My dog is scared of a collar and leash

Question
I have a 3 year old German Shepherd/Lab. I got my dog at a shelter Nov of 06. He was then 11 months old. I really do not have any info on him. I can tell you what we learned the very first time we met him. The shelter told me he had a hard time walking. So have patience with him. We brought him home and he was fine. We took him to our vet and of course had him checked out. He has no problems such as leg problems etc..My problem with him is he will shake terrible at the site of a collar and leash. He actually looks like he is going into a panic attack. Sometimes alls it takes is us to take the leash or collar off the shelf. I'm upset over this because my dog does need a collar on him. I have not forced it on him at all. As soon as I see that he is very upset enough to look like he is having a panic attack I say its ok etc..and slowly put the leash down. I have read up on all types of stuff and tried everything and I'm getting no where. I have learned from day one to watch my tone of voice and actions. Another problem I have is if its not the collar and leash issue its trying to get him in a vehicle. When I did have the money I wanted to get him into classes. Unfortunately it takes a leash and collar and once again as soon as he sees that he shakes, runs, gets low to the ground , and tries to hide. I love him very much. I will try whatever I can to help him. If I have let out any other details that might help just let me know. I will be sure to answer my best. Another thing..its not just a collar..its anything that can go around his neck.

Answer
Your dog has an extremely strong conditioned fear response to neck containment.  This may have been instantly acquired at the shelter (or if he was found as a stray, on the street) from the capture pole; or it may be the result of serious abuse received by someone before you met him (dragging, choking, who knows what other horrors.)

You have inadvertently rewarded his fear by putting down the collar/leash whenever he demonstrated anxiety.  A totally new association must be built between collar/leash; meanwhile, get this dog microchipped at your vet's office.  While the microchip is not visible to anyone, many municipal shelters (and vet offices) have scanner that can detect it, and it contains your information.  Next, have the dog fitted for a body harness (local pet outlet has them).  He is unlikely to associate the body harness with the collar.  His fear of the leash is associated with its use to his collar (confinement) and must be addressed.

Desensitize his fear of the leash.  Do this by wearing one around your neck (looped over as doctor's wear stethoscopes).  Begin slowly: take the leash out of your pocket (where he has not seen it originate) and sit on the couch with it around your neck (casually); ignore the dog's reaction.  Do what you normally would do, ignoring the dog's reaction (if he even has one, it's possible that taking the leash from a different location will work immediately.)  Have a significant treat with you (large hunk of chicken hot dog or low fat cheese); if the dog approaches you while you are "wearing" the leash, toss the food reward.  Once he has consumed it, casually leave the room (and lose the leash).  Repeat this at random intervals (observe the dog for your cue, if he's very fearful do it less often) until he has fully accepted your "wearing" the leash and begins to anticipate a food reward WHILE you are "wearing" the leash (this might take one trial or 101 trials, impossible for me to determine from this distance.)

Once the dog has accepted your "wearing" the leash and clearly anticipates a food reward (you will know this without any instruction), begin to change the food reward: put the clip of the leash to the connector on the body harness and offer a handful of food reward when you do it.  IF THE DOG REACTS, do not withdraw, simply stop (and do not food reward until the dog is relaxed or you will be rewarding the fear.)  My hunch is that once he has lost the learned response to the leash and anticipates food reward, he will not associate its connection to the body harness as he does to a collar (since the body harness is a total unknown in terms of confinement.)  When you have achieved THIS threshold, REPOST and we will go forward to actually leading the dog, leash on body harness.

In terms of automobiles: he may very well have obtained a strong fear response to transportation at the same time he was captured by animal control, or because he was only exposed to automobiles WHEN HE WAS TAKEN to the "shelter".  It's difficult to overcome this fear and, for some dogs, impossible; but once you've successfully overcome the leash/harness problem (and you will someday be able to put a collar on this dog) we can attempt to tackle the car.