Timid German Shepherd pup--am I training right?

[1Stella98]

I told you guys I was going to be posting alot! I need to figure out how to change my user name on this site...my dog's name is Stella (hence, my username), but I am Michelle. As I mentioned before, I am an obedience trainer at one of the big box pet stores. We do classes and I also do private training for dogs who have one or two things to work on and do not need a whole class, or for people who cannot commit to a six week class schedule, or for dogs that cannot tolerate a class for whatever reason. I have worked with quite a few timid dogs who would just shut down in a class. I have had success by crouching down on my knees when greeting a shy dog, not making eye contact, and tossing treats in the dog's direction. This goes on for a few minutes and eventually the dog gets comfortable taking the treat from my hand. On another visit, when the time seems right, I will attempt to pet the dog once he has associated me and our store with good things. This can take several sessions, and I often have people bring their dogs to the store several times a week for just ten minutes, so I can say hello, toss treats, and then walk together before they leave with their person. Dog owners often get impatient with this, but I explain to them that I cannot help them train their dog if the dog doesn't trust me and won't let me touch him! I have to gain the dog's confidence.

I want to see if I am on the right track and get your feedback. I have a current student, Diesel, a German Shepherd puppy who is about six months old. He was flown from a breeder to the current owner at 15 weeks old. The owner never met the puppy prior to taking him off the plane, and we have no idea what experiences Diesel had during the first 15 weeks of his life. He is playful with the family, docile, and does not engage in anything the owner would consider "bad" behavior. Diesel is incredibly shy. When I first met him, it was his first visit to the store, and he hid behind his person's legs. His person tried to force him to greet me but I told him not to do that, that Diesel needs to learn that he will not put him in a situation he cannot handle. I tossed treats his way, which he cautiously moved toward and took.. I thought that was a good sign. He was not panting, pacing, or drooling. His tail was down but not WAY down. Still, he did not want to be touched and showed no interest in sniffing me. I suggested private training as a way to get Diesel socialized before we put him in a class situation, which I think would overwhelm him.

How would you guys approach this? He will now take treats out of my hand and tolerate me touching him, but I wouldn't say he ENJOYS me touching him. If we take a walk together, should his person handle the lead or should I? Could you give me some simple steps to take? I do NOT want to push this dog too fast and make his fear worse!
Thanks, he is coming back to me saturday....

[jacksdad]

helping timid, shy, fearful dogs is an entire skill in it's self. If your going to take these cases on it would be prudent to start educating your self just like you had to in order to teach basic "obedience" classes. There are a growing number of good books and DVDs out there and when I get home tonight I will put together a getting started list for you.

I would say you are on basically the right tract. you can't rush or force dogs like this. If the dog does not want to approach you, this is NOT the problem most people think it is. It is better to allow the caution and help dogs in this state become more confidant than to rush and force and now have a dog that has learned it's not safe to approach and have to go through long and lengthy behavior modification. so your on the right tract there.

The one thing I would suggest though is it is less important you work directly with the dog and more important that the dog and the owner work together. The dog needs to learn to respond to their owner, to feel confident their owner will be safe and will protect them from scary things.

your tossing treats is a great approach. hand feeding is generally not a good idea until the dog is comfortable with you. When tossing the treat be sure in the beginning to toss the treats in such a way the dog has to move away from you to get the treat, then as the dog shows interest in coming closer you can alternate dropping treats closer to you and still tossing them so the dog has to move away a bit.

The other thing I would encourage is that you study up on dog development what are the stages of going from puppy to adult, what are some of the behaviors/phases they go through etc and how to best handled these phases. it's possible dogs like diesel are only going through a phase verse being a fearful dog. but how that phase is handled can potentially "flip switches" for being a well adjusted dog confident dog or being a fearful dog for life.

[jacksdad]

ok, the books

There isn't as much on fearful dogs from the perspective of shy, cowering, avoiding, rolling over and peeing in fear etc. verse dogs who act on their fear in aggressive ways.

