I have a Golden and 2 8 month Dob/Pit puppies. They are all very shy. I need help to get them all in line so they can be adopted. Do you have any advice?

Question

Hi Mr. Frawley,

    I could write all day, but I have made so many mistakes, that I just need some help to get me started on the right road.

    I have 2 dogs for 8-yr 11 yrs and blind. 1-Golden mix for 1 1/2 years that I took as so shy, couldn't be adopted. She has become a member of the family....very slow. Even now, I am trying to get a collar on her, much less in a crate. It took 4 weeks to get her to come all of the way into the house. She is 5 years old I took in 2 females Doberman -pit mixes in Sept they were 3 months old and were found abandon on the road. I have been fostering them and now they are 8 months old. Both shy. One has come out with me and is very loving. The other is loving to me when I just try touch of face kiss and not try to corner her.

    I still have the last two due to their fear of people and no one wants them and the rescue people wanted to put them to sleep as they didn't have time to work with them.

    I want to get my house in order, help in correctly working with them, so they can find other homes. The golden, I believe needs to be corrected first, as they seem to look to her as mom or 'leader' or both with the younger ones and has now started try to be the leader. I am trying to regain my footing as leader as she is wanting to fight. I have been told that if I take the golden and completely lay on her to show her I am the leader, put her a collar on- I am going in the correct direction. My worry is that she is so shy, she regress and have to start over. I fear that if I don't get her under control, the young ones will only look up to her. She tries to control their eating now. I have to work hard to have the feeding time work.

    I know I am a mess. Just a little advise where to get started and which DVD I should start with.

    I had one of the Jerk-yank people come over last week for a Demo, it was awful. He didn't speak, just jerked one around the over hide for 2 hours after he left. Of course is also wanted $1000.00 for 5 classes. I wouldn't let him do it for free!

    Anything you can tell me, I'd appreciate.

Accepted Answer

All I can do is offer you the information to fix this. I know it can be done, I cant tell you if you have the resolve to do it. A big part of the solution is handler education.

I recommend that you go to my web site and read the article I wrote on my philosophy of dog training. I think you will get some good ideas there. You will see what I say about trainers like the one you had.

I also have a Q&A section on fear biters. Your dogs are not aggressive (yet) but the two are only 8 months old and it will come.

Read the article I wrote titled Training With Markers. There are three phases of training, the learning phase, the distraction phase and the correction phase. We use markers to introduce our dogs to the LEARNING PHASE of training.

I recommend that you visit my web site and read a training article I recently wrote titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING.

The reason I wrote this article was to help people understand how to motivate their dogs in training. Most people either use the wrong kind of correction or over correct dogs in training. I am not a fan of “force training” (although I definitely believe that every dog needs to go through a correction phase). By exploring corrections in training you will become a better dog trainer.

The fact is fear based dogs must learn obedience. If they don’t they can become dangerous. These kinds of dogs have weak nerves. The role of the handler is to teach them the meaning of the command so they understand what’s being asked. When they know the command they then must learn that UNDER EVERY CIRCOMSTANCE they MUST OBEY or face a correction that is worse than the GHOSTS in their heads. This is the part where owners fail. They are not prepared to apply enough force to make the dog comply when they are afraid.

Dogs like this want to feel secure. Your role is to teach them that if they comply you will insure their security. The dog must respect the consequences of not minding more than it fears the GHOSTS.

I recommend that you get my 4 hour DVD Basic Dog Obedience. Also get a prong collar and/or a dominant dog collar.

Only you can fix these dogs' problem. The vast majority of local trainers are not qualified to do the work and they certainly don’t have the time it takes. But then you already found this out.

Good luck