[Ashley08]

My fiancé and I rescued our German Shepard a little over a month ago. When we first rescued him he was 10 weeks and now he is just shy of 14. The humane society we rescued him from informed us that he was found under a shed at 4 weeks with his brothers and sisters and a red heeler who had mothered them. She too was abandoned. We have read that socializing German shepards is very important so we have taken him everywhere. We go to petco and walk around with him every weeks, he has gone to garage sales with us and we are always at the dog park. He does great with other dogs but is still so timid with people. He has gotten a little better over the weeks but I am starting to worry that he will never like people. We are very family oriented and I am worried he will never warm up to our family. Any suggestions? Also, the humane society informed us that archer is a mix. We have had people say he is pure bread and some who think he is part lab or part collie or part husky. Any German Shepard experts out there who can tell if he is pure bread or mix?? We could use all the help we can get with socializing!!! Thank you!!

 

[FoxyMom]

Can you attach a picture to see?


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[Ashley08]

This is archer


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[BowWowMeow]

He is very cute! I bet the red heeler was his mom. He may be genetically shy or the mom could have imprinted fear onto him. It is likely that if he is shy now, he will always be shy but you can work with him to get him more comfortable around people. I would highly recommend clicker training. I would also recommend joining the shy dogs list on yahoo. They really know their stuff and will have a lot of good resources for you. shy-k9s : shy-k9s

There are also some great books on training shy dogs: http://www.dogwise.com/search.cfm

 

[mspiker03]

In puppy class this week we were talking about polite greetings. And one thing our trainer had talked about was using a form of the command "touch" for others to greet your puppy. So, if you could teach him to touch your hand (you can then advance that later on to touch other objects, etc) and then when he knows that have others just walk up close and put their hand down to signal a touch command (kind of like a low "hi-5") and then have your pup "touch" their hand so that he greets them. She said she does this with a lot of shy dogs.

 

[GSxOwner]

I know for me my pup was absolutely terrified of cars when I first got her at 11 weeks! Wanted to bolt, tail tucked looking around scared. Well for me what I did was muster up as much positive energy as I could put on a happy face and kept on marching up the street like nothing was wrong, did not coddle her or let her think that there was something to be scared of. For me energy and repetition work wonders. She was also scared of other dogs and this seems to have worked for that too. Good luck keep trying different methods I am sure you will find something, I try to look at the world from their perspective- been on the planet 11 weeks? I would be scared too lol!

 

[ten3zro]

I highly recommend spending some time learning about what socialization really is. I have a firm believer in the Michael Ellis philosophy that this is the most misunderstood concept in all of dog training. Your goal should not be to take this pup to classes at your local Petco and to have him interact with every dog and person you come across. If you attempt to use that method of socialization you are likely going to create problems. Proper socialization (IMO, and in the opinions of trainers I respect), is taking your pup to new places and getting him to build confidence by focusing on YOU and learning that other dogs and people are simply part of the environment. Take him to new places and teach him that YOU are the most fun and interesting thing in his life. If there are specific people and specific dogs that you know and trust, he can interact with them. But taking him to a big box puppy class, dog park, or a walk through the neighborhood where you let every person pet him and every dog interact with him is a recipe for more problems down the road. I would back way off here, avoid the "puppy class" and work with him on your own.

 

[Ashley08]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions so far! I think we are going to use bits and pieces of all of your posts and find the best routine that suits archer!!! Thank you again we appreciate all of your help and advice


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