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Originally Posted by lisaly  You are a wonderful mother to your babies. It is so obvious by reading your posts. I'm really glad that it went well today, Kristan is right about trying not to reinforce the "fear" behavior. I always had a difficult time trying to balance giving a little extra love and encouragement to help my girls in time that might cause them anxiety and not reinforcing the fear. I'm sure you are doing a great job, and I hope your little one enjoys his training. |
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Originally Posted by Lizzie07 The only advice I can add is that when you go to the class, act as normal as possible, don't baby him or in any way reinforce is "fear" behavior. Take exceptionally good treats, get to class early and if he has a favorite trick, have him do it as the other dogs come in and tell him how good he is and give him the great treat. TRY, to act normal and unworried, even though I know it's hard, and to jackpot him when he does the trick or tricks in a confident manner. I'd even make sure he was hungry, and not feed him before the class.
This could be a problem that takes some time to resolve, unfortunately. I hope not, but please let us know how things go and what works. |
Thanks so much - both of you. I have tried to remain calm with him and not reinforce the fear. It was really hard the night it happened. I was shaking myself but I didn't pick him up and coddle him - even though I wanted to. It is easier now to behave calmly - as long as he's not in any danger I really can be calm and "normal". Since then it just breaks my heart to see him like that but I know that I have to be really careful not to reinforce the fear. I've done things like make sure he walks in on his own four feet. He has been getting lots of treats just for being there. When he was so scared he wouldn't even have anything to do with the treats. When he relaxed a little we tossed the treats so that he had to walk at least a little bit to get to them. After today I really do feel encouraged though.
Funny - one of the mistakes I made was getting there early last week to try and get him settled before the other dogs got there. The class before ours was just over and all the dogs hadn't left yet. There were some big dogs in there and of course on seeing a "stranger" come in had to bark. We decided that next week I should come closer to time so the other dogs are gone and it's just the small dogs in his class. I'm not under any illusion that this is magically over but I do see enough positive things that I believe we can get through it. I'm up for the challenge!