very timid puppy

[cheri]

[color=blue] :( Hello, can anyone offer some advise regarding my puppy.

Background - 7 month old red and white irish setter bitch, residing with a 3yr old alsation male dog. When Tessa first came to live with us, she was four months old and very friendly, would approach anyone.

Jake is a rescue dog, and we dont know his full background, he is fine except he has an averserion to my sisters coat! which has imitation fur on the collar and cuffs, Jake is very frightened of this coat. My sister came to visit and Jake was terrified and rushed upstairs, Tessa then followed him and ever since seems to be terrified of people not in the family home.

Whenever anyone comes to visit, she sits in the corner shaking, barking and growling, when that person approaches her she will not bite them, just gets more and more distressed.

Outside if on the lead she barks and tries to run. If off the lead she runs to the person barking and then runs away, she always comes back to us.

Most people think she will grow out of it, but she seems to be getting worse, taking her for a walk today, she was almost uncontrollable and I landed up on my backside!!

Please help, apart from this a lovely dog.

Thank you for any suggestions :cry:

[sarabe]

If your puppy is in the corner shaking, barking and growling, and you let that person approach her whilst she just gets more and more distressed then you will make matters worse. She needs to feel safe and you need to find at what point she can cope with visitors and build up from there very, very gradually. Perhaps if she was in the kitchen behind a stairgate and the visitors took no notice of her then she would not find them quite so scary.

When you take her out if she keeps having scary experiences then she'll come to expect them. I would find somewhere (and drive her there) where you can see people approaching from a very long distance before she feels that they are a threat.

Perhaps she missed out on early socialising as you didn't get her as a baby puppy. Some pups will suffer as a result of missed opportunities, others will turn out just fine, you just need to give her lots of good experiences without trying too hard and inadvertantly making things worse.
Contrary to popular belief, throwing you in at the deep end is more likely to cause you to drown than to teach you to swim. :wink:

[Dogmaster411]

what might be wrong is that your dog feels threatend. you should spend some quality time and just warn people not to get to close and just to lay back and don't over whelm him.

[Marsipan]

Where is she worst in doors or out?

Is she crate trained?

Do you console her or try to reassure her when she behaves in this way?

What do you feed her?

This problem could turn into fear based aggression - the worst kind - and needs to be dealt with asap. You need specialist help as your attempts to socialise her could make her worse even though you are only trying your best.