Make the dog self-confident!
Does your dog flinches at every usual sound - a doorbell or rustling tires, thunder or just a creaking door. Does it, loudly barking and then taking it on the lam, puts you out? No doubt, you get vexed by such a trait of character! This article offers some advices about how to get the pet rid of these drawbacks and make the dog more or less steady.
Despite ambiguous assumptions, fear doesn't depend on a dog's size or breed. A large dog has the same chance to turn into a coward as its tiny congener. With some dogs fear is actually a trait of a timid, an indecisive character. With others fear is due to some events that have happened before the puppy reached the age of 3 months. However it may be, in most cases this fault may be reduced or eliminated.
The dog is a subordinate...
I guess there's no need to remind that one should not punish the dog that acknowledges the owner's superiority. You'll rather enhance the fear displays than repair the dog's behavior. Try to help the dog brace himself. Just calm it with a kind word. Your aim is to let the animal know that the thing it is so scared of is harmless and won't do hurt.
Your walk is the dog's walk
In a shy dog walks may have a therapeutic effect. Use any possibility to make it learn the outer world. Each time when you go outside, take the dog with you. Short but frequent walks do much: the more opportunities has the dog to change its customary environment and see new places, meet new people, the less would it react onto noise, cars, unforeseen situations. An excellent way to inculcate good manners of the town-dweller in your dog is to go shopping. The dog should learn how to wait the owner near the store. If you see nothing extraordinary in this skill, just know that not all dogs are able to do this. To stay in front of the shop door is no big deal, but to keep from snapping the first person who passes too close, whether it is a dog or a man, is quite another matter.
The dog is aggressive...
When your dog's fear takes the form of aggressiveness towards some thing, you would be disappointed only by the fact that a dog tore it to pieces. But if it will direct its aggression onto the human, the consequences would be much more serious.
To avoid the unpleasant incident, ask the man who has scared your dog to stay away. Otherwise the dog may feel himself at a deadlock and regard attack as the only way to survive. Sometimes you may just release the leash: your own fear will not be passed to the dog and it'll be able to hold a distance to the "threat". If in spite of all the efforts your pet tries to actively hold the line, put a muzzle on it. Thus you can safely train it to contact people.
Relax and rest...
Take a walk with the dog in the neighboring park or a forest to let the dog meet people and dogs. During such short strolls your pet will learn the outward things, and, what is most important, you'll address all your attention onto your dog.
It would be very useful to leave the dog for several days at your relatives or friends. You'll have to lock your heart and put up with the thought of living apart for sometime to help the dog become a bit more self-confident.
Obtain the dog's sympathies
A timid dog is afraid both of noise and strangers. This is why the process of reeducation should necessarily include more contacts with different people.
It is not that your friend should be a kind of a cute doggy that everyone is allowed to strike and pet. Let it sniff the stranger's hand: you must make the dog understand this is a friend, not a foe. This the only way to gain your own way and to see your dog doesn't draw back from the unknown things.
"Say "Hello" to our guests!"
Most frequently a coward displays its fear as aggressive behavior towards strangers. This is one of the reasons why an owner tries to isolate the pet from guests. Be patient when acquaint the dog with "strangers" who come to your house and sooner or later you'll make it reconcile with aliens on its territory.
Mind the kids!
Not all dogs know what "kids" mean. Therefore for the first time it would be better to take precautions. Children tend to poorly control their movements and thus may frighten the dog. But a kid is able to give the dog so much, that it would be very pity to let the relationship get bad.
Viva, vocation!
Spending the vocations with its owner is a true fount of wisdom for every dog. If you go to the seashore, your four-footed friend will have a chance to perceive how pliable is the loose sand, how cold is water, what the wave is made of. In winter it may enrich its life experience in the mountains, especially if within your area snow comes rare. Any change of environment, even if it would be too exciting, will be of huge benefit for your dear friend.
Another owner means another temper
As said above, the dog may not be timid out of its nature but one day it becomes a coward. One of the reasons may be a sudden parting with its owner. Usually the dog just passes the adaptation phase and then acquires its natural behavior and disregards it is an "orphan".
It ripens in three months
Dogs do not have much time to learn how to live in the world of humans. In contrast to a man, who has years to comprehend the rules of life among people the dog has only three months. If you want your puppy to grow into a steady adult organism, you must during the three months of its life give the dog as much knowledge about the world and humans as possible. Yes, when this term is over your friend will continue perceiving more and more new things, but its abilities for adaptation will be considerably lower.
After-effects of isolation
Often dogs that have to see nothing but their own doghouse (crate) and contact to one the same people become fearful. Isolation makes them diffident and shy.
It is easy to determine which of pups is timid: it tends to hide in the corner and fears to play with its siblings. Experienced breeders regularly take puppies outdoors and communicate with them. And here is the last advice: be very attentive when choosing a puppy.
by Lorans Mayot, translation from French into Russian - Eugenia Popova
Translated into English by Tatiana Karpova (Moscow)
(MSU, Biology faculture, Dep. zoology and ecology).