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Originally Posted by kimp5  Thanks for the suggestions. It seems she is afraid of everything! She was bred for show so i guess she was isolated alot to keep her coat perfect. Now shes in a house with 4 kids and two adults and our house is pretty big so its alot to absorb. We first put her in the downstairs laundry room gated off at night but we have a second fridge and freezer in there and everytime it turned on she peed all over the floor. so now shes in the family room. When i go out I put soothing music on. I tell her its allright when she shakes and she usually calms down once we hold her....Ill try your methods too.... http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/images/icons/icon7.gif |
A lot of trainers' books I have read saying "it's alright" or "you're okay", plus other soothing things to a shaking, fearful dog only reinforces to them that that reaction and their present state is approved of by you and they associate it with your praise as the right thing to do. I know - it goes against human nature not to do that but the dog trainers all seem to agree it's not good to soothe a scared dog that way. The trainers I read say it is better not to soothe a dog in the same way you would a fearful person but rather try to boost their confidence during that time by getting them up and active, playing tugowar, chasing their ball or giving them a treat-stuffed kong toy, asking them to do a little agility jumping - anything to redirect their energy off the fear and onto something they like to do. My Tibbe loves his obedience and agility training and when he acts fearfully, I get him busy jumping his little jump about 4" off the floor, or playing or chasing him which he loves. And I am saying very positive things to him, words that bring confidence and kind of positive associations with me, which kind of build me up and make me confident and he picks up on that. So we play and race around and jump, etc., while I am saying things like "Touchdown!", "Go get 'em, Tough Guy", "You're the Best!", calling him "hero", "champ", those kinds of positive words that I kind of say with gusto. It gets him pumped up and full of himself and he goes into a different state. I don't know if that will work for your baby but it sure does with my Tibbe. He was kept in a cage outdoors for the first 9 mos. of his life so he was a very fearful, especially of sounds, anxious, biting, screaming dog when I got him, totally unsocialized and everybody was his enemy. Now he loves people to death, is so well-behaved and 99% less fearful than he was. Sounds like an odd way to train a fearful, shaking dog but it has worked for Tibbe and all other fearful dogs I've ever worked with.