# Dog VERY fearful of strangers...



## VizslaMama (Feb 15, 2012)

Any advice on how I can desensitize him? I have never had a dog who didn't like to go up to people. We socialized him like any other dog. 

- even at 9weeks when we got him, he was VERY cautious. Perhaps genetics?
- can stress at home, cause a dog to react fearful in their home, or feel like they have to protect? We have my boyfriends brother and his friend living with us. Soon to be gone thankfully. They were there before we got Copper. Can dogs pick up on negative vibes? Would this cause him to react so badly when strangers come over?
- He won't approach people when on walks, some he will eventaully sniff, others if approaching to fast he wants nothing to do with and shy's away, has only barked at a lady once.
- we socialized him like we do for any other dog and have never had a problem like this before. If genetics are playing a role, perhaps because he was such a cautous pup we should of approached his training a different way than a normal pup?

Recently, my boyfriends brothers friend stopped by to see if he was home. He just walked right in, and scared Copper. Copper started barking, I calmed him down, had him on the leash. This friend his very out spoken, loud voice and approached to fast. Told him to be calm, but didn't listen. As the friend turn away, Copper nipped his butt!! Luckily he had coveralls on. I was so upset, and still am. The friend could care less, but I care. Copper is a love bug to all family memebers, he follows us everywhere. 

Is Copper thinking he needs to protect our home? He listens well to us, comes when called. He is told to sit for everything we do, never walks in a door or goes up the stairs before us. Very obedient. He is not aggressive towards us or other family if they move around quickly in our home. Family could burst through the door and Copper just wiggles his bum with happiness. It like he senses when strangers are in and around our home. 

I could go on and on, but that is some of the issues. 

A very sad Vizsla owner, looking for advice on what to do : ( Do I need to seek advice from an Animal Behaviourist?


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## jiml (Jun 29, 2010)

recruite as many people you can to meet him in as many places as possible and each gives him his fav treat and moves on.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Sounds like a very cautious and fearful puppy. Which is just an individual personality trait, shyness like this can be genetic but some puppies are just more cautious than others. It's the same with people, not every person is outgoing and social. I wouldn't ever force him to meet people he doesn't want to be around, it's ok for him to be shy. Usually dogs like this need to be socialized much differently and carefully compared to outgoing dogs. Taking things much more slowly, introducing him to people who truly understand dogs and communication (unlike that friend that stopped by). 

When you take him out on walks, purposefully give him more space when people walk by, control his environment which will help him deal with the stress of people approaching. When approaching someone, walk a wide arc around them. If people want to meet your dog ask them to approach at a curve and crouch down (no bending over) to the dogs level. Tell them to look away and let him sniff. If the dog wants to get more of a greeting he will, if he doesn't don't force him to. Let him say hi on his own terms and when he's comfortable doing so. 

The incident with your brothers friend....that could have been handled differently by you. Last thing I would suggest doing is putting the dog on leash because that will make him feel even more insecure. This loud bug guy barges in, the dog is scared, you put him on leash that restricts him from fleeing the situation so he resorts to biting. Can you remember if the leash was tight when he lunged to bite? If so, that tight leash gave him the message that YOU were also scared of this guy...since you don't want the dog near him. Lots of emotion is carried down the leash from dog to human. I have a feeling that he would have left the room if given the chance based on his personality. Most dogs will flee rather than fight right off the bat when they're scared. The next time this happens I would take your dog out of the room completely, securing him in a crate/kennel/bathroom/yard or any secure place that will prevent this from happening again. 

I would recommend working with a behaviorist that uses positive reinforcement training techniques and really knows their dog communication in every way.


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## jiml (Jun 29, 2010)

Im not huge on behaviorists. but i agree w most everything DM states


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## jenv101 (Oct 13, 2010)

Yes I agree with DM as well. One of my dogs is this way and after much trial and error, and worry on my part, I finally accepted him for who he is. He is reserved and doesn't like strangers in his space, and that is ok. I tell people before they approach to keep their distance and ignore him. If it is someone who he needs to get to know for whatever reason, I ask them to ignore him (no eye contact, no talking to him, no touching him) and he will go up and sniff them. After about 10 minutes or so of them ignoring him and letting him control the situation, he is usually fine and will accept them.


