Hello everyone!
I finally, after a stupid amount of time, have a new puppy in my house. An 18 week aussie shepherd we've dubbed Hermes. His adoption situation reeked of first dog - we adopted him from a couple off of craigslist who bought him from a breeder at 10 weeks and seemed overwhelmed with how active he was. They said he has separation anxiety and they worked all day so he was screaming and breaking things while they weren't home. They were keeping him at a relatives house during work because he was quiet when he was with their dog. (We have two other dogs so we haven't seen any hint of that anxiety actually. He's very quiet here.) He never saw a vet in their care (though got puppy shots/dewormer at the breeder theoretically), he came to us with tape worms and having recently beaten a bout of fleas. As far as I can tell the people who owned him weren't bad people - they potty trained him OK and did at least a bit of leash work too. He got a dose of frontline two weeks ago and they said they "took him around people or places", though when asked they didn't do any positivity work in those moments. The only leash they owned for him was a 30ft retractable, but he had a few nice toys that he loves. They mistook a big roasted knucklebone they got him for a rawhide bone (they thought it was rawhide and therefore 'bad' for him - it's not and he does great with it). He knew no commands other than "go potty" when I got him. It seemed like they meant well but that this was just too much dog for them, they were inexperienced, learning on the fly, and we were looking for an aussie puppy, and so we adopted him for an extremely reasonable fee.
We've had him nearly a week and thus far he's shaping up to be a good boy. His first vet appointment went great and the tapeworms got treated. He fetches obsessively which is great for tiring him out. He's smart as a whip and will learn new commands VERY fast. He plays with my other two dogs very nicely and is excited to greet and play with other dogs on the street. He's only had one accident that was mostly human error. We're bell training him, he's tolerating his crate very well (despite the owners saying he hated crates), he cuddles and sleeps and plays hard.
But he's also incredibly shy and scared of everything especially tall people. The day we met him he wouldn't come within three feet of me while I was sitting with him for a solid half hour, even with treats and toys. He's getting better, especially about shorter women, but he's still very shy.
Walks are a mess still. He's really active and gets bored extremely easily so he needs them but he leaps out of his skin at every loud-ish car, pedestrian and trash can. He's scared of tree stumps and fire hydrants. A 20 minute walk around the block easily takes an hour right now. He bolts to the end of his leash and fights when he sees almost anything new, and this is an improvement over the start of the week when he would run to the nearest corner, flatten himself to the ground ears back and whine. It's almost like he's an 8-10 week old puppy still who's never experienced anything before in his whole life. And truth be told he may not have.
This isn't our first rodeo - he's our third puppy and the other two are well trained by us and firmly adults (8 and 12, still very active dogs). We've also got a long history of training basics with young dogs and general socialization training. Professional training classes are not an option right now, but training him around many other dogs is and we have been slowly working on that. Aside from the two in my own home we're planning on going to my sisters and working with her 2 dogs as well and my other sister who has 3 small dogs. We also have an agility course/dog park combo we plan on going to in the future.
Right now we're just working on building his confidence - lots of praise, pets, treats. Lots of conditioning - sitting down by the scary thing just close enough that he won't run and waiting and watching and doing tricks for treats (we spent two hours watching someone move out of a rental down the street a few days ago). Lots of tolerance building, get close to the thing, treat, back away slowly. A firm "good boy!" and a robust pet if he looks at something spooky to him without running. Lots of working on walking past the Scary Thing calmly. In the last week he's learned a few commands already - sit, down, paw, touch - and we'll sit by something scary and run drills and learn tricks. We'll have people he's not used to yet feed him and play fetch. We'll sit by a busy road and give him a treat every time a big car goes by. Because he likes it more than treats, almost every scrap of kibble he'd normally eat for meals is going into just training, confidence building, learning how to walk past those spooky trash cans, etc. It's hard work being so scared and so after an hour walk and an hour of play he'll just go sleep on the couch with me for half the day, then get up and go crazy all over again. Indoors he's also happy to play fetch or passionately chew a bone - a real doll of a dog ready to play, then ready to chill - if only he wasn't so terrified!
