my shy pup is TERRIFIED...advice, please!

[Sophie45]

My six month old puppy Sophie (boxer/german shepard) is inordinately shy around new people. I know she was definitely not abused, I got her at ten weeks, and she loooved everybody for the first few weeks! Then right around twelve weeks she started getting scared of people. I wasn't too concerned at first, because I read about the 'fear and avoidance' phase, and it explained that puppy's grow out of it. I continued to socialize her a LOT with all sorts of new people. My vet and trainer said not to worry about it. But now at six months it is getting worse and worse. We went through basic obedience, but honestly I know that continued obedience won't help (except private lessons which I cannot afford with the holidays right now!) because if other dogs are around she is friendly, outgoing, and very happy and pet-able. People at my dog park don't believe me that my dog is shy because she is polar opposite when she's around other dogs.
Tonight after work, we went for a walk and we went down a somewhat busy street, where there was a homeless guy picking up bottles and putting it into his cart (about ten feet away from us). This started her getting scared, her hackles went up, she tries to go in the opposite direction. Then, two doors down, someone walked out of the house, (about ten feet away from us) she starts panicking. Then two seconds later someone walks across the street, she is in a complete frenzy, dragging me down the street, in a total panic. NONE of these people even tried to approach us! Since I got her at ten weeks old, not a single person has harmed or hurt her in anyway, and I honestly don't believe that she was before I got her either-like I said, the first few weeks I had her when she was a very young pup she was not shy at all, I had no concerns.
If she knows the person, she's fine, but if she doesn't know the person, she does not want them to pet her, or go near her (she doesn't growl, nip, bite or tuck her tail, she just tries to hide behind me). I try and bring her everywhere I go, introduce her to new people, and have them give her treats so she associates new people with good treats, but it doesn't seem to help. Sometimes it is hard to get her to even take a treat from them!
If someone comes over to my apt, she will bark for about 3-5 seconds, then hide under the table, go in her crate in my bedroom or on my bed. Oh-and she is not scared of kids, or any friendly animal.
She seems slightly better with women, but it is definitely an overall shyness.
I absolutely cannot walk her on any busy street at all, she just panics!
AND the street she flipped out on tonight is the same street we have been walking down since the day I got her back in August (although I have been avoiding it mainly the past few months because of this fear and we go to the park a lot), and the first few weeks she was not fazed at all by this street.
Any ideas please???? I'm desperate!!!

[Sugardog]

Many puppies will go through a fear stage, it's not something thats your fault. German Shepherds and other large breeds are notorious for this. My theory is that because of their rapid growth, their world changes very quickly. Sometimes a bit too quickly and they grow faster than they can adjust.

But the fear stages need to be handled properly in order to ensure that the dog doesn't remain that way or that the behavior doesn't get worse.

The first thing you should know is how you should introduce new people to your puppy. You want the dog to approach the person and smell the person first. A person that is making a big deal, looking at the dog, baby talking, trying to appraoch and pet etc is not approaching a shy dog correctly. Offering treats doesn't work because a dog will not eat under stress or pressure. So instead, have your guests pay absolutely no attention to the dog. No talking to her, no looking at her or making eye contact and no trying to pet her. And you should ignore the dog as well, don't try to force her greet people. If she barks, ignore it. The dog will eventually get curious and sniff the guest, just let her. Now this is when a guest can offer treats, but still without looking at or talking to the dog. Just have treats in hand and allow the dog to take them. Take it slowly and remember to let the dog approach the person. Then comes petting, eye contact and gentle talking. No quick moves.

She doesn't show fear at the dog park because she is around good influences. Being involved in a pack of happy, confident dogs will wear off on her. I've used this concept alot of times when socializing my GSD puppy. My whippet mix has been a wonderful example to the pup. When the pup sees that Angie is not freaking out over thunder or fireworks, and I'm not either, it will influence her and she'll calm down.

