Often we meet timorous and timid dogs towards other dogs but also to humans, what you should do?
We give you some little advices to help you if it is your dog to be shy and fearful.
The first important thing, with fearful dogs but also with those are super sociable, is trust. In fact, dog needs to feel secure in its “pack” and must be confident that no matter what, its owner will be there, in case of need he will help it and he will protect it from dangers.
Gaining trust of your dog takes time and exercise, you have to show your dog that you can overcome obstacles that it would not be able to, for example, a dog that is afraid of climbing the rungs of a ladder, we must show that we are able to overcome them free there is nothing to fear, we invite it to come with us and we show it how to do it.
Another very important thing is attention. You must make sure that your dog is attentive and focused on you. The food can be definitely a mean but cannot be used in the long term, you won’t gain your dog trust or esteem but only momentary attention. What you need instead is playing with your dog, you can find an article about the importance of playing with dogs in our blog.
A famous trainer explained you have your dog’s attention and engagement when your dog thinks that spending time with you is the most enjoyable, interesting and rewarding activity than anything else.
Then while you are playing with your dog you can control the fearful stimulus in the surround keeping your dog focus on you, for example if you dog is frightened by vacuum cleaner you can focus his attention playing tug of war with him while vacuum cleaner is on. Obviously it will take time because the dog thinks out and gets over its fears slowly increasing intensity until your dog will not deal with them calmly. This phase is called desensitization.
These four tips will help you with your shy and timorous dog and they are the basis of the path to gain a good relationship with your dog.