[4boyz]

Hello! I am a stay at home mom with 4 young, active boys ages 11 to 2 1/2. My husband and I have been thinking about getting a dog for the family for quite awhile now.

Last Saturday (8 days ago) we went down to Petsmart where a local rescue group was showing some of their dogs available for adoption. We fell in love with a mutt. This is the story about her.

They estimate she is about 10 weeks old. She, her litter mates and the mom were chased down and caught in a field when they were about 8-9 weeks old. They were freezing and starving to death. 2 of the litter mates went to the rescue. They were never able to catch the mom. It is most likely that none of these dogs had any interaction with humans until they were caught.

When we met her we held her and passed her around and noticed no sign of anxiety or dis-trustfulness. She was calm and mellow. We were not allowed to put her down on the floor though because she had only had her first set of shots.

Since bringing her home we have noticed that she is quite fearful of people coming towards her. I'm assuming this is because the first contact with humans is when she was chased down. She does not like to approach people as well.

In the five days that we have had her, she has warmed up to my husband and myself and my boys. She is not as bad with running away from us when we come toward her, but you can tell she is still nervous about it and you can tell her instinct it to run. We are making a very strong effort to socialize her and get used to "how people move" with positive reinforcement. However, any friends/strangers that come into the house she will not approach but will shrink back. Then after awhile she will very cautiously approach them in a round about way if they offer a treat. She will allow strangers to hold her immediately upon entering our house though and seems to be o.k. with that. It is the movement that scares her. When she is down on the ground and we are above her. Had we been able to see that at the adoption event we would not have brought her home.

We have a playroom in our house and are trying to desensitize her to running and jumping around. I took her down to the Elementary school yesterday so she could just watch all the kids walk past her. She seemed to do o.k. and I thought she might get past this. However, this afternoon my son's 2 friends came over. As soon as they walked in the front door she started this low growl and would have started barking if my husband hadn't corrected her. Then they proceeded to walk over to her and pet her. She tolerated it, but when they left we noticed she had peed when this happened.

I have read a little bit about imprinting and I am wondering since she wasn't around humans during the early weeks if we have a dog that will never be completely comfortable around people. Is this behavior something that cannot be trained/socialized out of her? I have a lot of people/children coming and going out of my house and my concern is that one of my kid's friends is going to run over to her and she is going to bite out of fear. Am I ever going to be able to trust her?

Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Yogi]

I have taken in many rescues over the past many years of which many were young with very little to no people socialized skills. The key is simply one thing and one thing only no matter what anyone tells you, patience. Imprinting is the responsibility of the dam not people when it comes to how to be a dog and interact with another dog. The dam teaches dog socializing and bite inhibition. Socializing with humans requires you to introduce the dog in a calm manner to people. You have already seen the signs of this as the dog acclimates to your home and family becoming less reluctant to meet you. Just give it time and patience. It will come around in time. Good luck. And thanks for rescuing.

[4boyz]

Can you tell me the best way to introduce her to other people? I have heard different opinions. Someone told me that I need to show her the right way to greet people. Which means I do not allow her to run away, but I put a leash on her make her sit and allow the strangers to pet her and give her a treat. If she starts to growl then I correct her.

I have also heard that you don't force them to do anything that you let them come to the strangers in their own time. If you force them then you are not helping them overcome their fears. I have also found that kids generally are not patient enough to wait for her to come around.

Which is the correct way?

Thanks.

[Yogi]

Commonly, the best way is slow introduction. Dogs much like people if frightened need to be given space. Dogs that are naturally fearful such as a pup that was on the verge of feral needs to be the one to do the introducing on their terms. Forcing the dog at this point may only create more problems.
having the dog sit (if it will stay) and having new people low to the ground approach with a treat is ok but approach only to the point where the dog becomes agitated to the point of wanting to leave. At this point the dog is indicating a safe zone where it does not want to be any closer. Have the person just sit there with the treat and slowly coax the dog to them. It may take a few tries before the dog is comfortable enough but with consistency and patience it will eventually get use to it. Just do not give up. It is still a pup and therefore is like a sponge, taking in everything just over a longer period of time.

[Gingersmom]

I agree with Yogi 100% you should not force her to meet people because I believe that will just make her more scared than she already is. Just be patient and hopefully you will start to see a big improvement soon. Good luck with her.

