gotten better though.
She is fine with the human clients but when I bring the dog in the yard she goes for it and gets defensive, I have worked with her on meeting new dogs, I just don't know what else to do.
As far as I know our 2 yr old spoo was never hit, but I do know she had NO SOCIALIZATION around them...it has taken almost 6 months for her to even give my husband a play bow and it took at least 3 months for her to even ask to be petted by him. She is up my rear 24/7 and has never been shy around me after about her 3rd day here.
She still runs and hides under the kitchen table whenever anyone new comes in and she started growling at some people, especially men in hats.
Now when I have someone coming over, I lock the baby gate so she has to stay in the living room.When they knock and she starts barking and growling I put her in a crate (that she is fine with being in) right behind the couch they have to sit down on. She hears them, and I will walk over and just stick in a treat if she is quiet for about 2-3 minutes at a time. If she growls I just say NO sternly. My hope is to make her go to the crate by herself whenever someone knocks on the door, then stay in there with the door open without barking or growling.
In a perfect world I would like her to greet everyone nicely and sit to be petted like most of the others do, but for right now its about making her learn that she is safe even when she hears things she has deemed scary. Hopefully after that I plan to have new people simply drop a treat in front of the crate and if she comes out and takes it then that is great, that will be one more step toward getting her to be civil toward visitors.
I am not one to use a crate normally, but I even admit that in the case of a big dog like an adult spoo its better to crate her and work from there then to risk someone or another dog getting bit. If you don't want to use a crate then maybe start by putting her behind a baby gate where she can see new visitors but she feels safer because they are further away.
Just hang in there and be creative if you have to...just training her to bark on command and acting like she is just the SMARTEST DOG IN THE WORLD if she does something good will help. If she is that submissive I think anything boosting her ego might help.
On another note, females coming into season (even if its weeks or a month away) can act a bit off...that might be something to consider!
