# dealing with fear?



## pauldobe (Nov 30, 2011)

mutt has had fear since she was brought home from adoption, but until after the day after it didn't start being a problem. at the time she was still a puppy, didn't get settled in yet, we were on a walk and she was attacked by 3 of my neighbors dogs that are ALWAYS off leash. these people think that because they're hunters that murder things and abuse their dogs that they're above using a leash/the dog listens.(but they don't)

these 3...things caused it and continue to harass my dog and my, though not biting they will charge and tackle her, growling/snapping, dogs that are on leash are aggressive to and it scares her.

if the dogs don't get in her face when they run up to her she's still scared but doesn't react as badly, there's ones that she knows won't hurt her so she tries to stay calm. people tell me to get a prong/choke and jerk her with it whenever she reacts "aggressively" but is confused why, it's not aggression and punishing her for being fearful for good reason is mean...
typically she wears a gentle leader, if problem happens I'll have her sit/lay down and distract her with treats, hang onto it really close to keep her from looking at what's bothering her...it works but doesn't make the fear go away...

any suggestions for helping with this? she's good inside, takes time to warm up but once she knows someone she's very cuddly with them. thing is, we don't have any dogs balanced enough to use as a example to socialize her more because they're aggressive or too high strung(she HATES when other dogs get in her face)so when people say to use another dog...that's not an option. don't wish to use negative correction, but doesn't know what to do. she's gotten better from how she was originally but wants her to be able to be without fear one day...


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## xchairity_casex (Oct 8, 2011)

i agree you should not be punishing her you need to teach her posative assotations with other dogs.
what i do since where i live there are NO puppy socielizing classes or obedience training classes to take new puppies to to socieliz i put ads on craigslist what im looking for
"looking for a nice,sociel,mellow dog to meet and greet with my new puppy in (area i live)"

i got quite a few responses and quite a few doggy freinds for myboy just post an ad for what your looking for like 
"looking for a nice meloow not pushy in your face dog to meet and greet with my dog who si very nervous around other dogs so i can help her overcome her fears"

once you find a nice doggy buddy use posative reinforcment bring lots of treats and praise everytime she is calm and intrested in the other dog reward her,praise her if seh begins getting to overwelmed jsut stop the interaction and take her away from it you dont want to set her up to fail she can only take so much before she snaps so keep things short,slow and posative and work your way up from there. and dont stop after finding one good doggy buddy to help her find as many as you can but only start with one lets say you find a nice doggy buddy whom ill call sam take a few weeks of working with her and only sam once seh is comfortable around him find another doggy buddy and let ehr meet that doggy buddy take her to both sam and lets say lola back and forth for a few weeks once those interactions and time are going well ring in a third doggy buddy and so on and so forth.


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