fear in a 3 mth old

Question
I adopted a australian shepherd 10 wk old pup 3 wks ago. The owners said she was very socialized and good with everyone. Well she loves me and will let me pet her. She is good with two men that come over to the house.But anyone that she meets no one can go near her,she cowards and will snap if they try and pet her on the head. I have taken her everywhere with me,we have gone to pet store where no one can pet her there but she will eat treats from their hands.She does not go and hide she stays out and is curious. I have a 4 year old son who can't even pet her unless I hold her but then I am afraid she might snap at him.  Do you think she will out grow this?  The breeder said she would take her back and give me one from another litter. Or do you think I can cure this. She is beautiful I hate to let her go.

Answer
Dear Diane,

Keep getting her out and letting people hand-feed her.  Also see if your son can hand-feed her.  Don't worry about the petting right now.  Once she starts to trust her environment a little more the petting will come.  In the meantime, you should pet her while hand-feeding her, and do lots of handling exercises as described at http://www.dogdaysusa.com/puppytraining.cfm Point #5.  As she gets more comfortable with other people near her, they can start to do modified, very gentle versions of the petting and handling exercises.  Do your best not to push her to the point where she snaps.  When she snaps, the feared person backs off which is positive reinforcement working against you -- in other words, when she gets a feared person to back off, she learns that snapping is a good thing to do when she's apprehensive of something.  So go gently, go slowly, don't overwhelm her, don't let anyone corner her or scare her this way.  Let her approach people, and have them hand-feed her as much as you can.  You can even have her entire ration of daily food hand-fed to her by your son and strangers whenever possible.  

All dogs, and particularly a fearful snapper, need to be socialized to friendly healthy other puppies too, gradually and without getting cornered.  Call your vet or local daycares and research the way they suggest socializing.  Best yet find a puppy socialization meeting (We have "Puppy Parties" every Monday night

This all has to happen before the pup reaches age 5-7 months, or you're going to have a lifetime of this behavior.  Be proactive and get at least 2-3 social outings weekly.  Write back in 3-4 weeks and let me know what you've been doing, who she's been meeting and how it's going.

Suzanne Harris, BSc, CPDT
http://www.dogdaysusa.com