extremely fearful, timid dog

Question
We just adopted a 1 year old male brussels griffon from an animal shelter. Prior to being in the "no kill shelter" he had been in another shelter and was a few days away from being euthanized when someone took him to the "no kill shelter" and that's where we found him. He is a sweet dog, no aggression shown at any time, but we feel he may have been raised in a crate without any socialization. He is so fearful of all noises, people, and everything. We have only had him for 2 weeks. It is difficult to get him to come out of the crate, we have to pull him out gently or he would never come out. Loud noises and people frighten him and he shakes. We have taken him out and held him to soothe him and show him that he won't be hurt by being out. He is not completely housebroken and when we take him in our yard to "go" we have had to use a long leash or we would never be able to bring him back into the house. We leave the leash on him when we leave him loose in the house so we can catch him as he won't come to us and we don't want to scare him more by trapping him to put him back into the crate. One saving grace is our 5 year old female pekingese. He follows her outside and loves to play with her and he will follow her all over the yard. Our fear is that he may also have been abused as he cringes when we read the paper or when we go to pet him. It looked like we were just starting to make a little progress and then company at Christmas and we are back at square one where we can't pet him without his pulling back with a terrified look on his face. We know it will take a long time to overcome his fears but would like to know what we can do to help him. Do you have any suggestions on things that we can try? Do you feel finding a trainer who has experience with timid dogs will help or do you feel we need someone with even more training to help us with Griff?

Answer
Dear Carol,
Thanks for the interesting questions - I think(smile)! This is a very difficult if not impossible case to discuss on-line. Guys like your pup rarely "get better" without an extensive program.

The fact that you have another dog that he likes to interact with is good. This can be useful in treatment. I suggest you look for a veterinary behaviorist, they'll have DACVB after their name. A CAAB would also be a good choice- that's a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist.

If you must seek help from a trainer look for a a Certified Canine Behavior professional -  http://www.animalbehaviorcounselors.org

Some people in these two groups would be able to help - certified Syn Alia Trainer or a Certified Pet Dog Trainer (make sure they work with abnormal fear cases).

http://www.synalia.com and http://www.apdt.com

I'm sure there are others out there that could help, but a certified professional has the credentials proving their dedication to excellence.

Here's a web link for two CAABs, Patricia McConnell and Emily Weiss.  

http://www.dogsbestfriendtraining.com/

http://www.emilyweiss.com

If you happen to live close to me (Memphis TN), I can help.

http://www.howsbentley.com

Good Luck, Happy Training!
Alan