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

I don't know how you feel about Victoria Stilwell but just this week saw one of her shows, "It's me or the Dog" and she had a fearful Weimaraner and it one of the techniques used to desensitise it to strangers was to have them approach carefully and throw treats onto the ground close to the dog but not to talk or look at him, there were other things they did aswell as it had quite a few problems but it seemed to work well. Although of course people barging into your house unannounced wouldn't work. My dog is fearful of some strangers, he doesn't bark or growl, just backs away but as a breed greyhounds are quite aloof and I don't worry about it.


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

The absolute most important thing you can do is make people ignore the dog. Nothing will make your dog feel more safe. You dog sounds similar to mine in a lot of ways, my dog was already fearful at ten weeks old and I tried socializing him like any other dog but that sort of failed since he would try hard to get away from people who approached him, he never really got to meet many people as a result, all interactions were stressful. 

While for some dogs being on leash can increase fear (they are trapped) for my dog being on leash is the safest thing to do when people come over. Tucker NEVER tries to hide or run from strangers, when they come in he gets about three inches away from them and barks at them, if they were to try and interact he would leap back while barking and then charge and snap at them as they stand back up/pull away their hand. I have to put him on a leash to keep him AWAY from visitors, not to keep him near them. So my method does involve the leash. Tucker WANTS to sniff the people.

What I do is remove Tucker from the room when he barks and stand with him in the back hallway or spare bedroom until he calms down enough to follow a sit command or make eye contact with me. Then I allow him to come back out, if he doesn't bark he can stay out (not interacting with stranger) if he barks we go back (don't do this angrily, just gently take him out with the leash). Stranger is told before hand to COMPLETELY ignore the dog. You might need to be very specific so don't be afraid to say "don't make eye contact, don't talk to him, don't offer your hand, don't kneel down, just pretend he's not even here. Even if he sniffs you or looks like he wants to be friends, keep ignoring him".

I will let Tucker go up and sniff the guests once he is past any barking. I let him sniff (on leash) for a few seconds and then ask for his attention and give a treat to make sure he doesn't get TOO focused or over stimulated. Then he can choose to go sniff again or walk away. I never MAKE him sniff, he always wants to. If your dog has no desire to sniff people I would play what is called "Look at That" (LAT). Which just means rewarding your dog EVERY time he looks at the stranger. The dog looks, you say "yes!" and give a treat. Over and over. Then you can move closer and play it close to the guest. Believe it or not this can all be done while having a nice conversation with your guest, you just have to keep an eye on the dog to make sure you reward each glance he makes towards the guest. I do this when kids come over because I don't want him sniffing them as I can't expect them to ignore him as well as I can expect adults to, so letting him get close enough for sniffing could be dangerous. Eventually you can stop giving treats for looking and start using the treats only when the person does something "extra" like speaking loudly, sneezing, shifting in their seat, standing up, walking by/towards him, laughing, anything more than sitting calmly, anything that could set him off again. You want to give treats when those things happen so that you can prevent a reaction and associate the person's actions with positive feelings. Also be on the lookout for your dog focusing too hard on the person, this is a sign that the dog is concerned, so get the dog's attention and give a treat to break the building tension. Preventing a reaction is of utmost importance. 

