I feel like Tanka has been pretty well socialized, but we have had one on-going issue that was brought back to light on this morning's walk. Last year there was a big work truck at the park and he was afraid of it. SO we went downtown and walked around and stood on street corners with semi making turns and going by and everything's fine. SO I figure we're ok. Until there was another truck at the park on the trail. Still afraid of it.

he seems to have issues with things like that, that are out of place in a surrounding that he is used to being in. Today there was a water dept repair truck up the road working on a leak and we were walking past and the one repairman stopped us to talk, and he really wanted to pet Tanka. SO I let him(Tanka) walk up and I could tell that as much as he wanted to get close to the man, he wanted to not get that close to the truck, and he ended up getting on the off truck side and laying down at his feet. WHen we walked a few feet away to see whaat the other guy was doing down in the weeds, and then started on our way back past the truck, he shied away just little from it.

I am not sure how to work on this. I don't have the option of moving a big truck into unusual places. SO I guess my bigger question is how to correctly handle a situation with him where he is afraid or unsure of something. J

What does Tanka do when he's showing you he's afraid? What's his body language saying? How old is he? What breed?

Tanka is 2 years 9 month old Rottweiler. When he is unsure of what somthing is, say he sees somenthing int he yard that isn't usually there... He will get low to the ground and sneak up on it, and reach out his nose to sniff until he realizes it is nothing.

With the big work truck on the path at the park, he saw it, sat down and refused to move forward. I coaxed him on with a treat, and he moved ahead but tried to pull away from it. When I moved towards the truck and had a party with it, he got a little closer, hunkered down and nose outstretched, but decided he didn't want anything to do with it, and wanted to get away. ears back, and obviously unhappy.

When something scares him around the house, like I tipped the laundry hamper over on him while he was laying beside it, accidentally. he jumped up and tucked his butt, but I asked him to come back and lay back down and he did. All good.

But a month or so ago I was walking him on leash in a very familiar place along the back pasture. The electric fence was on, sometimes it is and sometimes it's not, and I have been trying to teach him not to touch it since he was a puppy. Well, I let my attention go to something else for 10 seconds when I stopped and turned to admire how many blackberries were coming in, and he hit the fence with his side I think. it hurts, I know it does, I have touched it.

He jumped away to the end of the leash and was shaking and he was looking at me like he wondered if I had done it. I called him over and I comforted him. hindsight says that was not the best thhing to do, but he was shaking and scared. I didn't want him to think I had hurt him. Well, he was done with the walk and wanted to go home. The next time we went that way for a walk, he stopped about 30 yards away and sat down and refused to move. The next time he stopped about a half mile away. He knows that the path we were on only leads there. A couple days ago Mark brought him back in the truck and got him out right where he got shocked. I don't know if he will go back there now or not since we did that.

For the most part he is really curious about new things, but odd things in familiar surroundings seem to put a different twist on it. he even acted a little squirrely around the front of a car this morning that was at an odd place on our waslk. That just came to mind. Not fearful, so much as the hunker down and sniff towards it like he would do to something totally unfamiliar.

I have a trip planned to town one early morning just for an outing and lots of traffic and new things, but I don't think that is going to really address the out of place thing.

Comforting him is definitely the wrong thing to do, like you said. If this were my dog I'd focus on mental games at home that get him to think for himself, get him out of his head and involved with his environment. Learning to go up to new things as part of the game after he's become good at playing it, such as using cardboard boxes for nose work and then once he's good at the boxes, using shallow plastic containers, cinder blocks, road cones on their side, the article hidden under a chair with nothing else. It can be ordinary objects that he's used to, but the concept is to present challenges that he can overcome and feel a sense of accomplishment while processing 'I can do this! New things are fun!'

I would also not allow him to balk and stop/refuse to go forward. It's not about moving toward the truck, as much as it is moving forward with you when you say so. For example, if a truck was parked in a 'strange' spot and he was getting worried about it, I'd play Follow The Leader where he must pay attention to me while I walk in circles, change directions on a straight line, walk backward. The goal is to get him out of his head and focused on the human holding the leash. If he can't think about the truck, he can't get upset about it. At this point I wouldn't give treats or praise unless he was doing exactly as you expect him to do. No bribing, no reassurance, practically ignoring him unless he's playing the game correctly WITH you.
Sure, it's frustrating that your walk might be cut short, and it's frustrating to walk around in circles or play mind games on your dog when what you really wanted was to go for a nice stroll, but doing what you've got to do to fix the problems will eventually get you the end result of a relaxed stroll without Ninny Dog searching for things to worry about.

I have been walking him around home areas on a nylon martingale, but needing to go back to a prong because I need that extra when we are out in high distraction and he wants to greet people, other dogs, etc. because on a collar like that, when his 105 lbs refuses to move, i can't force him. He just lays out flat, head on the gorund and everything. The only thing he truly just refuses to do. I need to swap to it and start using it at home too so we can practice on it instead of just using it away in other areas. he doesn't like it, and i wanted him to get good enough to not need it, but sometimes I DO need it. SO I have given up on the idea of a flat collar for right now.

We are getting and starting on the nosework dvd. So that should fit in nicely with the ideas that you said. great ideas, too. He needs more mental stimulation instead of purely physical. And OB, OB, OB isn't interesting after awhile for either of us. Necessary, but not the end all of mental stimulation. He is smart, and does some marker training, so it should be easy to jump right into that.

I'm excited about this. I can see how this could be a great game, and have relevance in the real world.

I don't mind at all when our walks don't turn out to be what they were planned to be. My life really revolves around my dog. My hubby says "it's all about him", jokingly. I can admit that here without embarrassment. :-)

Thanks for the great idea. Ay input on eactly how to make him mmove when he refuses? J

If he's too heavy for you to move by staying in motion yourself, you may have to switch back to the prong to prevent him from balking. Reading his signs before he goes into that thought pattern and playing Follow The Leader right then will also distract him.

How do you manage to get him to go home when he's decided he's had enough?

We have had our issues with hot wire. It took about 2 months for my two yr old dog to work confidently around an area where he was shocked, but he did get over it.

There are a few times that he lays down and refuses to move. If we are leaving and he doesn't want to a) go along b)wants to be in his kennel or left in the house when we leave and we are putting him in the opposite place, this varies, he's great with the kennel 1000 times, then he wants to stay in the house one time c)doesn't want to go somewhere like where he was shocked. These areas are almost non-existent but they are there and usuually pretty obvious why.

We haven't had any issues with him not wanting to come back from anywhere except the vet. he loves the vet's office and has laid down in the parking lot and refused to leave.

I really hate to say it, but it sounds like you'd just have to drag him out of it. Maybe someone will have a better idea for you.

I highly suggest you check into Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT)...I have used this method with great success. It is much more simple than it sounds too