my scared dog

Question
Me, and my girl adopted a gs mix from the south central pound about a year ago, she is about 3 years old now. When we got her she was a mess(besides the physical ailments) she was afraid of everything. Men, trucks, loud noises, the kitchen, walking. We took her to training, followed all the rules, and made some serious headway, but I am still bothered by some of her behavior. She still cowers when I put my shoes on, and get her leash. She is very unpredictable on her walks. Sometimes she sticks to my left side, pees, poops, and has fun, but 60% of the time she freaks out ( hides behind me, pulls and  then backs up to me in an army crawl, gets scared by anything, and even avoids other dogs which is strange because in controlled situiations she is very social with other dogs. I know that because she was abused it is tougher to train her, and give her a happier life, but I am obviously doing something wrong. the only advice I've gotten from the pros is to ignore the things that make her wild (which we do) but it doesn't seem to be working. any advice would be appreciated.
joey

Answer
Dear Joey,

Create positive associations with any sign of confidence, AND with any situation which you know freaks her out.  In other words, cut into pea-sized pieces some chicken hot dogs or something similarly wonderful (stinky and soft are the key here), and feed them to her while you put on your shoes and get her leash.  Bring them with you on your walks and feed them to her while you praise her.  It's nice to reinforce confident behavior and curiosity in her world, but it's also pretty effective to treat and praise her in the presence of something that scares her because she'll actually start looking forward to that thing.  It is good to ignore the fearful behavior, and of course I'm sure you know never to punish her physically (she must've had enough of that for her lifetime).  But if you can add positive reinforcement to her good behaviors, as well as use it to create happy associations with the things that currently scare her, you should see improvement within a month.

Additionally, practice your obedience training in any environment you can, praising and treating all good behavior and keeping in mind that she'll have great difficulty following your orders when she's distracted by scary things.  So ask her to sit when she's (I'm guessing here on her tolerance level) 30 feet from the nearest man on the street, truck etc. and then quickly praise and treat her when she does.  Over the next few weeks gradually decrease the distance between you/her and the scary things during your practice sessions, always praising and treating her as she succeeds.  If she won't sit or stay or heel or down when you're out and about, you're too close to the scary stuff, so try from a farther distance as your starting point.

Go to my website (below) for more positive reinforcement articles and training methods.

I'm so glad she's got you for an owner.  Thank you for writing, and good luck!

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