Barbara gave an excellent advice. If your puppy is afraid of something, you shouldn't walk away from it or confront it closely but always find a neutral distance where he's comfortable. If your puppy is afraid of a certain person, don't force him to confront the person. Use it as your opportunity to work with him positively through food. I would carry treats and a clicker all the time even on walk.

 Quote: Jason Penwell

As much as i dont like Barbara right now, she is bidding against me, I agree with her 100%.

Jason, you ol' sweet talker you... since I already own one leerburg leather leash, and since I RARELY get to hear someone say they agree with me 100%, I'll quit bidding against you. How's that for playing nice? Good luck!!! :-)

as far as neutral interactions go,what should i be doing? i'm not really sure what you mean by that. would that mean just walking him up to the person without letting them touch him? just so he knows they're not goin to hurt him?

I would stay at a distance where he isn't cowering or reacting, personally I would want him to show mild interest or curiosity.
Then ever so slowly over minutes, hours or even weeks depending on the dog move closer to the object of fear.

It took me about three months to go from a pup that sat behind me growled and cowered in the presence of anyone outside our immediate family, to one who would happily take a treat from a neutral person.

I didn't let anyone touch him or do anything besides hold the treat in their hand for another month or so after he would take the treat.

He still doesn't like to be pet or fussed over by new people but once he gets to know them a little he is a normal friendly happy dog.

Rane, I want to reiterate that right now it might be best to work on other, non-threatening situations and not worry too much about strangers and the pup's reactions toward them. Build your relationship and build his confidence in other areas so that when you get to the point of adding something which you know freaks him out a bit, he has a good, solid belief in you. Starting off with working on the issue which creates stress might make it harder in the long run... IMHO.

ok i will definitely take that into account.
thanx

Perhaps work at home in a neutral environment using your clicker and positive reinforcement, teach a few easy behaviors..sit and look at you, touch your hand with nose, spin, etc. After the behaviors are well learned and reinforced, you can take them on the road. The pup must be fluent with the behaviors. Keep your pup far enough away from disturbing things that he is not over threshold and can perform some of the learned behaviors with you.This helps the pup focus on you for direction in an unsettling environment, builds confidence.

I have recently used Leslie McDevitt's Look At That Game with dogs with sensitivity to people, dogs etc. It has changed the dog's perception of the approach of these things. If you can change the emotional reaction, you can get some improvement often.

Carla, can you expand on the Look At That game? I'm interested.

Leslie has a book created for competition dogs who are a bit reactive. It is geared toward the competitor whose dog is not over the top with behavioral difficulties, but needs work emotionally and behaviourally.

Control Unleashed®" received the following awards from the International Institute for Applied Animal Behavior:

Best Dog Training Book of 2007
Best Dog Sport Book of 2007
Runner up, Best Dog Behavior Book for Owners of 2007


There are some examples of "Look At That" on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuV3MOvvyr4


The key is to know how to keep your dog below threshold, not too close or overstimulated. Also, it seems counterintuitive, but you click when the dog looks at the dog,person, etc. The click should cause dog to look back at you for reward. You put this on cue. You will find the dog actually looks less, and for shorter periods. These type of dogs almost can't stop themselves from looking and people often spend a lot of time correcting them for that, thus increasing the stress already in the situation. In Look At That the stressor beocmes the signal for the beginning of that fun game instead, thus emotions are changed around the situation.

The dog I am working with was often blowing his utility signals because the judge nearby was a stressor and he would spend time looking and have his mind drawn to the worriesome judge. After Look At That, the dog will now do signals while I stand straddled over him. Hopefully this will translate into the ring.