SHY DOG

Living with a Shy or Fearful 

Dog by Jennifer Bridwell

Living with a shy or fearful dog requires patience, commitment, and realistic expectations. If your dog is genetically shy, you're not going to change who she is, no matter how much training you do. You can, however, help her become more comfortable in her own skin, more reliable in her behavior, and more confident in you — all at the same time.

Causes of Shyness

Dogs exhibit fearful or shy behavior for several reasons. The prognosis for successful treatment often depends on the cause. Is the fear new or ongoing? How old was your dog when you first noticed she was fearful? Is she afraid of one or two identifiable things, or is she always skittish and nervous? Early onset of generalized fear and anxiety often indicates a genetic component, while fearful responses to specific things are usually learned.

As mentioned in the sidebar, some dogs learn to be fearful, either in response to a specific, traumatic event, or because fearful behavior has been rewarded, usually by a well-meaning but misguided person trying to make the dog feel better.

What You Can Do to Help Your Dog

As the owner of a shy or fearful dog, your first priority is to get your dog a thorough physical, including blood work with a thyroid function test, to rule out the possibility of a medical basis for fear or anxiety. Then, provide her with calm, confident leadership — all the time, not just in times of stress or crisis — and she'll know you're in control, and won't let anything bad happen to her. By putting yourself between her and whatever or whomever she's afraid of, and giving her specific directions to follow (sit, stay, look), you take the pressure of decision making off her, so she doesn't have to make the awful choice between fight or flight. Fighting (biting) would probably be her last choice, but she would if, in her mind, she had to defend herself; flying (running away) does nothing to solve the problem, and she could possibly injure herself in her panic.

Don't Make It Worse

Never punish or reinforce your dog for exhibiting fearful behavior. It will only make her worse and possibly add aggression to an already unstable temperament. You may feel pity for her, but keep it to yourself, and put on an assertive and cheerful front — pity does her no good. You can live with her the way she is and manage her by limiting her triggers and making sure she is supervised in a way so that she doesn't harm herself or others. Or you can do everything in your power to work her through her fears and gratefully embrace each bit of progress as a milestone. There are some prescription medications that, as an adjunct to behavior modification, can help, as well as alternative treatments like flower essences and therapeutic touch.

** Genetically shy dogs and dogs that weren't socialized early in their lives have a relatively poor prognosis in comparison to dogs who have learned to be fearful in response to specific triggers or events.

Desensitization and Counterconditioning 

You have a good chance of modifying your dog's fearful behavior with desensitization, a systematic process of reducing fear; and counterconditioning, which teaches the dog a new reaction in response to his fear triggers. Before you start, make sure you have you have sit and look on command. You're already presenting yourself as a good leader, right?

Desensitization

Identify the trigger you want to work on, skateboards, for example.

Present your dog with his trigger at a low level of intensity. In this instance, distance is one way to lower the intensity, and making sure the skateboard doesn't move is another. You will have to experiment to find your dog's critical distance, or the closest he can be to the trigger without fear.

Teach your dog to sit and “look” at his critical distance. CR/treat for success. Repeat until he's not even thinking about the trigger at that distance

Move a little closer to the trigger (or it can move closer to you), 1–5 percent of the distance to start. Work on sit and “look” until the dog is comfortable again.

Very gradually, always based on your dog's success, move closer, until you are right next to the trigger and he can still function.

Repeat the process with each trigger or each variable (a moving skateboard, for example).

If your dog shows fear at any time during the process, back up to where he can be successful.

Be patient! It can take days, weeks, or months to make progress.

End each session with success.

Control the Triggers

It is important to reduce (or eliminate, if possible) your dog's contact with fear triggers during the desensitization/counterconditioning process. Some fears, like thunderstorm phobia, are more difficult to treat, both because you can't control them, and because your dog may be reacting to more than just the obvious triggers (like barometric pressure, not just thunder)