Only after he is completely comfortable with their movements and voices and shows no signs of wanting to react for a good 15-30 minutes will I allow people to maybe attempt to get his attention. I don't tell them they can but people have a way of just doing it anyway. If they whisper at him, make a kissy noise, hold out a hand, make eye contact, whatever, I give a treat right away. If he will not take the treat then I'd tell the person to stop and move the dog further away. Not taking treats is a sign of stress. So I reward the dog for all of this and he becomes used to it and feels safe despite it. Eventually you will notice the dog show some interest when the people do these things, so reward that interest. If someone says hi to him and he steps forward give a treat. If they hold out a hand and he sniffs it allow him to briefly and then give a treat. Eventually it seems people always try to pet. The dog will dodge and you should IMMEDIATELY treat him so he recovers quickly and does not react. If you think your dog may bite then don't allow him to get close enough for sniffing. Basically I let the dog's behavior and reaction guide my next step. If he seems calm and confident with whatever the guest is doing I just keep reinforcing it and allowing him to take it a step further if he'd like. If you are not good at reading body language then you'll really want some professional help so you can learn to read your dog to prevent any incident from occurring. With my dog, using this method, he usually is very comfortable with the person after maybe 2 hours. If he gets to that point during their first visit then the next time they come over he will warm up very fast and usually want them to pet him in 20 minutes or so. It's really awesome how that works for him. Not that this will be the case for every dog. All dogs are different in the level of fear and how they deal with fear.


Because the dog's fear sounds genetic you can't expect him to ever react to new people like a normal dog would, he's not going to ever see a stranger and want them to pet him. I would never allow strangers to touch him while he still considers them strangers. Forbidding strangers from ever touching has made a HUGE difference in my dog outside of the house. He used to get worked up when people would say hi to me in passing on a walk from the other side of the street. The reason was he thought attention from strangers was a prediction that they would be trying to touch him. He was paranoid. By using LAT for people passing, speaking, approaching, then eventually for kneeling, talking to him, reaching a hand out towards him, etc. he can now calmly stand or sit while people uselessly try to encourage him over. Because I NEVER let strangers touch him (at least while they remain strangers) and slowly worked up to having him tolerate their talking and reaching, he is confident that just because they pay attention to him doesn't mean they are going to touch him. LAT has been absolutely wonderful for outside of the house. Like I said in the above paragraphs, INSIDE things work a bit differently for us because at some point the person stops being a stranger and he will eventually want attention, it's just hard to tell exactly when he's decided they are no longer strangers and they are friends who he'd enjoy attention from. So learn to read your dog and never push for touching, the dog should always be the one deciding he wants touching from guests. If he shows any apprehension take it back a step and tell your guest to stop whatever it is they are doing. If someone touches him and he looks like he's just tolerating it and not enjoying it ask them to stop and reward the dog for being nice and reward so he continues associating the person with awesomeness.


This is what works for my dog, but every dog is different. With Tucker I need to slowly work up in steps, first getting him used to a person ignoring him, then a person being a bit louder and moving more, then a person actually paying him some attention, and finally a person really trying to get his attention. With some dogs if they just get used to the ignoring person for a decent amount of time they will be fine once the person starts being more animated or pays attention to him. Some dogs on the other hand need to be treated much slower and the guest will have to completely ignore the entire visit. For these dogs it's best to have them work some LAT and then put them away for a bit so your poor guest doesn't have to be super careful the whole visit. Just have the dog out at quiet times when the guest will be sitting and relatively quiet. You'll need to adjust things to your dog. The most important things to me are preventing him from reacting by keeping him under threshold, don't allow him to get so afraid that he needs to react. This is done by using treats, lots of treats, for looking at the stranger and whenever the stranger does something concerning. Doing this builds a positive association for the person, the dog will start to feel fear but will then remember he's supposed to get a treat and look at you expectantly and get his treat. it's interesting to see it work. Someone will stand up, my dog will start to startle, then immediately he whips his head around at me and says "where's my treat, she moved!". It totally changes their reaction to the person being "Scary". This is also achieved through distance, move the dog closer and further from the guest according to the dog's comfort level. Of course if the dog ever wants to leave the room LET HIM, this is about making the dog safe. If guests come and your dog goes in the bedroom and chills out there, then he's not being dangerous and that's good. If you have a dog who does this make the room a safe room with his bed, a water bowl, toys, and chewies so he can be happy there.


