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May 19, 2011

Since I have moved into an apartment, my dog has lost its self-confidence. How can I help her re-gain self-confidence?

Full Question:
Hi, you have a FANTASTIC website! I suspect the answers to my questions are available on your website. However, I haven't been able to locate them yet, but if you could point me in the right direction I'd be very grateful. I have a 3 1/2yr old female GSD (DDR bloodlines). As a pup she was very self-confident, over the past 2 years I feel her self-confidence has gone. I know it's my fault... 2 years ago I had to sell my house, since then we have lived in a little apartment which is part of a 4-apartment house. So there's all the stress of living in a situation that is not suited to a dog... no barking in the building, there is no yard for her to go in - EVERY time she needs to go out to the bathroom, etc., we drive over to the Town Garage where there is a huge field. She is VERY friendly to people she knows when in familar surroundings, but if we go to someone's house that she doesn't know and I take her out of the truck to meet them, half the time she tucks her tail, trembles, and tries to slink back into my vehicle. She's not in least bit aggressive in these situations. My reaction was just to hold her and talk to her calmly and then let her get back in the vehicle within a minute or two. Seeing how it upsets her I try to avoid these situations, but realize that is not dealing with the issue. I know our living situation is a big problem, and I am trying to find somewhere more suitable, but also I strongly feel a key factor in my dog?s reaction is due to a TERRIBLE experience at the vet's office she had last summer... needless to say I will NEVER allow that vet to touch any dog of mine ever again! I want to help my dog re-gain her self-confidence, but am not sure how to.



My second question you'll probably wonder if I'm talking about the same dog... as a young adolescent she & I were attacked/chased by loose neighborhood dogs when we were out walking on several occasions. Result, my dog is very aggressive if she sees another dog when we are out walking. So I tried having her sit quietly to the side of the trail when a leashed dog would walk past... she was getting the hang of it and sitting very quietly, just watching the other dog. I was thrilled! Then a few days later, some idiot with a loose dog comes charging and barking at us ferociously. I feel like shooting these irresponsible people! (Of course my reaction just makes it worse!) All this work I was doing with my dog was in parks that stipulated dogs had to be on a leash - so much for enforcement. Since then I have resigned myself to avoiding, as best I can, situations were my dog & I will encounter other dogs. I feel this isn't fair to her, that again it is just avoiding the problem, there must be something I can do? Lastly, regarding prong collars, wouldn't using a small prong collar with extra prongs (links) be more effective on a dog then using a collar with bigger prongs therefore less actual number of prongs (links)? Looking forward to any insight or suggestions you can share.



Thank you so much for your time,
Sarah
Cindy
Cindy Cindy's Answer:
Sounds like your dog has weak nerves. I write about this on my site. This has nothing to do with your new home. If a dog had good genetics and good nerves it would adjust. Many many many DDR dogs are very very soft. I was one of two Americans going into the DDR on dog business before the wall came down - I know what I am talking about here. I do not like 99% of the DDR lines because of this.



You need to carry pepper spray - warn people once - if they do not control their dog - spray it and tell the police it was attacking YOU (not your dog).



You are wrong about the prong collar.



If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes. I think if you read the testimonials on that tape you will see that my customers feel the same way.



Get this tape and a normal extra heavy prong collar - the tape shows how to train with it. Sounds like you are doing some thing right.

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Expert Dog Trainer Cindy Rhodes
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