And TBH he's made good progress so far. Today he walked past trash cans without bolting or being guided by treats for the first time. (Just two of them and there was a dog across the road which is a big positive distraction, but still.) I'm up for the challenge, I know it's about patience and time and consistency. But he's still so scared every time he sees an object he's not 100% familiar with. It's very sad and also very difficult to work with. Sometimes he even acts like a super normal crazy puppy, jumping on people, playing hard, barking, then a door will slam louder than usual and he's hiding under the dining room table again, and we're coaxing him out with treats. God forbid something he's scared of MOVES, he stops being willing to even go close. Some of our friends he's only seen once before he'll go right up to and jump on, but my house mate who has hand fed him meals he runs from. His progress is VERY non linear.
I can only hope that he comes around and keep trying. In an ideal world we'll own a big enough farm in a year or two for runner ducks, a small cow or some goats and he'll be able to move stock. As it is I'd love to have a dog that can move chickens back into their pen or help corral a loose rabbit. He shows a lot of classic Aussie behavior that would be good for herding. And today he tried to run up to a fullgrown whitetail doe and her two half-grown babies in a lawn - he was wagging his lil tail SO hard! So a girl can dream. He might get there some day. Maybe. But I'd also settle for just not such a scaredy cat on walks! There are 30+ trashcans on our main road... Boy, it'd be nice to walk past them without having to stop for each one!
Given my long history with dog training, right now I really don't need suggestions on anything obvious about basic training or I could find through a short google search. Unfortunately, given that I've trained a lot of basics I find that to be an unhelpful rehash of things I already know.
But I would absolutely love to hear your own experiences with scared dogs and how you got them past their fears - if you ever did. And how you manage it if you didn't. What are your tips and tricks, especially your non standard ones? Novelty is important here - he hates doing the same thing too many times in a row so non standard techniques would be great. Specific and careful thoughts on where I could do better or be more effective would also be welcome. If I want him to herd someday, what's the best way to start teaching him those techniques etc. etc.
Hopefully I can post updates here and it'll help me look back on how he was one, two four weeks ago and see how far he's come. Just writing this alone reminds me that he was MUCH worse on day one than today. So a little interactive
diary will be nice.
Welcome to the pack Hermes!
This day he played fetch with my oh-so-scary housemate. The next day he wouldn't let him pet his ears without running.
Derp.
Holding paws!
The car ride home from buying him. He puked twice. Cars are still scary, stationary or mobile. Inside and out.
I finally, after a stupid amount of time, have a new puppy in my house. An 18 week aussie shepherd we've dubbed Hermes. His adoption situation reeked of first dog - we adopted him from a couple off of craigslist who bought him from a breeder at 10 weeks and seemed overwhelmed with how active he was. They said he has separation anxiety and they worked all day so he was screaming and breaking things while they weren't home. They were keeping him at a relatives house during work because he was quiet when he was with their dog. (We have two other dogs so we haven't seen any hint of that anxiety actually. He's very quiet here.) He never saw a vet in their care (though got puppy shots/dewormer at the breeder theoretically), he came to us with tape worms and having recently beaten a bout of fleas. As far as I can tell the people who owned him weren't bad people - they potty trained him OK and did at least a bit of leash work too. He got a dose of frontline two weeks ago and they said they "took him around people or places", though when asked they didn't do any positivity work in those moments. The only leash they owned for him was a 30ft retractable, but he had a few nice toys that he loves. They mistook a big roasted knucklebone they got him for a rawhide bone (they thought it was rawhide and therefore 'bad' for him - it's not and he does great with it). He knew no commands other than "go potty" when I got him. It seemed like they meant well but that this was just too much dog for them, they were inexperienced, learning on the fly, and we were looking for an aussie puppy, and so we adopted him for an extremely reasonable fee.
We've had him nearly a week and thus far he's shaping up to be a good boy. His first vet appointment went great and the tapeworms got treated. He fetches obsessively which is great for tiring him out. He's smart as a whip and will learn new commands VERY fast. He plays with my other two dogs very nicely and is excited to greet and play with other dogs on the street. He's only had one accident that was mostly human error. We're bell training him, he's tolerating his crate very well (despite the owners saying he hated crates), he cuddles and sleeps and plays hard.
But he's also incredibly shy and scared of everything especially tall people. The day we met him he wouldn't come within three feet of me while I was sitting with him for a solid half hour, even with treats and toys. He's getting better, especially about shorter women, but he's still very shy.
