Helping Scared Dog Overcome Its Fear
Helping a scared dog overcome its fear with board and train dog training.
Fearful dog training in public and learning how to cope with stressIn the video we are working in public places to help overcome this dog’s fearfulness. It took many weeks for my little dog friend to begin walking on a leash. Then it took more weeks to get it to accept the noise and activity of new places. It has made slow but steady progress. Being in a new active environment is a huge accomplishment to this little dachshund mix. For this dog every novel experience is a new challenge to overcome. You will see he does nicely with seeing his reflection in the glass as we walk by a store. Reflective glass is just one of the dog training distractions I find useful at retail locations.
If you watch the video you’ll pick up some valuable dog training and handling tips. On the day I did this video we were training at a strip mall with a Japanese supermarket. The dog is from Long Beach but on this day we were training in the San Gabriel Valley. The video was done in the month of August so it’s warm out. Because of the heat you’ll see me checking the ground to make sure it’s not too hot for the dog’s paws.
Taking a dog out into society at this age is considered secondary socialization. A sensitive dog such as this one will need to be on a training and maintenance program for a very long time. If the training is not continued when the dog goes home its behavior will drift back towards where it was before the training started. While it will need long term behavior management it can now go into public and walk on a leash, which it would not do before the training.
Usually I would do very calm touching for a fearful dog. However, considering this dog’s personality and behavior problem I felt it was better to do the petting, ear scratching/rub instead. The type of touching I’m doing in the video is more a taming technique.
While we were training we met some nice people and one of them invited me to a meetup for vegetarian pet owners.
