Ok, 10 mth old pug joined our family Saturday. He's crated or tethered to me at all times. I noticed that he was hand shy, go to pet him, he ducks away. I put it down to being suddenly surrounded by strangers, but despite being in my company for just shy of a week, he's still pretty much the same. Is there anything I can do to encourage him to not shy away? I'm already a treat vending machine, and he's got no problem sitting at my feet, its literally the petting that's the issue. With having kids in the family, a dog that accepts petting and affection (not mauling) is something of a 'must' to me, and being hand shy is something of a red flag.

small dogs often go through a fear stage and if you think of the world from their view it's not all that unreasonable. The truly live in a land of giants.

For my hand fearing midgets I start rewarding them for coming to my hand with treats before during and after being pet. I also make them lay down to be pet as well which adds to the training Keep in mind many small dogs are not cuddly lap dogs and will not naturally go that direction no matter how much we wish they would.

Part of the problem is Harley, our previous pug, was a total attention ho, lol! Very very different from this guy. Course, we also had Harley from 10 wks on. I guess I'll just keep being a treat machine, and hope he gets over it. Until he does, I won't be comfortable with him around the kids

Hello,

Well a week is a relatively short time to be completely settled in a new home with new people. Owners should understand that there will be dogs who will require more time to warm up to their new families.

Also, there might have been something in its past to cause it to shy away like that. Although the fear stage is a very logical explanation as well.

My advice is the same as Melissa.

And also to respect its space more, since it is still very young and obviously intimidated by the chaos of a new home - smells, sounds, environment, etc. If it shows uncertainty, take a step back (figuratively) since forcing the issue - the need to give affection and receive, in this case - might create more problems.

Try not to see a tactile and physically affectionate pup as a 'must' for now. Rather treat the young pup as an individual, and work with it according to its comfort level.

I will also discuss with the children to enable a consistent handling routine with the little puppy till it starts coming out of its shell.

Give it some time, and it will eventually come around. The important thing here is patience.

Good luck. I love pugs.

~ Rei