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Taking Timid Dog To Obiedence Training


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6mth rescue dog, large breed siezed because of abuse and neglect I have now had her for two months. She interacts well with myself and OH but when people call to our house and go near her she yelps (very loudly), wets herself, cringes or hides, same reaction with unknown dogs. Recently took her to vet, she wet herself when getting her out of ute, sat down and couldn't get her to go in, had children with me so vet came out and carried her in for me, and she wet on him as well plus the table when inside. Have looked into puppy preschool but it is also on of a night. We live out of town with two young children OH works away. Because of his rooster I can only attend obiedence for one month and then miss a month as the closest obiendence club is approx hour away and of a night. With being able to only attend month about, would she make progress? How do I go about getting her use to people and other dogs so she doesn't just cringe yelping whilst we are at obiendence.

When at home with me, she acts like a normal puppy, sit, stay, come and she will now walk on leash on our property. Yesterday she worked very nicely to our post box about 200 mtr walk on our block, but then when I tried to get her to walk along the front boundry on road (dirt) she needed some firm presuading to do so, then walked about 100 metres along front.

I was hoping to do obiendence with her and then to move onto agility training with her (hopefully), but can I go to obiendence with her given how timid she is, will a club be okay with me going for a month and then missing a month.

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Chloe,

My best advice is to get a professional behaviourist to look at the dog.

Only by seeing its reactions, your knowledge and skills can a true and hopefully effective program can be devised for your dog.

Everyone here will have a different opinion based on what you write. You may unintentionally leave out information which could drastically change what a professional would advise would be the best course of action in a program. There are many different ways to attack a problem. One way is not the only way or the only right way. But depending on YOUR situation, one method may give you negative results where it has given positive results with someone else.

I have been rehabilitating a dog with a similar background for the last 14 months from what you write in your original post. All I can tell you, is that it is a long hard road with many heartaches where you will think that nothing is working and you may just want to give up. Conversely, there are also some really good moments that make you pleased and happy with your progress. On those dark days, take a break, have a kitkat and tackle it tomorrow.. Not all days are like that.

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I took my very timid dog to obedience and agility. With obedience we needed to stay away from the rest of the people in the class to do our exercises - she was OK but never really enjoyed it. She absolutely loves agility though - it is great for confidence building for timid dogs.

I'd suggest you work on socialisation of your dog before going to a club. An experienced behaviouralist can help you with this and set out a training plan to follow.

Best of luck

Gail

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I'd suggest you find a club that allows you to work with your dog within sight of them, but far away enough so that she is comfortable. As you work with her and build her confidence, you can slowly decrease the distance between her and the club/classes. Make sure you reward any signs of confidence etc when she is in view of them and ignore the timid behaviour.

I would do whatever she really enjoys doing in view of but far away from the class so she begins to slowly associate good things with the presence of the club/dogs.

Make sure YOU act confident and nonchalant so as not to feed her worry.

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