Fearful dog

Question
QUESTION: Hi, last summer we adopted an 8 month old collie/terrier mix from our local shelter. She is a high energy playful dog that seems to learn very quickly. She is completely house broken and has never had an accident in the house, loves being outside and playing. She has a wonderful personality and loves our kids, who are 8 and 14.
One area we have been working on is her fearfulness of people, mainly men. She seems to warm up to woman fairly quickly and loves kids and plays well with other dogs. We take her on walks and to pet stores and she does really well. But, her fear of men seems to be intensifying. Even with men that frequent our home on a day to day basis. She started out with just barking and running away, but has started growling and snapping at a couple of them. We have asked both of them to ignore her when they come in with no eye contact or reaching out to pet her but it has not improved. We have tried putting a leash on her and correcting her to a sit stay but she continues. Recently one of our friends was at our house for a few hours and each time he would move to another room or come in and out of the house, she barked every time and he had been there for hours. Last night the same friend came to the door and she seemed to snap at him. I am afraid that she is going to turn in to a fear biter and that is not acceptable. We have even tried to have male friends throw her hot dogs and she will not eat them until they leave. I want her to be the happy dog she is with us with male members of our family and male friends. How do we correct this behavior and build her confidence?

ANSWER: "Correction" is coercion: it's painful and it destroys trust.  The dog is confused and something (some male) frightened her (or hurt her) to cause this conditioned fear response that is generalizing to all men.  That is most likely why you see the fear intensifying.  She has taken one incident (whether a benign event that just frightened her or something done deliberately) and has begun to guard YOUR HOME against it.

Training does not involve choker collars and corrections or discipline; it requires positive reinforcement.  A dog that does not voluntarily choose a behavior (such as 'sit/stay') is not trained, that dog is coerced.  This dog is too fearful to accept treats from these strangers whom she fears and is attempting to protect her family members from.  No dog will accept food when in a fear state (unless they are starving or emotionally aberrant.)  This is a very young dog displaying a very profound fear behavior and my instinct tells me she has a good reason.  Rehabilitating this fear will involve you protecting her from this plethora of male visitors you seem to have; this is far too much for her to deal with.  One or two a week may be manageable but constant flow of "strange" men is worsening her fear to the extreme.

You need an in person evaluation of this dog by a certified applied animal behaviorist.  Call the veterinary college in your geographical area to obtain a referral and hopefully there is one close enough to make the trip to your home, because this dog must be seen IN your home (not at the professional's location.)  While you are looking for someone, introduce positive reinforcement training (and throw out that choker collar and the bad ideas behind it.)  Her breed mix makes her an excellent candidate.  Go to ClickerTraining.com; the clicker may frighten her, so introduce it from your pocket (or use a visual signal, your index finger to your nose, which further focuses the dog on you.)  Throw out your accustomed obedience commands and substitute new ones.  Begin with a new "sit" and give it two weeks at least for her to obtain a conditioned response.  Once she has learned that performing this behavior is highly rewarding, she should be able to respond to the command BEFORE the man enters the house.  Set up: man rings bell, dog responds to bell, "sit" command is given, dog sits, you open door; if dog BREAKS SIT, close the door (leaving the man outside) and start over; persist until the dog DOES NOT break "sit", then allow the man to enter.  keep the dog on lightweight nylon house tab and hold onto it; do not allow the dog to interact with the man (we're not there yet) and do not allow the man to interact with the dog.  keep the setup short, no more than a few minutes.  Repeat it again in a few days, and until then protect her from all these other men who seem to visit you so often.  Confine her to a safe room with a special toy and tv or radio playing.  This situation can be rehabilitated but you cannot do it alone, you need a professional.  Find one ASAP.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your quick reply. Just a couple things I want to clarify. We don't use a choker with her, I don't believe in them for correction or general use. The same family friend comes to our house approximately 3-5 times a week and my brother and his family about 2 times a week. My brother seems to get a better response from her than the family friend. The friend tends to try and win her over and my brother waits for her to come up to him. When we first got her she would run and hide under our bed and now she does stay in the same room when they come over, which I saw as progress. The more we push her the more she runs away so we have backed off and let her come up in her own time. I never yell at her I try and stay as quiet and calm as I can so she doesn't pick up on any tension. One other thing I forgot to ask is that she seems to have a real problem with a sheltie that walks by our house or she sees him walking. Other dogs she ignores or wants to play with, however she snaps and snarls when she sees this dog. They have never had any interaction just walking by on the street. Odd to me.

Answer
She seems to have the same response to the sheltie as to your male friend, this may be about body language and even scent.  Since she persists in this fear aggression toward your friend (and not your brother), it's possible the friend is actually fearful (by scent and body language she would know this) and this may account for his persistence in trying to befriend her (when most people would simply shrug it off.)  If he's having a physiological response to his interaction with her (or even her presence), such as a rush of adrenaline (and he may be totally unaware), the dog is picking this up. Just for experimental purposes, next time he comes over have him pop a mint in his mouth before entering (to mask adrenaline on his breath) and have him totally ignore this dog (not look in her direction, not use her name) EVEN if she approaches him.  Put a house tab on her at least ten minutes before his arrival so you have a method of controlling her behavior and movements that don't involve your actual touch.  Report back what happens during this experiment.  Also, regarding the Sheltie (I thought this problem involved ALL dogs, not just one), dogs (like people) can develop a dislike for one another based upon all sorts of things, including (and especially) fear response.  If the Sheltie fears your dog (something only subtle body postures would tell you, but your dog sees it immediately), then she responds with aggression.  Go in the opposite direction when she behaves in this manner, get her attention, reward it, and go back in your original direction, until she is able to tolerate the Sheltie's passing without becoming agitated.