[4boyz]

We have been working with our rescue pup for 4 weeks now trying everything under the sun to socialize her around people. I have people coming in and out of the house non-stop and just about everyone gives her a treat. She is enrolled in puppy class and I have taken her to the dog park a few times. I have also taken her to the elementary school and to petsmart to introduce her to people. I even had a dog trainer come over and give us some suggestions on how strangers should approach her for the time being until she gets used to people. In the four weeks that she has been in our home, I have found 3 interesting things about her.

1) She seems to do a lot better with people coming towards her outside of our home. She is a lot less skittish.

2) Any stranger that makes any movement around her freaks her out and she goes running. After that she will not go near them again.

3) If strangers ignore her in our home she will go up to them and sniff their shoes, but as soon as they pay attention to her or try to pet her she backs way off and it takes a lot of coaxing to get her to come.

4) One minute she will be o.k. with a stranger petting her and the next she is wary and will run away. Definitely not predictable.

So I am looking for advice. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I have 4 boys and there are a lot of fast moving kids coming and going that she is around and exposed to daily. Are there any training techniques (along with patience) that will help her not be so freaked out with movement?

Any help would be much appreciated. She is such a good pup and I really want her to be happy and love all the people and kids that come into our home. I don't want her frightened and skittish all the time.

[WorriedMom]

Hello! Your story sounds very familiar to me. I had a very similar problem with my guy when I brought him home. He was an accidental litter, lived outside in a chicken pen (in the winter mind you) until I brought him home at 7 weeks.

Everything I have to say is all from personal experirence. I am not a dog trainer or do not claim to be. BUT, I had almost the same exact problem as you when I first brought my guy home. (he's my first dog but I did learn a lot about raising a dog that has some behavioral issues). I realized the key is understanding why exactly they are acting that way, and then focus on fixing it. For example, the peeing could be submissive? Maybe google that and see if it sounds familiar? Or maybe its a different issue of not being entirely house trained yet?

One thing you have to realize is some dogs, no matter how hard you work, will ALWAYS show this part of the behavior even when they are older. It's like a person, if you are shy you will always be somewhat shy even if you learn to come out of your shell as you age. This I learned from talking to A LOT of dog trainers, people who have owned 5+ dogs in their lifetime, etc.

When I brought my guy home, took me FOUR MONTHS to get him to go on a "real walk". Furthest I could get him was within sight of our house. As soon as he couldn't see it, his nails would go in the ground, tail between his legs, etc. He's also a GSD, so people think he shows some protective behavior around the house. But really, hes barking at people and slowly approaching them because he is unsure. At first, I was afraid he would have the tendency to bite or attack, but over time I realized he was just trying to get their attention and slowly ease into meeting them. He selectivly shows this behavior at times (hes now 1 year)... BUT he has gotten MUCH better! Also, I can walk him like a normal doggy now! BUT, once in a while if he hears or sees something he really doesnt like... he'll revert back to his shy behaviors. It is something you have to grow to accept.

I did the same things as you, sat on a loud street corner for an hour a day, dog parks, play with loud children (he was always very good with kids), invite 10-15 people over for a BBQ but tell everyone not to force him to interact... only if he wanted to.... get strangers to give him treats.

I think you need to know when to push and when not to. Give and take, and if you reward when they give, they will eventually catch on and begin trusting you. If my guy wanted to stop walking at some point... I'd compromise. Once I waited for 30 minutes before he budged in my direction! But that day was a great breakthrough. I just sat there... went as far away from him as i culd while holding the leash in teh direction he did not want to go and sat on the ground. took him 30 minutes to finally walk over to me.... but he did it! as soon as he did i praised him and we walked back in his direction as a reward. Once he begins to trust you, you will see a change in behavior. It may never happen that the dog you brought home equally appreciates all people like a "well-brought up movie worthy golden retreiver". But, you will see a change. Some of the faults you learn to accept while slowly working on them to keep the improvement regardless of whether or not all the behaviors improve to your liking or not.

My guy did not pee. Perhaps its submissive peeing? My ex-roommate had a little girl who submissively peed anytime someone made a scene with her (by scene i mean.. hey giiirlll you're so cuuuuteee etc etc). She slowly grew out of it but it took time. She still does it on occasion... mostly with men. Not sure if this is similar but maybe it helps? He just at first told peple not to react to her (becuse she would pee with no reaction just a hello or pet)... and slowly worked his way up to all sorts of interactions with her. It was interesting to see a gradual change... but it DID take a god 8-9 months to see a good amount of improvement.

Like everyone said, patience is the key! Good luck!