Brady is scared of things
Brady is almost 7 months now and he's scared of a lot of things.
1. Some certain neighbors and cleaning staff: when I take him out for a walk or potty break, we will sometimes come across neighbors. If the people is not moving or not moving towards him, he's pulling the leash to go after/toward them. But if they respond by walking toward him or trying to pet him, he will suddenly stop, start to dodge and even bark. I tried to distract him with treats, pssh.. sound, touch at the stomach, doesn't seem to work. Anything you guys could think of to correct this?
2. If my wife or I hold a box or a coke bottle, Brady starts to dodge, running around the house and bark. If we put them down to the ground, he would be skittish and try to approach, but very very cautious. Once we pick it up in the hand, he starts to dodge again. Maybe we had done something wrong when he was little and he has this dread? or something that we could do to correct this?
Some good story: A friend of mine moved a gave us a huge Mickey Mouse plush toy. First day we brought it back, Brady thought it's a person and barked nonstop. When I put treats on the toy, he's extremely cautious to take it and was ready to run away anytime. Then we started to leave the toy right next to his crate, every time he walks by, he bark at it. But then after about 2 days, he's totally accustomed and start to jump onto the toy and start to tug.
So I guess it does take time for skittish ones to get used to some new thing, especially big things, but how about moving objects like neighbors, I can't ask them to stay forever to let my corgi to get used to them.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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First teach the "watch me" command. Just hold a yummy treat up by your face an say watch (or look) and when he looks give him the treat. Practice this a few times a day. It is a great distracting command. Also, pups go through stages of fear and if you remain calm and matter of fact will out grow them. So with the neighbors I would just keep going. If they ask to pet him I would tell them he is shy and ask if they would like to hold still and offer a treat. That way your pup will be able to make the move.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Tong on
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We've learned "watch me" in the puppy class and Brady is able to do that as long as I have food or treat with me.
I also think my wife might have shared too much affection with Brady, when we are in dog park and she plays with other dogs, Brady gets a little jealous and will growl a bit. I'm trying to tell my wife to share less affection now. I have seen many Chihuahua in Cesar Milan show, acting very possessive of their owners.
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Permalink Reply by Linda on
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Bev's advice is excellent. The watch me command is handy for all kinds of things...for distracting the dog and also for trainging. Eventually you will no longer have to actually say watch me....just hold the treat up by your face (I hold mine to the side near my eyes) and they will watch you.
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I think the point is to get Brady to watch me when he is already attracted by other stuff
I'm trying to pull the leash to the side to make him not looking towards where he was, then use the "pssh" to re-direct him.
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Permalink Reply by Donna and Lilly on
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Lilly is very anxious...and she is usually skittish, but we have done some obedience training, and that seemed to help. She is so much better when her big brother Ein is with us. But she does well when she is alone now too.
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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Donna brings up a very good point, seldom mentioned. Obedience training group classes, if done in a positive manner, are great confidence builders for shy or skittish dogs. As you train with the dog, the dog learns which response to give in which situation and that the results are predictable and always good. This goes a long way in building trust between owner and dog and putting the dog more at ease when confronted with new things. The trick is to train in a quiet, safe place first and then gradually ( days, not months ) do the training in environments that are progressively more challenging to the dog, escalating demands slowly as the dog is solid in his response and sense of ease.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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What a cutie pie! How old was he when you got him? Was he well-socialized? Some dogs are naturally skittish, others are that way because they weren't socialized a lot before 14 weeks old, when the socialization window starts to close.
I agree with the "watch me" command. Re: people. Do you have friends or family members he doesn't know well that would be willing to work with you? And are very good at following instructions? If so, what you can do is load them up with treats, and have them walk by and drop treats for him WITHOUT MAKING EYE CONTACT or trying to touch him. Gradually, as he starts reacting, they can progress to stopping to talk to you without interacting with the dog. Then give the dog a chance to approach on his own, again still ignoring him, and maybe take more treats from their hand. They should only try to interact with him after he tries to initiate direct interaction with them, which may take only a couple sessions or months, depending on the dog, but he's young so probably not that long).
If people can't follow the instructions though (and most of us can't because even if you tell us the dog is fearful, we think we are the key who can fix him and he will just love us because we are lovable!) then it will just overwhelm him further.
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I got him when he was 9-week, and we have some regular visitors in early stage. We didn't bring him out to Pet Smart or dog park until he got the rabies shot at 16-week. Before that he only has played with a dog of my friend.
My friend's dog was a golden doodle, extremely playful. However Brady is somewhat independent, always want to play chew toys alone. The doodle always lures Brady to play with some annoying sting move towards Brady's head, and this always ended up with some chasing and hiding.
Recently we've been constantly taking Brady to dog park and he was a little up tight initially, but much better now.
Last week, he was playing with one owner, and then a big samoyed came in the way and tried to chase with Brady. Apparently it's a little too big of a dog for Brady to handle, and then 3 other big dogs joined in chasing Brady, and then he's scared and running away but totally over-powered by the other dogs. The next moment, all the owners were getting their own dogs and stopped the play. That looks scary to me, and I thought Brady might get scared of the park. Luckily, dogs do live in the moment, the next day he was playing with other dogs again :)
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