Looking for a trainer in the Waterloo Area, Ontario, Canada :)
 

Hey everyone! So recently I adopted Ava, she's a 3 and half month old WGSD. I've had a little bit of trouble with her over the course of the week that I've had her. I know that for dogs, this age is their prime time to be enrolled in class and I've tried looking all around my local classifieds site (kijiji) and had no luck.

I'm a student at the University of Waterloo - I study finance and economics (yes, a lot of math) and live just at the outskirts of the school [N2L3Y8]. It is important to note that as a student, I do not have a car and you will most probably have to come here.

Having said that, The main issues I'm having difficulty with Ava consist of the following:

- Separation anxiety
- Extreme amount of wariness and reluctance upon hearing the door open, and when someone approaches her (I live in a house with a few other guys so this tends to happen a lot)
- Can't get her to make eye contact when she hear her name. Granted she's only been with me for a week, but I've read that some dogs pick it up as early as their second day.

So if you think that you can help me out, please give me a shout! I'd really appreciate any help that I can get... I wanna break these habits as soon as we can.

Thanks!

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Your Ava is lovely. You've only had her a short time so she is still settling in and probably feels overwhelmed. Kongs and soft squeaky toys in her crate can help when you have to leave her. You can stuff the kong with treats and the soft squeaky toys are like teddy bears for puppies and dogs. My Sting at age 7 still loves his white bear. For the eye contact - hold a treat by your eye and say her name using a soft happy voice - when she looks at you -give her the treat. When you feed her, again say her name in a happy voice holding the food bowl - when she looks up put it down for her to eat. For the door - open it up - shut it - yawn (that is a calming signal for dogs and pups), repeat. Ask someone to come in the door and - have the person give Ava a treat - so Ava knows people coming in the door bring goodies for her.