Shy terrier

[foxer]

Hi!
I've had my 3 years old male jack russel with me since pup. Registered health conscious family kennel, so no bad word about that. He's always been a bit shy, maybe I discouraged him as a pup, hard to say. He is my first own dog and it took a while to get used to having it thou I had prepared and read books etc. We get really well along with sight contact, on a leash and without, both with people and other dogs. No left alone anxiety or such doesn't fear cars or thunder, is fit and eats ok. Sometimes (as well as I remember, only inside the house) out of a blue starts to shiver and looks away. I admit that I occasionally get frustrated with this and I'm pretty sure it affects his behavior. Sometimes he gets unsure and upset and I don't know how to react. If I leave him be he'll just shake there where I left him. If I try to make him forget about bad stuff fex playing, he won't play, maybe pees a little mark then walks away to shiver. I can't endlessly pretend being happy when I'm not and really smart dog probably sees that. I've started to be little short-tempered
I moved together with my fiancé a year ago and the dog adapted really well and didn't really need new training. They get pretty well along too. I've noticed that this anxiety occurs especially when either of us is away. He isn't very playful at home and sometimes seemingly stresses doing tricks even when both of us are home. More than this I can't figure out why and how he's unsure. Otherwise and most of the time he's really happy lad. Every time I read an article it's about fearful dog or about dog that stresses everything and I cant find much use on them. What should we/I do differently?

Thank you for your answers!

[emmabeth]

Can you give us a run through of his typical daily routine?

Tell us about walks, games, training, feeding, if hes left alone and if so, where,f or how long, when etc etc.

I do understand it is REALLY hard to feign being happy and cheery when you are actually worried and frustrated, its a skill and in some ways an art form and we are only human, sometimes things get the better of us!

It is also hard to get your head round the fact that sometimes, we will NOT figure out 'what' the problem is, you can see that it seems to be fear and that would be the best place to start from - if it isnt fear you are unlikely to do any harm by assuming it is.

Anyway, let us know more details and we will see what can be done.

[foxer]

Firstly pardon my English, it's not my native. I hope to get understood. It's also bit difficult to think the important things, but lets try.
As both of us humans are students we really don't have that much daily routines. Dog sleeps with us. Usually bf wakes 6-8 am up and leaves before me, sometimes dog shivers after bf leaves bedroom, but falls again asleep. I feed myself and take the dog out for a half an hour. We run unleashed on a field. It goes well. Other dogs won't stress him as we usually don't greet strangers outside dog yard. While I change clothes the dog goes himself to the bathroom waiting to get his hugs an bone as I leave for lectures. He doesn't make a sound as I leave 9-11am. He might be alone from two hours to six hours. Dog never breaks anything, and being alone works better in small room, that's why bathroom.

It depends who comes home first, but the dog is glad and after being kind for a while he gets to play. As said before, he's sometimes s little shy, for example taking a rug from me and usually after winning a toy he doesn't know what to do with it. Sits and sadly stares us. He sleeps as we study. He sleeps as we dine on the table. When we eat on the sofa he knows really well to stay on the floor, it goes ok, but sometimes when we're not eating, just watching tv on the sofa, he sits in front of the sofa looking for us, asking to come. If we've once told to come, we usually won't say again and give his attention. Most of the time he lays with us getting occasional scratches. He tends to shiver laying on his back if not scratched or not sleeping. He eats once a day, about at six pm. He eagerly does some tricks before getting his meal. It varies greatly how nervous he's at the time. I wonder if it's just bad time to train because he realizes the food being soon involved. So we've started to hoax him few hours before foodtime. It doesn't really help. Bf walks/runs him at evening. Of course we take turns sometimes, but usually this way. It goes ok. As we brush teeth ~11pm, the dog goes to bed waiting for us. He's calm and nice. We've played few times during the day.