So far the best books I have found on the fear with a non aggressive response are

HELP FOR YOUR FEARFUL DOG - A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO HELPING YOUR DOG CONQUER HIS FEARS
by Nicole Wilde
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB878

Nicole also has a nice DVD of a seminar based on the book you can get. her personal web site with all her books/dvd resources can be found here http://www.phantompub.com/
Nicole is also one of Victoria's professional bloggers on her Positively.com site.

Another good book is

SCAREDY DOG! - UNDERSTANDING AND REHABILITATING YOUR REACTIVE DOG, REVISED EDITION
by Ali Brown
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB799

This was my first book on fear

CAUTIOUS CANINE - HOW TO HELP DOGS CONQUER THEIR FEARS, 2ND EDITION
by Patricia McConnell
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB586

this last book I am a little hesitant to recommend ONLY because I actually haven't read it. However, I just attended a one day seminar by the author and REALLY liked what she had to say and how she thought about and approached fearful dogs. Based on the seminar I did order her book and it just landed on my desk to day. So I will be reading it soon. All the other books/dvds I mention I have actually read or watched at some point.

A GUIDE TO LIVING WITH & TRAINING A FEARFUL DOG
by Debbie Jacobs
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB1197

That should get you started.

[1Stella98]

Thanks, Jacksdad for taking the time to compile that great list of material for me to read!! I am grateful for this site and for you who are willing to freely give your advice! In the end, I will let you know how it goes.

Michelle

[GundogGuy]

Hi Michelle,
I get a regular flow of GSD's through my classes or 1:1 appointments. Many GSD's are naturally untrusting of humans other than their guardian and can be very introverted in situations they find threatening (remember, they are guard dogs so are naturally suspicious anyway). They can even be aloof with different members of the same family in the same household.
These dogs normally build confidence as they grow but can be "neurotic idiots" (quote from a Police dog assessor) until around 18 months to 2 years old.
In situations like yours I tend to be very hands off with the dog and coach the owner in performing the exercises. This can be difficult but if you have your own dog to demonstrate on then it can help. In some cases it's worth taking the owner out of the equation altogether and take the dog in for residential training if you have the facilities for that.
The thing with GSD's is that given the nature of the breed and the job they were bred to do, they need to be kept on the right path from the start. As they gain confidence, this confidence needs to be channeled in the right direction. By that I mean, they WILL grow in confidence as they grow whither they owner is capable or not and if left to their own devices they will learn to decide from themselves how they should react in any given situation which is fine in the GSD's world but rarely fine in a human/pet world.
I'm not an advocate of pack theory but I do believe that dogs need to trust your judgment and ability to manage any situation that life brings, otherwise they will make up their own mind about how the world should be and believe that because you don't know how to deal with life then they have to step up to the mark. This is true even more so with GSD's (and other guarding dogs... oh, and collies too). They are very, very, VERY clever dogs and it's all too easy for them to learn or be inadvertently taught the wrong responses to a given situation...
When conducting my training classes I promote a friendly approach to the human/dog relationship and don't like the usual sharp command 'barking' that many owners do. In fact, I ban the word 'command' in my classes and replace it with 'cue'. However, with GSD's I normally insist that the owners 'grow a pair' when training their dogs because if they appear to lack confidence (to the dog), the dog will lack confidence in them. And for a GSD confidence in the handler/owner is key...

Hope that helps... (in fact... hope that makes sense in textual form )

[jacksdad]

Thanks gundog....your post expands very nicely on what I was trying to say in my last paragraph of my first response. Not all "shyness" or "fear fullness" type behavior is actual "oh no I have a fearful/reactive dog", rather the dog is going through a normal development process and how we handled that affects the out come down the road.

Again, thank you for the add on.

[GundogGuy]

You're welcome Jacksdad...

meant to add... GSD are often more driven by a game of tug than a treat

[Erica]

Especially chase-and-tug, in my GSD's case. She loves her flirt pole!