Question:

Hello,
Below is a posting I found on the Dachshund Rescue website that is very similar to my situation with a shy/scared puppy. Our Doxie is about 6 months and we got her from a family that had rescued her from the pound. They had her for a month before selling her because she only had gotten attached to one of their daughters, but she wasn’t home from 9am-9pm and didn’t have the time to help her.. I think she was also with another family before that for 4 days, so the poor dog has been uprooted a lot, and who knows what else happened to her before that. We’ve only had her a little over a week and she is completely attached to me, but like the post below, she is still afraid of my husband and runs away. I’ve told him to ignore her and let her approach him, but he doesn’t really listen to me (I emailed him this posting too, so hopefully he takes it to heart, but I know it must be difficult for him to see how much I enjoy her when he can’t pet or play with her).
Anyways, my question is do you think it would be helpful to take her to training classes together? We had taken her to Petsmart to get her toys, food, etc. and ran into a trainer who has Dachshunds. She told us similar advice, like not coddling her or pushing her into doing stuff, but letting her come up to us when she was ready, etc. She also said it would be good for us to take her to the classes even if she hid behind our chair at first, because eventually she would see how much fun everyone was having and we need to socialize her (but not overdue it) so she sees the world is ok. She is the perfect puppy around me, but if I’m not there she hides. I’ve taken her to Petsmart and on walks since then and she loves getting out. It’s only if someone walks her direction that she’ll either bark, get behind me or go the opposite direction of the person. Her fear is just with people, she loves animals and going outside or for rides in the car with me. I just want to help her in the best way to learn to feel comfortable and safe. I think time will play a major role since she has been uprooted at least those 2 other times.
Thanks,

Answer:
Unfortunately it is difficult to make others get on board, but I would keep trying. What you need to try and stress to your husband is that the more he pushes and tries to force her to interact, the more she will shy away. He HAS to allow her to move at her pace and progress as she is ready. This can take time. But, it really is the way to go.

As far as group classes go, it depends. I would allow and accept her into my classes as we deal with fearful individuals on a regular basis. We do modify our class for fearful dogs. In other words, where other dogs may be learning to sit or lie down, with your dog we would probably just be working on having her learn to be comfortable around people and other dogs. NOT interact with them, just be comfortable with them around. She may stay in her designated area the whole time and this is fine. The goal is to move slowly at her pace. Going into a group class will not necessarily "help her" if the trainer is not skilled in dealing with fearful dogs and thinks that by making her deal with it or pushing her to play or interact will help her, then you would be in trouble. As far as "coddling" goes, I want to make it very clear that you cannot reinforce fear. You are welcome to comfort her and talk to her. Fear is an emotion not a behavior and you cannot make it worse with "reinforcement". Think of it like this, if you were being robbed at gunpoint and I was standing there handing you $100 bills, would you be more afraid the next time? No, of course not. When you are fearful and in fight or flight mode, you have bigger fish to fry.

I strongly recommend you check out: www.fearfuldogs.com and the book the Cautious Canine by Dr. Patricia McConnell, it is an easy read and extremely helpful in understanding fearful dogs.