Wary of Strangers
Hey all!
So, Ace is 9 and a half months now and is doing great in almost all aspects. His recall on the long line outside is great, we've even had a couple Eureka! moments where he was off-leash in a highly distracting park and he did flawless recalls. His tricks and "gentleman" behaviors are going without a hitch. Overall, he's becoming a great canine citizen.
My only issue that I can't seem to work out of him is his wariness of strangers. It takes him an excruciatingly long time to grow accustomed to other people to the point where he'll voluntarily come up to them with a smile on his face and a tail wag. Now, I know that Cardigans aren't as garrulous as their Pembroke cousins, and that Ace is quite aloof in general, but I would like if he wouldn't shy away or try to hide behind my legs whenever presented with a stranger.
It's difficult to work on this issue as I don't really have access to a place with voluntary strangers to come up to him and wait for me to work my magic. He does go to work with my husband every other day, but it's been around five months now and no one there is a real stranger to him anymore.
So, if any of you have had a wary or shy dog, how did you work past it? I know he'll never get to a Golden Retriever level of open friendliness with strangers. I do want him to be more comfortable around them!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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There may be a genetic component to his shyness, if you have exposed him to lots of friendly people and situations up to now. Even if so, keep up the exposure, do not force him, let him find his own comfort level. Have special treats that you only reserve for others to offer him. Just start with his taking a treat, petting can come later, if he seems to be open to it. Make sure YOU are thrilled with anyone who approaches, or he will pick up the uncertainty from you and label it as danger.... Make a list of everyone you know and plan to invite people over to your house on a rotating basis. Many who have shy dogs also have a reserved lifestyle rather than having many different people coming to their house on a regular basis. When people are over, ignore the dog and let him decide if he wants to approach or not. If he goes to someone, they can give a treat or pet him, otherwise just let him observe. If you are an outgoing person who enjoys and trusts other people, in time his confidence will grow with continued exposure.
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Permalink Reply by Ludi on
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Great advice! It's true that we don't have people over - mostly because our flat has little to no furniture. D: I wish we could host parties and get-togethers, but we don't even have a couch, or a table. Such is life of two struggling artists.
Ace does meet a huge variety of people all day, every day. He is the only corgi in the whole city, I would gamble, and because of his coloring and derpy eyes, he does get a lot of attention. I tend to be very enthusiastic whenever anyone approaches, not coddling him but definitely trying to get him excited about the prospect of meeting someone. Sadly he's always wary. I will try the "Special Stranger" treats idea. :)
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Find other struggling artists to invite over, they will not mind that you have no couch :-))) and they will be good company.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Did you have him since he was a puppy? You probably know this already, but the most important socialization window is prior to 14 to 16 weeks of age; if puppies have less-than-adequate socialization before that age, they can be a bit shy of strangers even if they are heavily socialized later. Of course personality plays a huge role.
I agree with what Anna said. I'd try to get people to walk by and drop treats, then move up to having people hand-feed a treat. Encourage people to stand back and ignore him, with no eye contact, and let him decide when he wants to say hi. When he does move up to people, they should continue to ignore him until he relaxes and has a chance to sniff. All of that is very hard to get people to do, though! People want to move right in, head on, making eye contact, which is intimidating to a shy dog.
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Ace came to us at 16 weeks. :( He lived on what I believe is a horse/cattle farm for the majority of that time, as well as inside the house. I'm going to go ahead and guess that he wasn't hyper-socialized, or at least not as much as I would have preferred.
And yeah, I have a very good idea of the ideal behavior I'd like a stranger to exhibit to Ace, but they often do the complete opposite. Eye contact, moving in while looming over him, reaching out to pet him on his forehead, etc. I am definitely going to be armed with his tasty kibble in a little compartment of my coat and start asking strangers if they'd like to drop him a few treats.
Basically at this point I think it's a combination of him not being heavily socialized as a pup, and us not having a ton of opportunities to socialize him. I do the best with what I can, though. D:
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The lack of socialization to different people and environments is certainly a large component. I find that people who want to pet your dog, being dog lovers, are happy to cooperate if you are quick to let them know the situation. Just say immediately "my pup is a shy, would you mind offering him a treat?" Then fish out your yummy treat ( dried liver treats work well ). If he does not take it, you can have them drop it in front of him, I would not drop more than one. If he takes it from the hand he can have two or three. It's good for him to be approached by strangers and see nothing bad happens, even if he is not wanting to be petted. He may get to recognize certain people, it's a slow process and there is no rushing it. You can cut back a little of his morning meal, so he will be more enticed by the food, and feed him a bit more at the evening meal, unless he's had a lot of treats.
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These are all really fantastic ideas Anna, thank you so much. I am a bit of a shy person myself so I hadn't thought of just straight up asking people "Would you like to offer him a treat?"; that sounds so much more pleasant than what I had planned - "Would you mind bombing the ground with treats as you pass by?". D:
His morning meal is already quite paltry as I love to clicker train with him in multiple sessions each day. I'll temporarily cut back on those in the name of getting him to be more of a people dog. I know that not having been socialized thoroughly as a pup had/will continue to have an effect on him, but I think that Ace is a smart enough dog to realize on his own that humans pose no threat to him.
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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I feel your pain. Cardis are rare around here too and with Luke's blue eye people tend to approach him staring him right in the face. If I take him to the petstore I always arm myself with my treat pouch and try to intercept people before they get all up in his grill, then I'll ask if they want to give him a treat. He does really well if the person kneels down at an angle to him and let's him approach on his own time, instead of looming over him trying to pet his head. For what it's worth he's gotten much better with age and practice, and I don't think it's unusual for a cardi to be wary of strangers, or at least indifferent. Just keep at it.
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I adopted my Cardi from a Shelter a year ago. He was friendly and liked people and dogs, but leery of anyone holding anything in their hands (people must have thrown things at him) and of all strange objects and noises, vacuum cleaner, a broom, riding in the car and on and on, but he's great now and only rarely do the old fears crop up. When something makes him unsure, I give him time to work it out and praise him when he does. He has learned to trust that, if I'm there, it's OK.
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Yeah, I'll have to be more consistent in keeping the treat pouch with me when I go out. Previously I'd only use it for training sessions outside in distracting environments, but it looks like asking folks to offer him a treat is the best way to go. I'll have to offer them the broken-up kibble instead of the slimy cheese and hotdogs, I wager. :D
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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Our doberman is shy and was my son's dog for the first 6 years of her life and while she had classes and a little social life she really experienced a change when she came to live with us. We travel often in our RV and tend to be pretty social. About half way through the summer I noticed that the frequent interactions with strangers was turning out to be something she enjoyed. I would always have her sit and then encourage people to pet her or give a treat. Not too aggressively (no hugs) but once she realized that it was fun she became much less shy. She will probably never be able to handle a really aggressive greeting like my corgis do but at least she has learned to enjoy meetings. You just need to increase Ace's interactions with strangers but make sure he doesn't become overwhelmed. Encourage people to give him a treat or say Hi. Any of the pet supply stores (Petsmart etc) are good places to visit. Often the cashiers will give treats. He may not ever be very outgoing but can learn to enjoy meeting new people.
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Thanks Bev; Ace is meeting quite a lot of strangers every day thanks to our walking paths all having to cut through areas with heavy foot traffic. The treats idea seems to be the general consensus in the thread, and I can't wait to try it out. I know that Ace will probably never be the type to waggle furiously whenever anyone walks up to him, but he can definitely make a lot of progress from where he is now!
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