As for other places like the busy street, your going to have to take it slow and recondition her. Think about the area where she first starts to freak out. Is it when she gets just outside the front door? When she leaves the front yard? When you turn onto a certain street? Figure that place out. If it's just busy streets that scare her, start off with a street that is just busy enough get her a little nervous.

Now, to recondition her, you want to take her to the edge of her comfort level, where she isn't completely freaking and stressing like she did on the street as you mentioned, and not where she's comfortable. But rather where she's exhibiting a little anxiety and nervousness. Now just distract her with a bunch of positive things. Favorite treats, a toy, love, praise etc. Does she know a few commands? If so, have her do them and reward her for obeying.

It's very important to work gradually and don't force anything on her. Sometimes you may be able to move forward towards a busier street each day, sometimes you'll have to stay in that area for a few days, just work at her pace.

If a sudden loud noise makes her flip out, don't do anything. Just ignore it completely. Don't try to comfort her or tell her it's ok and don't let her run back to the house or a comfort zone. Just ignore it and she'll recover all by herself just fine.

[mrsgrubby]

Great advice Sugardog!!!!

You are probably accidently encouraging your dogs shyness by trying to sooth her with your voice and petting her, but that is actually encouraging her fear.

Ignoring it is the much better way to go. Also try greeting the person with a cheerful hello. Then your dog will realize that you see the person and you are hapy to see them.

[Sophie45]

Thank u guys so much, sugar-that is great advice!
With the busy streets-it's just if there is a lot of people coming and going at the same time or within a short period of time of each other. For example, on Tuesday-the guy collecting bottles freaked her out a bit, but usually once she continues on after a few seconds she's fine, but then someone walked out of a house on the left, and someone was walking across the street on the right side-so she probably felt bombarded and overwhelmed, and the noise of the cars probably didn't help, but cars themselves-even noisy cars-don't bother her. Sophie NEVER barks, just tries to run towards a comfort zone.
For now, I have been taking her on side streets where there are some people, certainly, but not as busy. The "busy" street where she freaked is not even THAT busy-one lane each way, speed limit is 30, but there is certainly bustle on the road.
OK so here is my question: (I may open this up as another thread to get more input)
I am thinking of getting a clicker so she associates clicker with treats. I want her to 'come' at the dog park under distraction when she hears the clicker (she's pretty good at coming for the most part, even sometimes while distracted but I am trying to diligently reinforce it so she is always consistently coming to me when called), and hopefully when I start to see her getting nervous, use the clicker so she 'comes' on command, and stays near me rather than dragging me down the street, and reward and praise her for listening to my command, and if I can get her to continue to focus on me, have her 'sit' and 'down' which she mastered at twelve weeks, and hopefully I can build her confidence. Of course I would do this slowly-do u think this is worth a shot?
OH-and Rottie/Sugar/anyone else-is there anything I can do if she does go into a panic and is dragging me down the street?
THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR ADVICE AND INPUT!!!

[Sugardog]

Hmm, are you perhaps getting the concept of clicker training confused?

Clicker training is operant conditioning, a form of positive reinforement training. It works suprisingly well because it tells the dog exactly what he did right and what he's getting rewarded for. Example, when teaching sit, you click the moment her rump hits the floor. Of course a dog must be conditioned to the clicker, which isn't hard and I can explain if your interested. Clicker training works wonders on shy and fearful dogs and helps to boost their confidence. I mentioned before on another thread a friend of mine who does agility with her own 3 dogs and also teaches agility. She is an all positive reinforcement trainer and clicker trainer. Her Eskie is a rescue and was kept in a crate constantly since puppyhood. Because the dog was only let out to potty twice a day, both at night (before the sun comes up and after it went down), she was literally afraid of daylight and was deathly terrified of everything. She took this dog and with the clicker, rehabilitated it. The dog now has an AKC novice agility title. It was literally a miracle. Nobody expected the dog to get so far, but she was determined that the dog would be a champion.