Good luck! Fearful dogs can be frustrating but Tucker has taught me a LOT about dog body language and about thresholds and training methods. Watching him make progress within one visit is absolutely amazing and very rewarding for me. The behavior is just so dramatic that the difference one visit makes is huge and it really makes me feel good to make him feel better. So keep working on it and be patient, it'll pay off.


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## VizslaMama (Feb 15, 2012)

THANK YOU ALL, so very much for your comments!! So much great advice. I guess you could say I just didn't know where to start. I had all of these ideas in my head, but nothing solid to work with. 

I am going to take everyone's thoughts and form a sold plan for Copper going forward. We should of taken action sooner, but so many people we saying he will grow out of it. This is simply not the case and we should have just stuck to our gut feelings about him. 

Copper sounds a lot like Tucker. He doesn't flee from people when inside our home. He barks, lunges and backs off just a bit then if they move or talk, he lunges again and barks. I started with the leash, and greeting people at the door. This was a HUGE no no, I see that now. I have learned to read his body language a lot better over that past few weeks and best practice for Copper and the visitor who come over will be telling him to go to his "house"(crate) This has been a good starting point, we have been working at knocking on the door, and telling him house. He has learned to knock bark as much. Now opening the door and talking to the visitor, will get him going again, but I think over time he will learn that nothing bad is happening to him, when that door opens and he hears us talking. Slow and Steady. I get that! : ) 

We have been training him like a normal social dog, which he is not. I am a shy person when it comes to speaking to a large crowds. I wouldn't like being forced to stand there and talk. I might be OK enough to do it, if I worked on it slowly over time. It's just the way I am. I see now, this is probably just the way Copper is, but we also reinforced his fears by pushing him to far. We were trying to make him be social. How awful are we! 

Over all Copper is a very happy puppy, full of life, eager to please, and gives lots of love towards our family memeber's. We are learning where we can and can not trust him with people. Most often, if a person has a dog with them in the park, he is absolutly fine if he gets to play and sniff the dog. He completely forgets about the human, and they can actually touch him. His tail is still high and wagging. He is distracted. 

In the end, the most important thing we want is a happy dog. We tried so hard for him to be a social dog that we lost focus on what really mattered. A Happy Copper. He will be OK with never liking strangers, just like I will be OK if I never have to speak in front of a large crowd of people. It doesn't make me feel less satisfied of life, and it won't to him either. Use as his owners just need to make him feel secure when he is in the presence of other people. 

I will say this, if we ever have another dog that exibits the same traits, behaviours as Copper, we will now have a better understanding of how to help them cope, so much sooner in life. think we just need to use our own gut feeling's. Afterall, we know our dog(s) better than anyone else. It just took us awhile to realize that is what we needed to do. 

Thanks again to everyone. So many helpful tips!!


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## Jacksons Mom (Jun 13, 2010)

I wouldn't say Jackson was ever as fearful as your guy, but certainly VERY shy. It frustrated me at times because I would tell myself he had nothing to be scared of... but every dog is so different. I, too, always socialized him and honestly? It was a matter of me continuing to socialize the crap out of him. He is 3 now and honestly SO much better than he was at, say, 9 months. I just kept him out and about. Always tried to make it positive experiences. ALWAYS carried treats in my pockets.

I know taking him to places like my little cousins little league games helped a lot. It was outdoors, so not a tiny space, lots and lots of people to watch, but we didn't always have to get too close. Eventually I began letting kids give him treats and pet him.

I don't know if I did anything very special... I mainly just never forced him into anything and let him come around in his own time, also always making it positive (i.e. get a treat when you meet new ppl). Anyways at 3 years old now, he can still be slow to approach, but he doesn't BACK away anymore. He now willingly goes up to strangers to sniff them and even though he's often very shy about it (ears are sometimes back, in a shy mode, wagging tail), he's the one who is choosing to do the behavior. He still barks if someone like a worker or maids or whatever come into the house, but I think that's fairly normal, and we just deal with it. In general, his shyness and fear is not really a problem at all, and he goes a ton of places with me and is always very laid back and capable of dealing with almost anything.


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