Dog Behavior - 1st time away from dog

Question
James,

We adopted an 8 year old Sheltie last week end.  He does not seem to be happy (tail always in down position) While we have noticed he gets excited when arround other dogs.  Also tail is up when playing ball when he wants to play.  We enjoy him, show him lots of attention and he has a lot of good traits we enjoy - we just want him to be happy. He has never to our knowledge ever been in a situation where he did not have a companion dog - any way we can get him over this and/or verify our diagonisis (sp) is correct.  Where  do we go from here.

Thanks James & if you need more input from us let us know.

chuck

Answer
Dear Chuck

It's impossible to diagnose behavioral problems by email but I can give you a starting point.

Your dog does not need other dogs around. You are his master now. I am going to recommend, for you to study, the books Psychological Dog Training and Jelly Bean versus Dr. Jekyll & Mr.Hyde by C.W. Meisterfeld.

You may find them at your local library or order them from amazon.com

Based on your email, I don't see anything abnormal about your dogs behavior.

James Webster