anxious dog

18 16:38:28

Question

Louie Hi, We adopted a 2 year old male Aussiedoodle, Louie, from
a shelter about three weeks ago. We are a father and mother
and two boys, 3.5 and 1.5. Louie has a lot of nervous
energy and he seems to have a problem with trusting me (the
father). This problem seems to be getting worse over time.
He now will often bark at me if I have been out of the room,
at work, etc, upon return. It takes a bit of coaxing to get
him not to run away from me. When we first got him, we had
a crate that I put him in twice, once the first night, and
once the second day when we were going out for a couple of
hours. I had to lift him in gently, but I don't think he
liked it. I feel like that may be when he stopped trusting
me, because the first couple of days, he would fetch the
ball in the back yard with me, come to me when called. He
still seems to gradually warm up to me at night and sleeps
fine next to my side of the bed on the floor. I take him
for a walk every morning and feed him morning and evening.
Is there anything else I can do to try to calm his nerves
and make him feel less on edge around me?

Answer
Hi, Mark,

Let me start by saying, try to relax and be patient with Louie. Nobody knows what sort of "baggage" Louie is bringing with him, and more than likely, months from now, you'll wonder what you were worried about.

Now, to get on with some suggestions for you.

I would still continue to use a crate. It's a terrific management tool for the entire life of the dog, and actually works along with the dog's natural instinct to have a cozy place to "hole" up in. The key is to never use the crate as punishment. I'm including some documents, two being how to help the dog adjust to the crate.

Let Louie set the pace as far as how quickly he warms up to you. Don't pressure him. If you are the one he seems least bonded with, you should be the one to start being the provider "of all good things." You should be the one to feed him, play with him, everything he likes. Let your wife handle any corrections or discipline. Carry treats around with you and toss him a few throughout the day.

http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/crate-train.pdf
http://www.hsmo.org/m_obedience/behavior/dogcrate.html

http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/PEP.pdf
http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/educated-dog.pdf
http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/nilif.pdf

http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/fearful-dog.pdf
http://www.hsmo.org/m_obedience/documents/FearfulDogPacket.pdf

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