If you have a nervous Nellie kind of dog, here are a couple of resources which might be of interest to you:
One of the books I just started reading is “Don’t Shoot the Dog!” by Karen Pyror. Something interesting in the first few pages is how trainers manage to interact with llamas. To begin with, the trainer will click the llama if it stays still, and then create more distance between them and the flighty animal.
The llama is in control and influences the outcome.
In essence, the llama learns that by staying still, it can make the scary person retreat and go away. From there the person can work up to where the llama will be actively earning things like food, petting, and scratching.
This is such an interesting concept and course of action!
What do llamas have to do with dogs?
Make sure to check back to find out why we’re talking about nervous dogs and llamas.
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Interesting connection between dog training and llamas. Also I just nominated your blog for a Shine On Award. Stop by my blog to accept your award and grab the badge. http://www.yourdesignerdogblog.com/2014/07/09/shine-award/
YourDesignerDog Thank you! We will check it out 🙂
Love it! I love training the nervous dogs that moving away and feeling better because of it is a great thing to do. Then they’re rewarded at that point of feeling more comfortable (plus it keeps everyone safe). Forcing the dog to come to a stranger to take a treat and rewarding while they’re uncomfortable is more risky – it can work, but can also make things work or just stay as they are. Why I’m so wary of many of the “shy dog” classes. So much of what I’ve seen is rewarding a dog while being nervous 🙁
When Mort is nervous of someone in our house we always have them throw something away from them (treat, toy) so he’s rewarded away from the human and can choose to return. Seems to work well and no one gets bit 🙂
I’ve begun to wonder about that-if you reinforce a dog when it’s nervous, aren’t you reinforcing that mindset and uncomfortableness? And I’ve seen a lot of people drag their dog forward to get petted from a stranger (reinforcing the nervous mindset right?) instead of letting the more reserved dog approach on its own (the dog may or may not be a little more confident in this situation). I’m looking into finding a local shy dog class to see what it would be about and if it might help, or if I should just work on it individually.
That’s a great idea! If Kronos is uncomfortable with someone, but they can get him to play or do tricks, then the ice is broken must faster and he thinks they are the bees knees! (though he probably still will be uncomfortable with being touched from them) He was uncomfortable with and afraid of my brother for the longest time, but he’s beginning to associate him with some playtime, so he’s slowly becoming less scary 🙂