Walks are a mess still. He's really active and gets bored extremely easily so he needs them but he leaps out of his skin at every loud-ish car, pedestrian and trash can. He's scared of tree stumps and fire hydrants. A 20 minute walk around the block easily takes an hour right now. He bolts to the end of his leash and fights when he sees almost anything new, and this is an improvement over the start of the week when he would run to the nearest corner, flatten himself to the ground ears back and whine. It's almost like he's an 8-10 week old puppy still who's never experienced anything before in his whole life. And truth be told he may not have.
This isn't our first rodeo - he's our third puppy and the other two are well trained by us and firmly adults (8 and 12, still very active dogs). We've also got a long history of training basics with young dogs and general socialization training. Professional training classes are not an option right now, but training him around many other dogs is and we have been slowly working on that. Aside from the two in my own home we're planning on going to my sisters and working with her 2 dogs as well and my other sister who has 3 small dogs. We also have an agility course/dog park combo we plan on going to in the future.
Right now we're just working on building his confidence - lots of praise, pets, treats. Lots of conditioning - sitting down by the scary thing just close enough that he won't run and waiting and watching and doing tricks for treats (we spent two hours watching someone move out of a rental down the street a few days ago). Lots of tolerance building, get close to the thing, treat, back away slowly. A firm "good boy!" and a robust pet if he looks at something spooky to him without running. Lots of working on walking past the Scary Thing calmly. In the last week he's learned a few commands already - sit, down, paw, touch - and we'll sit by something scary and run drills and learn tricks. We'll have people he's not used to yet feed him and play fetch. We'll sit by a busy road and give him a treat every time a big car goes by. Because he likes it more than treats, almost every scrap of kibble he'd normally eat for meals is going into just training, confidence building, learning how to walk past those spooky trash cans, etc. It's hard work being so scared and so after an hour walk and an hour of play he'll just go sleep on the couch with me for half the day, then get up and go crazy all over again. Indoors he's also happy to play fetch or passionately chew a bone - a real doll of a dog ready to play, then ready to chill - if only he wasn't so terrified!
And TBH he's made good progress so far. Today he walked past trash cans without bolting or being guided by treats for the first time. (Just two of them and there was a dog across the road which is a big positive distraction, but still.) I'm up for the challenge, I know it's about patience and time and consistency. But he's still so scared every time he sees an object he's not 100% familiar with. It's very sad and also very difficult to work with. Sometimes he even acts like a super normal crazy puppy, jumping on people, playing hard, barking, then a door will slam louder than usual and he's hiding under the dining room table again, and we're coaxing him out with treats. God forbid something he's scared of MOVES, he stops being willing to even go close. Some of our friends he's only seen once before he'll go right up to and jump on, but my house mate who has hand fed him meals he runs from. His progress is VERY non linear.
I can only hope that he comes around and keep trying. In an ideal world we'll own a big enough farm in a year or two for runner ducks, a small cow or some goats and he'll be able to move stock. As it is I'd love to have a dog that can move chickens back into their pen or help corral a loose rabbit. He shows a lot of classic Aussie behavior that would be good for herding. And today he tried to run up to a fullgrown whitetail doe and her two half-grown babies in a lawn - he was wagging his lil tail SO hard! So a girl can dream. He might get there some day. Maybe. But I'd also settle for just not such a scaredy cat on walks! There are 30+ trashcans on our main road... Boy, it'd be nice to walk past them without having to stop for each one!
Given my long history with dog training, right now I really don't need suggestions on anything obvious about basic training or I could find through a short google search. Unfortunately, given that I've trained a lot of basics I find that to be an unhelpful rehash of things I already know.
But I would absolutely love to hear your own experiences with scared dogs and how you got them past their fears - if you ever did. And how you manage it if you didn't. What are your tips and tricks, especially your non standard ones? Novelty is important here - he hates doing the same thing too many times in a row so non standard techniques would be great. Specific and careful thoughts on where I could do better or be more effective would also be welcome. If I want him to herd someday, what's the best way to start teaching him those techniques etc. etc.
Hopefully I can post updates here and it'll help me look back on how he was one, two four weeks ago and see how far he's come. Just writing this alone reminds me that he was MUCH worse on day one than today. So a little interactive
diary will be nice.
Welcome to the pack Hermes!
This day he played fetch with my oh-so-scary housemate. The next day he wouldn't let him pet his ears without running.
Derp.Holding paws!
The car ride home from buying him. He puked twice. Cars are still scary, stationary or mobile. Inside and out.
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The 4th of July.....yeah not fun. 
