Super fearful dog

[jmakeit]

We rescued a 15 month old Lab mix in September. We were told that he was timid/shy and would definitely need work. I was the only one he would let put a leash on, walk, pet, come to, etc. My husband and son barely were able to finally pet his bottom. At the beginning, he would come inside with some encouragement and lie down under the coffe table. He would sleep in a crate in the house. He would urinate and poop submissively as well as shake in fear. Ears down, tail down.

My problem is now he won't come to even me and has been in the backyard going on 5 days and when we try to get near him, he runs circles around our hot tub. We don't want to corner him to get a leash on him. He freaks out but it's getting colder outside and he won't come in.

Any suggestions?

[CavePaws]

First suggestion:

Start sitting peacefully about 20 feet away from him and tossing extremely high value treats to him, saying "Treat". Make sure to smile, and coax him along the way to the treat. When he is making progress and taking the treats quickly, start closing in the gap about a foot at a time. Look for calming signals. In fact, show calming signals yourself: Looking to the side is one of the better ones. If at some point he regresses you want to go back a foot until he is readily taking the treats.

When he is finally able to get within a foot of you I would start doing the Nothing in Life is free method and hand feed him every meal. At this point, NILF will work as he has to come up to you to take the food, which in and of itself will be a bit nerve racking to him. The next step is actually putting your hovering your hand above the hand with treats, so he has to come close to your raised hand for the treats. Step after is having him actually brush his head up against your hand. I would continue NILF until you are able to pet him as he is eating. Then, start the training when you've built trust. Hand feed him his meals still, but ask for a trick like Sit or Stand before you actually give him a handful of food.

Hope this helps.

[CavePaws]

NILF
Calming Signals

[jmakeit]

Thanks for the info. Part of the problem is that his fearfulness outweighs his desire for treats. I will keep trying! I will also read up on NILF. I am willing to try any and all suggestions.

[CavePaws]

I would then start spending time just sitting in the yard with him before introducing treats.

[xellil]

In the days when I would try to catch stray dogs, i would sit where they were behind me so I wasn't looking at them at all and put raw liver on the ground around me.

[xchairity_casex]

if he is ignoreing treats try going out into the yard and sitting there dont look at him dont talk to him jsut ignore him while sitting his first meal of the day a few feet away from you and jsut sit usually they will get hungry enough to come close if he trusted you once he will more then likly do it again to get food.

[Maxy24]

I agree with the others, just go sit out there without making any attempts to interact with him. He's too scared for treats, that's fine, you need to bring him down to where he's not that scared, then he can start to learn. I'd bring a book to read.

Like cavepaws mentioned, using calming signals is a great way to communicate to the dog. It tells them you have no intention of hurting them or getting into a fight, you are friendly. Along with avoiding eye contact/staring (you can send quick glances, but don't do anything prolonged), exaggerated yawning (big wide mouth, yawn noise, closed eyes) and tongue flicking (flick tongue in and out quickly a few times, like a snake) are easy for people to do. Also try not to be stiff, maybe sway a little as if listening to a song. A lot of people when told to avoid looking at a dog or making sudden movements tend to stiffen up instead, this puts the dog more on edge.

Avoid the temptation to push things further. If the dog decides to come up to you don't assume he's ready for more. Don't try to talk to him or touch him or hand him treats. You could slowly grab a treat from your pocket and toss it AWAY from you without socially interacting with the dog. In fact this can be a good first step in shaping him to be near you, he approaches, you toss treat away, approach, treat, etc. and you essentially train him to come towards you for a reward. However this might be too much the first time he comes near you, it might be better just to let him have his time to explore you...watch you, sniff you, experiment to see if you'll suddenly turn and become dangerous. DO NOT SPEAK TO HIM no matter how curious he seems. People who are meeting my (fear aggressive towards strangers) dog tend to want to smile at him and say "hi Tucker" when he approaches them and stares at their face with his head cocked. Unfortunately this is just the reaction he was afraid of and it causes him to react. Just let the dog do his thing, keep reading or whatever, pretend he's not there.

Obviously you'll have to progress later. The tossing treats thing is great for starting, I'd eventually want it to turn into hand targeting. I'd use a reward marker...probably a word instead of a clicker. But this will come later. I suggest you join the shy K9 yahoo group as well. I can't be of great help as my dog is only fearful of strangers and he's not the run away type, he's the "I'm going to make YOU run type" so I have experience with different things. But there are people on the yahoo group who have dogs like yours and I'm sure you'll get good advice.

[xellil]

I always found being drunk helped me not seem tense :)

Oh wait, those were the old days.

[kevin bradley]

some beautiful advice here. These stories are always so hard to read. He needs lots of love and understanding.... Kelly and the others are really advanced in training methods... I'm more "zen" like--which means I don't know much ;) Shower him with love.