There is a certain amount of desperation that can come from living with a fearful dog. Your dog doesn’t fit neatly into the ideal of what a family dog “should” look and act like. You may not have any experience working with a dog that requires special accommodations to be able to cope with living in your household.
That feeling of desperation may motivate you to search for ways to help your shy dog, including contacting trainers, talking to friends, asking your veterinarian for advice or enrolling in classes at the local training club. Most of time, though, the search starts with a google search for “shy”, “fearful” or “scared”.
Where Do You Turn?
In order to share timely, relevant information for fearful dogs and their humans, I spend a lot of time searching the internet for appropriate material. My cyberspace travels have turned up some wonderful trainers, posts and videos that I regularly share over at The ExtraOrdinary Dog Facebook group.
Conversely, there are a shocking number of blogs, authors and videos that make me want to cry when I see their methods for fixing or rehabilitating fearful dogs. Many of these trainers look and sound quite credible, but the body language of the scared dogs they are “fixing” screams that their methods are serving to only reinforce and exacerbate the dog’s fear. These “quick fixes” indicate that there is a great need for scientifically proven, humane methods that address the very specific needs of our fearful dogs.
Force doesn’t work. Pain doesn’t work. Quick doesn’t apply. And if you are feeling desperate on behalf of your fearful dog, you might have a hard time discerning the good advice from the bad.
One Simple Rule
In an effort to wade though training methods and equipment that can sometimes range from ignorant to abusive to just plain wrong, I would like to share a simple personal rule I have when trying to determine what is right for my fearful dog:
If I wouldn’t use (the training method or equipment) on my toddler, I shouldn’t use it on my dog. Period.
Once I establish a basis by which to compare different approaches to training, the good quickly separates itself from the bad and ugly. Ultimately, that’s really what I want for my dog: to start with the good (training methods, theories and equipment), and end by being the best we can be, together.
Photo: Our daughter as a toddler, eight years ago.
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