Of course weekends, the days there's no lectures and holiday times do go differently. We may take a longer morning walk and sit rest of the day home, which seemingly isn't that good. If we both study at home, there's no problem. He's not bossy at all and not a shepherd, so I couldn't think where this strives from. When me or bf goes out for taking the trash or going to shop, he might stare at the door for a while and then acts normally. The dog also gets really anxious if we people fight, unfortunately that happens. Usually he does revert fast, but if there's much stress factors, that of course won't be this easy. Specially when either of us ask him to come on a lap, he shivers. Comes quick without hesitation but jitters. And he does that every time degarding how long time we've not been angry or anything.

[emmabeth]

I am wondering if he is a little bit confused at times, anxious because he isnt quite sure what he should be doing, would that make sense?

Can I ask, how is it you have trained him to do certain things, for example, how did you teach him to stay off the sofa when you are eating on there?

Sometimes its very easy to (without realizing it), spend all our time telling a dog what they should NOT do, and then forget about telling them what they SHOULD be doing. It is one of the major flaws with rather old fashioned dog training methods as well, and too much time spent correcting or punishing the unwanted behaviour leads to the dog avoiding doing *anything* for fear of being told off.

Some dogs are SO sensitive (and yours may be one of these) that even being ignored when you come home for a few minutes, or being ignored when they ask for attention can really upset them and create confusion and depression. (And for other dogs this would be water off a ducks back!)

Don't worry about your English, honestly it is FAR better than many British peoples english!

[foxer]

Yes, I've noticed it's way better to train him how to react in certain situations than how not to. I see how it gives this uncertain guy great comfort. Maybe I'm just not able to see all situations from his angle. I'll try to think about that more.

I have a perhaps tricky question: How should I react to that shivering if the case would for example be that I just ask him on a lap, he happily comes and then starts to shake. There was something about clicker training nervous dog (that actually was a russell) in one "me or the dog" episode. Would you advise that I should or should not turn him away. If left alone he falls asleep at some point and after awakening acts pretty normal for what I've observed. But the tremor doesn't seem healthy.
As I know myself I unfortunately can't guarantee that I won't lose my temper trying to make him feel nicer starting to play or sth. Or maybe I try too hard and act too big and he becomes frightened. I don't know what king of reaction to offer for him.
And many thanks for your time and effort! I'll search for a good books also.

[foxer]

This is a mental question for myself. If I ask him into a lap and he comes but shivers, how should I react? He's obviously nervous about coming to me. If I send him away, it won't help him facing me? If I keep him there, seeing him being nervous makes me anxious. He won't change his behaviour even after a long scratchy time. Playing won't help in most cases. I know this is far bad, but once I kinda beat him, and after that he was energetic and seemed happy. Is he getting attention? Trying to make me feel better? How should I cope? I'd like to be open minded dog owner even in these situations.

[emmabeth]

You know, I think I would pretend he isn't shivering at all - just totally ignore it (I know thats easier said than done).

I think also though, I wouldn't ask him to come over but instead, I would wait for him to come over of his own accord. I don't mean totally ignore him, that would upset him and he wouldn't understand what was going on, in fact, do stuff such as sit on the floor, play with his toys, rustle food treat packets etc etc so that he WANTS to come over to you, but don't ask him to come with a verbal command.

This might mean he doesn't come over for cuddles/to sit on your lap, so youd need to be okay with that - it may be that he doesn't actually like this (though I don't think thats the problem), but possibly by pretending the shivering isnt a problem, and letting him decide when he comes for physical contact, this may go away.

[foxer]

Again thank you so much!

He often comes himself, so he's very curious and friendly. I have noticed not paying attention to him helps a lot. Also if that isn't somehow possible I've offered him nice treat as asked to go to his own bed and asked to stay there. After all he does value his own peace and I like it when he walks in the house by his own and not just comes after us anywhere we go. On a days we're home all day I've noticed he enjoys to be a little time, an hour or so, all alone ready to be energetic again.

I've thought about it if I talk to him too much. That depends a lot, maybe I sometimes do. Ofc it is nice to see him coming independently when he himself feels that he wants. As a pup I took a great deal not to call him too often, but I guess that might get forgotten once in a while.
So good greetings from here!