Archive for January, 2010
In my previous post, I talked about three things that can increase a fearful dog’s fears instead of decreasing them. Now I want to talk about some things you can do to help them overcome their fears.Helping a fearful dog overcome her fears involves a lot of patience.
Use Positive Reinforcement to Encourage Behavior You Want
Positive reinforcement is rewarding your fearful dog when she does something you want her to do. Two great ways to reward your dog are by praising her and by feeding her really good treats.
Rewarding a Dog with Treats
To get Faith out of the living room, I enticed her with Hill’s Prescription
I want to clear something up.
In my previous post, I talked about how Faith stayed in the living room for over a year before I could coax her out into the dining room. Maybe you thought I should have just forced Faith to face her fear of leaving the room by dragging her out. I know that some trainers advocate that approach. “Make the dog face its fears,” they say. Other trainers contend that all you have to do is show the dog who the alpha dog is — it or you. One way of doing that is by rolling the dog over.
Barking at a Scary Visitor
Both approaches might work with… Continue reading
Faith
Fearful (or shy) dogs comprise a class of pets that can tug at your heart strings — and frustrate you to no end. Before our dog Faith came into my life, I considered myself a cat person. I wasn’t even interested in having a dog. But that wasn’t the way things turned out. My wife, Lisa, and I didn’t choose Faith to be our dog. Faith chose us to her her caretakers.
When Faith came to our doorstep as a starved three-month-old puppy in October of 2007, neither Lisa nor I had the heart to turn her away. We didn’t consider calling the animal control officer, either. To do that would… Continue reading