Help! My little one is petrified of all other dogs

[wooof]

Hi there,

I have a male yorkie who is almost 1 year old. He absolutely loves people, but is petrified of ALL other dogs. No matter the breed or size. He even freaked out when a yorkie half his size came up to him. I have no idea what to do. If I try to get him to socialise with other dogs in parks, etc. he starts to lose it. He panics, freezes, jumps, cries, runs away..

I set up a play date with a friends puppy (the most gentle female I've ever seen) in a comfortable environment. My yorkie just kept panicing and running away. We stayed there for hours!! No success. I have no idea what caused this type of behaviour, he's never had any traumatising experiences with other dogs. Has anyone experienced this? Any advice would be so greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

[QuickSilver]

I'm struggling with a similar issue. Thor seems very interested in other dogs, but he is... well, socially challenged. He just recently started letting other dogs sniff him. Before that, he would constantly try to sneak up behind them to get a whiff, but he would run away if they turned around.

He is only three pounds, and he's scared of any dog that's bigger than him. I've been introducing him to tons of other dogs, but he doesn't really seem to know how to play. Yesterday in the park, another yorkie ran up and pinned him. He gets no respect.

He also gets very upset if I pay attention to another dog, and will emit these horrible, screamy barks to try to chase it away. He even snapped at a Golden last week!

I've been trying controlled meets on the street and lots of praise and treats whenever he behaves normally around another dog. I'm hoping that in a month or two he'll make some progress. It's tough, because I keep taking him to the park to help socialize him, but I wonder if he's just getting more scared.

I'm also thinking small-breed doggy daycare could help. Sigh... patience.

I'm interested to hear other people's suggestions.

[vainchick5]

I had a friend with this problem and I helped her with it and it ACTUALLY worked. So one thing with animals to remember is consistency. If he's afraid of other dogs, having random play dates won't help, they need to be consistent and scheduled regular visits until the comfort zone is established. So I would recommend, that if you have a friend with a calm/nice/friendly/not aggressive dog, find a time 2-3 times a week (every other day or something). Where she brings him/her over to your house (your dogs turf). Both of you would hold them upon them coming to your house. Hold your dog tell him it's ok and praise him. Let them sniff each other out for about 10 min. Then just put them down and watch. I wouldn't be too nervous either and sometimes its best if you don't watch too much because the dog can feel your tension and apprehension in any given situation which might be making him worried. Let them play for an hour, then have your friend go home. Then give him a day break, then have her come over again the next day, same time same routine, and so on. Then after a couple of weeks of this, you go to her house a few times. This is what she did and it worked. Sounds like a lot of work but all he really needs is reassurance that all is ok. In order to do that you need to be consistent with playdates etc. so that he sees it is ok. Some dogs by nature are just very submissive and scared but even the most submissive dog will play with other nonthreatening dogs. Try this and see if it works for you.

[PiePiper]

I took Piper to puppy classes at our local Petco. She was very interested in the other dogs yet she was also afraid of them. She would run to me wanting me to pick her up. If I didn't she would run to ANYBODY to pick her up. She wasn't stranger shy. All the other puppies were large breed dogs. German Shepperd, 2 Goldens, Boxer and Mastiff. I just assumed she was afraid of them because they were all 5 times bigger than her and they were all puppies and they pounced on her when they played. I would be scared too. Where I live there isn't any dog parks and there isn't any sidewalks and it's too dangerous to walk on narrow winding country roads so I'm not walking her where she can meet other adult dogs.

[JoeyP]

Poor little guy

He has no doggy social skills
OK this is what you need to do
Get a friend to go with you outside
Have them with a nice nonthreatening dog on a lead
Have them come into sight distance
and once your dog just sees him ... give him a treat
distract him
have him see the dog again and give him a treat
do this until he starts getting antcy and end the session
.....
a day or two later take it from there
you want to desensitize him
and get the dog closer and closer

Don't try to soothe him when he's whimpering and running away
That just reinforces that bad behavior