Passive Dominant

[MonElite]

At every opportunity, trouble is, most people in shopping areas don't want to pat someone else's dog. Would be nice for him to interact with some kind people willing to have the patience to sit next to him and let him progress over to them when he is ready.

find a thread in the traing section, done by me, titleed - She doesnt like man- some advice there that would apply to your dog.

Edited June 3, 2007 by myszka

[conchy]

My dog has fear problems and getting the help and advice from a proffessional, reputable trainer is absolutely the best way to go through this process of helping your dog become confident and well adjusted in strange situations.

I must say I have also found the NILIF (nothing in life is free) concept to actually be helpful in that it gives my dog more confidence in me as his pack leader (and me) and

it also seems to have given him more confidence in himself. You can get info on it on the internet but it might be an idea to run this past the trainer you get as i am no where near experienced enough to be dishing out advice but am just plugging away with a similar problem to yourself.

The people at obedience have been great and obedience has also been really helpful for his confidence. He loves learning and doing good so I am trying to use this to our advantage.

[Staranais]

Giving a dog clear, fair, 100% consistent house rules goes a long was towards building confidence, IMO. I think nervous dogs can feel much more secure and safe when they know the "rules" of the household, so that they are quite confident that they know how to avoid punishment, and how to earn reward and approval.

For the last month I've had a friend's dog staying at my house - an extremely nervous, submissive bitch who normally greets strangers by grovelling and urinating. Over the last month, she's gotten a lot more confident around strangers. The other day, I had my entire extended family around to the house, and although she was still a little shy at meeting all the people, she didn't submission pee once. Just about the only thing I've done differently with her is enforce consistent house rules and NILIF (the friend is terribly inconsistent with what he expects from his dog). The positive change in her attitude from such a small effort on my part is nice to see.

Seeing a professional trainer is always a good idea if you're concerned about your dog's behavior, but IMO applying NILIF (and triangle of temptation) can't do any harm in the meantime.