Anxiety Problem

[Mumscats]

I have a 3 year old girl and have been doing obedience with her since she was 4 months old. We have not made a great lot of progress and have been stuck in the same class for nearly 2 years. I had another dog and lost her earlier in the year due to old age. I didnt rush out immediately to purchase a new pup as I thought I would put the time into my girl. She was recently in season and was sent away for a possible mating which didnt happen. She was away for about 10 days and the lady told me that she is a very nervous dog. I have never mistreated her in any way

I have noticed at obedience that she gets fixations on other dogs from time to time and pulls over to them, which is not acceptable. she is a very strong girl. I have corrected her many times but she still persists in these bad habits. She has really gone backwards with the training, heels good but when she is asked to drop it is a battle and if I do get her down she pops back up again. Sit stays are worse, most of the time she follows me. There are dogs in the class who are much younger than her who are very good. I think this behaviour is coming from her anxiety. I put in a lot of time with her at home when I am there.

I was out on the weekend where there was a few dogs and it was interesting to watch how she interacted with the other dogs, she would go to them and then basically come back and stand with me. One lady was nursing a small dog and was sitting next to me and she was looking at that dog and there was a little bit of trouble between them. The adults and some of the smaller dogs went into another area and she was left with the bigger dogs and she didnt like being separated from me at all and stood at the door and yapped. This is from the anxiety. It is unacceptable behaviour as far as I am concerned and I would have expected that a 3 year old woud be more relaxed.

My uqestion is how am I going to deal with this problem. I think she is very jealous of other dogs and does not like them being around me. I would like to get another dog but would like to get her sorted out a bit better but unsure of what to do. Should I get someone to come over with their dog and get her to play with it and see how she goes. I did notice right from the start when we went to obedience that after the class we were in the fenced off area and we were allowed to take our dogs off lead and let them run around together but she was not interested in mixing with the other dogs

I would be most interested to hear if anyone else has had a similar problem and how they addressed it.

[WoofnHoof]

I would think that a veterinary behaviourist would be your best bet in this situation, they will be able to help you work out if your dogs anxiety is due to a medical issue or if it is a training or behavioural issue. I'm not in Vic so not sure who to recommend maybe ask in the training forum?

[dancinbcs]

A lot of adult dogs do not "play" with other dogs. There is nothing wrong with them but they just prefer not to have other dogs in their face.

As to the lack of progress at training, you need some private lessons with a really good professional trainer to assess what you are doing with the dog and why she isn't responding. Different dogs may require different training techniques. All dogs can be trained but not all are cut out to be obedience trial dogs no matter how hard you try. What breed of dog are we talking about?

You may in fact be what is making the dog anxious with your body language or training method so you need someone experienced to watch you with the dog and work out what is going on.

[fuzzy82]

I would recommend you work with a trainer. 2 years of training without progress is a long time, and something must be wrong somewhere.

And just curious, why would you breed a dog with fear issues?

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

None of my dogs would like to be separated from me.

What breed is she? Perhaps it's a breed that is known for anxiety, ie Poodle, i'd be interested to know.

[zeebie]

Not sure if I missed it but what breed of dog?

Are you using consistency in training using same cues all the time? Are you using high value rewards to refocus onto task?

After reading persephone post I can definately see there is a lack of discipline and consistency which before your dog is going to become trained in any way needs to be addressed.

So be consistent, set boundaries and stick to them routine is very important! Focus on one area and perfect it before moving on to the next

As for the playing etc, yes sounds like you are this dogs world and she does not want to move away from her human, try finding one person with an older very stable dog and just hang out together, try going for walks and just gradually introduce the dogs in a no pressure situation, once they are getting on well the rest will just happen. I would certainly not be considering letting this dog have puppies and you may even find by having her desexed this may improve her temperament as all those nasty hormones will reduce.

Edited December 5, 2012 by zeebie

[persephone]

It seems there have been problems for some time .... I do hope you can get onto a good solid professional for some advice/strategies :)

from older threads ...

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I have a girl who is on the natural rearing diet. She recently went away for a couple of weeks and has come home more relaxed than she was. She is much calmer and she was given more of the commerial foods.

I have a girl who is just over 2 and a half and we have been doing obedience for over 2 years. We do a bit of off lead work, some weeks she is good and other weeks whe gets distracted by other dogs. She is fairly good but I have been having trouble with getting her to drop, she will drop if I give her food and if I try she plays up on me and kicks and nearly pulls me over. Even if I get her to drop she does not stay down there for very long at all. How am I going to break her out of this very bad habit. I am worried that she is getting too old and set in her ways now. She has not been desexed as she is pure bred. Anyone have any clues please.

I have a 2 and a half year old girl and I had trouble about 18 months ago with a neighbour complaining about her backing, I did have an older dog who was put to sleep last week. My girl basically stays in the house because after I had trouble with the neighbour complaining about the barking I was advised to crate her up which I have done whilst I go to work if I go out. Since I lost my older girl last week the younger one is very reluctant to go outside and be a good girl first thing in the morning and if she is left outside for a period whilst I am at home she jumps up on the window. She does not bark. I would like to get her out in the yard whilst I am at work as that is healthier for her. I noticed a couple of days ago when I was out the front talking to someone that she started barking at me from inside the gate. She also barks if I am on the phone for too long. Could this be separation anxiety and how am I going to break her out of this. She is not quite 2 and a half. I have been doing obedience with her for just over 2 years.