velcro dog

Question
I am fostering a dog (spayed female 18 months)for the dog shelter. She came from a home where she was left chained up alone for very long periods of time. I removed her from this environment .
She is quick and  intelligent but all this goes out of the window as she will only interact with me. She cowers and hides when anyone else approaches her even my husband and neighbours who she walks with ever day ( with myself)
She interacts very well with other dogs and imitates everything my very confident easy going Labrador does, ( except be people friendly)
I take her with me among other people and she sticks to my leg like velcro.She is more timid with men and children
I have had her 2 months now and i worry that no one will adopt this bright little dog if she cowers everytime she see someone.
I suspect she is a Shepherd mix she has the mannerisms of a shepherd but is smaller.

Many thanks

Kathy  

Answer
It is extremely hard to undo the damage that is done when a dog is not well socialized during the first 8-12 weeks of life.  That window closes for a reason for wild dogs, and it's fairly hard wired even in the domestic dog.  You can make this better, but it takes soooooo long, and may never yield a dog that is really comfortable in a normal family environment.  The first thing I advise is to take the dog to a well run positive training class, preferably with a clicker trainer.  The reason for this is that the dog needs a reliable way to communicate with humans, and needs to see some more non-threatening ones to boot.  She also needs to learn that she can get along in new environments with human help.  One good way to change her emotional response to strange people is to have them all let her approach in her own time, and not stick hands out to sniff or make direct eye contact with her.  Dropping a treat on the floor for her is fine, and you can even feed her some nice roast beef when strangers appear, and stop feeding her when they leave.  That way, the stranger becomes a predictor of good things!  Little by little, she may not be quite so frightened.  Cowering is just her way of deflecting a possible threat, but I'd rather have that than the dog that meets a threat with aggression.