Harley and Hannah have been out of the crate all day for the last few
days... and no problems.

that was easy!

of course Harley is very very skittish around others again....he's not
going to my hubby the way he was when we crated him when we were not
home and in the evenings I find him laying in his crate (It's out of
the way and I will always leave it up for him to have his own place)

I wish there was a magic wand I could wave and this dog would not be
so afraid of everything...




best,
nessa
(posted from google while at work)

"Nessa" wrote in message:

Harley and Hannah have been out of the crate all day for the last few
days... and no problems.

that was easy!

Awesome!

I wish there was a magic wand I could wave and this dog would not be
so afraid of everything...

No magic cure, unfortunately. He likely just needs lots and lots of time.
He reminds me of Khan when we first got him. Oddly enough, he never had any
problems with us, but he was phobic about just about everything else, except
for other dogs (which we used to good advantage). The timelines are a
little fuzzy, but it took about 2 years for him to become somewhat normal,
and that was with desensitization/counter conditioning work daily.

It was kind of weird to hear someone at the dog park say 'See, this is how
normal dogs should be (Khan!), not barking and running away from people (his
dog)'. Alsotoo, we've created a monster. He can be quite insufferably full
of himself, because he knows that no matter what, he's safe with us.

Suja

On Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:30:56 -0500, "Suja" wrote:


"Nessa" wrote in message:

Harley and Hannah have been out of the crate all day for the last few
days... and no problems.

that was easy!

Awesome!

I wish there was a magic wand I could wave and this dog would not be
so afraid of everything...

No magic cure, unfortunately. He likely just needs lots and lots of time.
He reminds me of Khan when we first got him. Oddly enough, he never had any
problems with us, but he was phobic about just about everything else, except
for other dogs (which we used to good advantage). The timelines are a
little fuzzy, but it took about 2 years for him to become somewhat normal,
and that was with desensitization/counter conditioning work daily.

what kinds of stuff did you do....



It was kind of weird to hear someone at the dog park say 'See, this is how
normal dogs should be (Khan!), not barking and running away from people (his
dog)'. Alsotoo, we've created a monster. He can be quite insufferably full
of himself, because he knows that no matter what, he's safe with us.


oh I love it..... I want Harley to know he's safe with daddy. He
knows he's safe with me....
Nessa
--
trying to be the best human she can,

"Nessa" wrote in message:

what kinds of stuff did you do....

Lots of 'fun' visits to pet stores, doctor's office, etc. We did Open
Bar/Closed Bar there and in other public places first, to get him to
associate people = YUM!!! (he wasn't food motivated, so we worked on getting
him hungry and a little tired before these exercises). Then we used people
who were dog savvy (friends, mom & pop pet store employees) to do the
'Treats rain down from people and they don't even look at you' bit. We
eventually progressed to hand feeding from people assuming non-threatening
positions, then with people making eye contact, then people that were
standing, etc. We also did a couple of courses of obedience work to get his
confidence level up and to get him to make eye contact. Patricia
McConnell's 'A Cautious Canine' was a godsend.

But the thing that made the most difference was daily trips to the dog park.
He has always been super interested in dogs, and he automatically was a tad
less scared of people that had dogs attached to them. Or in some cases, was
so interested in the dogs that he didn't notice the human nearby. He got to
see lots and lots of people and got to interact with them on his own terms.
If he wanted to get away from them, he could. Eventually, he made dog
friends, and we'd do activities together, so the humans attached to the dogs
became less scary. When the humans started producing yummy treats, they
became friends. I think it was important to put him in situations where he
could approach people if he wanted to, but not push it on him. It was an
hour or two of 'work' (including dog park time) every day for about 2 years.
Now, we can slack off pretty substantially, but he still needs lots and lots
of safe interactions to not backslide.

oh I love it..... I want Harley to know he's safe with daddy. He
knows he's safe with me....

Be careful what you wish for. He initially became talkative, then sassy,
and now, positively demanding. At least, with some people.

Suja