From: Valaria_Vorlop@mindlink.bc.ca (Valaria Vorlop)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs
Subject: Re: Frightened Greyhound
Date: 10 Sep 92 21:05:25 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

Sue Moser writes:

>I'm guessing that Tiger was not well socialized as a puppy, and I am now
>doing something new with him every day - taking him to the pet store,
>on walks around the neighborhood, to the neighborhood shopping center,
>etc. in an effort to socialize him better. It's harder to do
>at this age than it would have been a year ago.

You are definitely on the right track, now you mostly have to keep in mind
what NOT to do. You have to make sure you give your dog plenty of time to
overcome his shyness at his own pace and never rush him or push him into
scary situations or you will just make the shyness worse and harder to
eradicate. I wouldn't even go looking for frightening situations, just
continue to take your dog out like you are doing, and if something scares
him, don't make a big deal out of it, just go on as though nothing
happened. If your dog cowers behind your legs for the first few weeks,
IGNORE it and just remain calm and low key. Eventually he should get braver
and any improved behavior should be praised, quietly and calmly. One
common mistake people make it to speak encouragingly to a frightened dog,
and in the dog's mind, he is being encouraged to continue his fearful
behaviour and it gets worse. Since you obviously can't go the other route
and punish fearful behaviour, you are left with ignoring it so at least you
do no more damage. Another big mistake is to push the dog into the scary
situation. If you try, for example, to drag him towards a car that just
backfired and frightened him, thinking that once he gets close he will
realize it is safe, the whole experience will be so traumatic that you will
be making him even more certain that there really IS something to
fear...dog's just don't think the same way we do! The third thing to avoid
if having him lose his trust in you. If, after the car backfired, you were
to stand next to it and call Tiger and he came to you, then if the car
backfired again at that point, his confidence in you would be damaged. In
short, let everything happen at his speed, ignore the bad and praise the
good quietly (because exuberant praise could be distracting and alarming if
he is already feeling tense!)

I made all the above mentioned mistakes myself, so I KNOW! My dobie, as a
dog of about 1 year, suddenly developed a fear of loud noises because the
washing machine went haywire one day and started making big BANG sounds. By
trying to 'help' him overcome his nervousness about the washer, I forced
him into situations in which he was nervous until he was not only afraid of
the washing machine but of any large metal box (mailboxes, newspaper boxes,
garbage bins) and was also afraid of loud, clattering noises, like the
banging of pots and pans when I did the dishes. As a matter of fact, at one
point he would not even enter the kitchen any more, and would stand
paralysed and shaking if I made him come in. Since I fed him in the
kitchen, this made him become afraid to eat, and to some extent, actually
afraid of his food bowl! He would stand outside the kitchen and stretch his
neck waaaaaaay out so he could eat and dash away at the slightest sound. So
you can see, the above advice is IMPORTANT! :) A dog that has a phobia is
very prone to developing more, at that stage of his life my dobie also
developed an unrelated phobia of sunlight glaring off the windows of parked
cars, but this disapeared on it's own as the box/noise phobia diminished.

Finally I realized what was happening and tried what I describe above and
Dante is now completely better...but be warned, it will take some time and
lots of patience!

Good luck!

--
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Valaria_Vorlop@mindlink.bc.ca    I cried because I had no shoes
or:      a4080@mindlink.bc.ca         Until I met a man who had no feet.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*                          - ???
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs