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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Ev lives the Lower Mainland of Beautiful British Columbia, Canada where she has been training dogs since 1969. She is experienced in many methods including clicker and motivational training. Ev is an original Superdog Performance Team member and her own dogs have travelled and performed with the Canadian SuperDogs since 1984. She has also served as an A.A.C. judge ans is an original Member/Trainer with the Dogwood Pacesetters Agility Club.
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[Edit]
7/12/2006
My husband and I have recently adopted a 9 month old
(at least that's what the vet thinks) mixed Airedale terrier.
She was a stray taken from a housing project and placed
with the local Humane Society for about 3 to 4 weeks.
On her first day with us she was like a zombie but as time
passed she became more comfortable with me but not my
husband or any male. She backs up whenever he tries to
approach her. He has been very sweet and patience even
tried to get her to eat from his hand so she would have some
confidence in him. She won't have anything to do with it.
Now she is better with me but not much. When she is alone in
the yard she plays like any normal pup so I know she feels okay.
The only one she seems fine with is my 2 year old granddaughter.
It has only been one week but I truly want to make "Pebbles" happy
and comfortable with us. Can you help? (Daisy92000, Louisiana )
There are a few factors that come into play with your situation and
I will try to point them out and give you an idea of how best to handle each.
1) You have only had her approx 1 week. She will need a few weeks just to
accustom herself to new noises, environment, people, routines, habits, etc.
before she starts to really feel comfortable. After this time you could start to
get her out and introduce her to 'other' things, one at a time, and give each new
experience a few days to sink in.
2) You are dealing with an older dog. She is still a puppy but has had 9 months
(approx) with different rules, routines, lifestyle, etc. and there is an unwritten
rule when it comes to dealing with rescues; "it takes the dog's life to forget
and half that again to learn anew."
What this means is that she has had 9 months to learn habits, personality quirks,
routines, schedules, etc. so it will take an additional 9 months for her to forget the
first 9 and until then you may find she reverts back to old habits, now and again.
Then it will take approx another 5 months before she actually learns her new routines,
schedules, personality quirks, etc. so basically she will be almost 2 years old before
you actually start to see the dog you thought you were getting...
Time and Patience and 1 week is not what I consider being patient for a long time.
3) She's a mix - so there will be conflicts within her from day to day
as she matures. Airedales are Terriers and they can be tenacious, independent, stubborn
and
extremely smart but depending on what she is 'mixed' with, will see another side to her
at various stages in her life. If she is mixed with a Hound, she may be quite aloof to strangers
or people she's not accustomed to (like men) and possibly a little skittish or apprehensive about
warming up to new people. If she has another mix in her, you will see other characteristics familiar to those breeds.
It is possible that she was raised by mostly women and doesn't really know what a man is all about
OR she may have been abused or frightened by a man and this will stick with her for a long time
OR if it persists for longer than 3-4 months, then I would look into how your husband smells ...
that sound weird but dogs have keen senses and smell can dominate an impression over sex,
size or anything else. Perhaps his aftershave is familiar to her in a bad way or his clothes smell
like the first vet she saw which was traumatic.
Rescues can be a lot of trial'n'error when it comes to figuring them out and trying to make them feel comfortable in new surroundings.
4) Don't spend an excess amount of time 'catering' to her. Hand feeding her so she'll
hopefully approach you better, will not work well for the future. You're better off to 'show-by-example'.
(e.g. if it's dinner time and you know she's hungry then have your husband help cook dinner and make
some nifty yummy sounds while he munches-as-he-prepares, then he could toss some in her direction
and give it a word like 'Nummies', then carry on. She will soon pick-up on the fact that not only is he
not invading her space when she's not prepared but when he's in the vicinity, he bares gifts [food].)
You don't want to be too bold around her to frighten her even more but you also don't want to pamper
or dote on her and tiptoe around where she is lying so you can get to your chair to watch t.v. - just
move casually and directly and go where you want. If she startles, shivers, appears unnerved, then
simply tell her "It's O.K." and carry on with what you are doing.
I'm not sure what else I can tell you other than Rescues take a long time and lots of patience.
Introduce everything, one-at-a-time and Praise lots to build her confidence and having bowls of
treats around the house, certainly wouldn't hurt for that extra praise. [Cheerios work well for treats -
non-fattening, no stomach upsets, no loose stools, no melting or going moldy].
If you have more concerns after giving her a good month, at least, feel free to contact me direct.
Canine Caretaker Training/Consulting
http://www.k9care.ca
"United We Stand."
http://www.standunited.ca
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