How To Teach a Shy, Fearful, or Nervous Dog!
A number of you have dogs who are a bit more reserved or shy, and that’s what I want to talk about in today. Is your dog shy or they energetic or they somewhere in between? Tell me in the comments below Lucy, the Chihuahua is a friend of the family and we are dog sitting her for a few days, so, rather than go over how to teach X, Y or Z, I kinda want to give you some advice on How to approach training with a more reserved, shy or nervous dog?
I think what Lucy will go over how to teach a basic sit. Then we’ll talk about how to get her to lift her paw and then maybe we’ll go on a walk. What do you think sounds good? You guys have been bonding. Haven’t you kind of yeah? I mean I’m kind of shy too. So I get it.
The first thing to do when you bring a nervous or a shy dog into the house, is to let them acclimate. Let them get comfortable we’re gonna see if we can get her into a sit got a really good currency right here, which is real neat huh.
Alright, so she’s a she’s a little reluctant to follow a lure here right. The textbook way that we teach a sit is to kind of lure a dog into a sit on. Would you mind if I work with her for a moment or not. Okay, she thought about sitting right there. She didn’t do it, I’m gonna reward her, because she’s still thinking about it, I’m not gonna insist that she sit every single time, especially when she’s a bit nervous.
I haven’t worked with her at all. We use the turkey kind of as a catalyst to bridge communication yeah, it’s good, yes right there anymore. Oh look at that I’ll! Take that’s even better than the sit Lucy yeah really really cute. You’ll know that when I’m working with a dog – and they do something like that for the first time when I’m working with them I’ll get really excited I’ll, tell you really let him know that you appreciate it not so with a dog like this.
If I were to get excited and say good dog, all crazy she’d be like whoa. Well, the too much man died. be sincere, but we don’t want to be too crazy and too excited sit. Good girl, that’s called said, really: quiet, voice, really understanding. Yes, good girl, that’s wonderful! When you try! Try it, just to get Lucy comfortable with taking direction from more and more people. Let her start nibbling on it and then, when you have her attention, go with it.
You know, yeah like that now go now. You got it see that yeah, right yeah. That’s it, see that was really good. That was a helpful tip, though cuz. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to get the magnet to stick. I always imagined a lure like it’s a magnet. You have to like keep it if it gets too far it comes apart.
Does that make sense, we should probably see how she is about lifting up her paws. Now the reason I like to teach this a it’s an easy trick like shake hands but B. It really builds our communication, so we’re just gonna tap the back of her paw. Yes, good, we’re gonna reward that yes, she lifted and up. I gave her that, yes to let her know that I liked it see that, so now she’s holding her paw up.
I love this, see she’s actually following the lure now. This is progress. Look into an up, even that’s great, so that’s up sit. Yes, it looks she’s even holding the paw up. Take that, glad your foot, I think we should go to the park, see how she does on a walk and see what we can do to encourage her to walk nicely on the leash.
Please, hey Luce! If you want to go hunting, yes to me, whenever you are introducing your dog to a new place, especially if they’re a bit more reserved like this, it’s really important to let them check out the environment on their own terms. You will get much more benefit from being patient with your dog in the beginning, rather than trying to rush the process.
If you’re in a new place with your dog, remember, there’s lots of sight smells all sorts of distractions. We’ve got Birds over here. We have cars driving by so take that into account when you’re asking your dog to listen to you in a new place. Let’s take a walk girl, come on. Let’s go right now, we’re gonna let her sniff and check it out and she’s doing really well.
Look at this, I’m going to ignore all the pulling on the leash. The number-one priority is to make sure that she’s really, really comfortable in this new place. You just look at her expression right now, she’s much more comfortable. Don’t underestimate the power of a little bit of exercise to reduce anxiety.
I’m curious to see how Lucy will do on sit and up and paw in this new place. Yeah, Look at that, nice. You went right into a sit, let’s see if she can go into an up, can’t come on go on, you can do it. Yeah, nice and patient. There, don’t try and rush if we can have this foot. Look at that teaching tricks and the basics like this. Can really build our dog’s confidence? That’s why we do this Lucy is doing so great and she’s so sweet.