But, that is a good idea for having a noise to call her to you. I think that sometimes dogs will not return to their calling owner because the owner is yelling frantically for the dog to come. You can do the same thing with a whistle or bicycle horn if your interested in clicker training. Just sound the horn or whistle while your calling her over to you and she'll associate it with coming to you and getting treats. Although just be warned that in a stressful situation, she may not come anyway, even to a whistle or horn.

As for what you can do if she goes into a panic and starts dragging you down the street.....the best thing you can do is prevent that from happening. And that means avoiding putting her in a situation where she'll freak like that. Just start out small and at the edge of her comfort zone as I described in my first post. If something sudden happens when your working with her at the edge of her comfort zone and she freaks, try your best to hold your ground and not move. Once she stops and calms back down to a state of just being uncomfortable, resume distracting her with toys and treats.

[Sophie45]

You are such a help! I feel that if Sophie were to associate a certain noise, such as a clicker, with a treat, she would respond well to it. Sophie learns associations very quickly when it comes with treats! (I'm sure that is not surprising...) I will let u know how that goes!

[Sugardog]

Your very welcome

To clicker train, you simply want her to associate the click with the reward/treat. So to condition her, click the clicker, then immediatly give her a treat. Do it over and over and over again. Then wait for her to turn her head or get distracted. If you click your clicker, she should turn around and look expectantly at you for her treat and you know she is conditioned.

Now comes applying it to training. Start with the commands she already knows. Tell her to sit, the moment her rump hits the floor, click and treat. Have her lay down, the moment she is down, click and treat. Ask her to come, when she comes to you, click and treat. The click should mean "You did it correctly and your reward is coming". She will soon start to work her tail off to get that click.

Now pick a new, but simple behavior like roll over. Have her lay down, then physically roll her over while saying "roll over" or just plain "roll". Once she finishes the roll, click and treat. She should pick up on it pretty quickly.

You'll have alot of fun with a clicker. I had a Basenji/pitbull/border collie mix once and with the clicker, I had him doing really silly tricks. He scratched himself on command and stuck his tongue out on command as well. Both of those behaviors I captured with the clicker.

Now when doing the distraction method I mentioned to desensitize her to busy streets, you can take your clicker and do some training. Clickers also help dogs focus because they will learn to expect the click, they have a deffinite thing to work for.

[Sophie45]

Thanks again! We started clicker training today : ) so far so good-she is quite pleased to be getting a lot of treats!

[Sugardog]

Thats wonderful!

A great book to pick up is "The Power of Positive Training" by Pat Miller. It'll be really helpful with clicker training.

A few other things you might want to take note of....

Treat size: Treats should be small for a few reasons. One is that you don't want your dog to spend alot of time chewing the treat, she should be able to get it down in 2 seconds. And two is that you don't want her to get full quickly. This will help you get the most out of training. So assuming your dog is around 50 to 60 pounds, a good sized treat should be 1/2 an inch or less. Good treats can be things like hot dogs, lunch meat, cooked chicken, or if you want to go store bought, Pedigree Trainers (you can break them in half and they work great), Bil Jac treats preferably the peanut butter ones, Beggin strips broken into smaller pieces or Charlee Bear treats. You can use chewy treats or crunchy, but some trainers don't recommend crunchy because the dog may stop what it's doing to clean up crumbs.

And another thing is that the reward that follows the treat doesn't always have to be food. A reward can be anything that the dog will be willing to work for. Toys can work great as treats also. If you use food, train before meal times so that way she's hungry and more eager and willing to work.

[Sophie45]

Thanks again, Sugar!
We use Bil-Jac liver treats, and and Old Mother Hubbard biscuits, and I cut them up really small so she doesn't get full or chews too long. Sometimes I use lunch meat, as well; which is all of ur suggestions, so I guess we are on a good track!
We are still working on clicker training, she is starting to realize that the clicker is associated with **small & cut up** treats : )
I will check out that training book, also-thanks for the recommendation!

[Sugardog]

No problem! Sounds like your doing great

You can PM me if you ever have any questions. Keep me updated about how Sophie is doing!

[Sophie45]

I definitely will
Thanks again : )