Well, as much as I adore my puppy Jack, I have a problem with him. He is very afraid of other dogs. He used to be quite fearful of new people, but he's met quite a few in his 7 months, and has only had positive experiences, so now he's much better in that regard. But he still has fear issues with other dogs.
When I take him to puppy class, while we sit waiting for class to begin he barks and barks and barks at everything. He gets himself very wound up, and it gets hard to distract him and reward him for focussing on me (which is what has been recommended to me as a coping method). During class he's fine, as long as none of the other dogs approach us, because he is able to focus on me and tune out the other dogs. At the end of class we have a short off-leash play period, divided into small dogs and large dogs. I ignore Jack and walk away from him, but he still tries to climb between my legs and he barks and raises his hackles at the other dogs if they approach him. He's had one set of puppy classes and is halfway through the second set, and I don't really see any improvement at all.
I did post to some email lists for suggestions, and I got some great advice, but now I have to implement it. Keep your fingers crossed that I can bring my fraidy cat out of his shell, and show him that other dogs are fun, not scary!
1 comment:
Glad you got some good suggestions. Sounds like you have already tried everything I can think of :)
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