My new dog is very anxious

Question
I bought my bitch dog from a breeder around 3 weeks ago, she is 18 months. From the day I bought her home she has been very anxious, she wont come to me or my partner regardless of how much encouragement we use, no treat in the world works,in fact she hardly eats. Nothing excites her. When we talk to her she quivers and shakes, lowers her head to the ground as if she's ashamed. She's like a statue, she freezes when we touch her and starts trembling. We walk her of a minimum of 3-4 times a day, we try toys and sticks, she just gets scared. The only time she moves quick is when she trying to get away from us. We don't know what else to try in order to break her out of his. We never raise our voice to her and people tell us she looks petrified all the time. Please help. I'm getting frustrated now.

Answer
This sounds like a severely unsocialized dog.  It takes some very specialized techniques to deal with a dog like this, and a usually a long time to help them build their confidence.

Do not push her, and do not coddle her for this behavior.  Stay very low keyed, even with your praise.  She will need some time to realize that you are not scary-and I would wait to really start taking her around a lot of activity until she is more confident at home.  Try to walk her when the neighborhood is calm and do not let others pet her.  Also enrolling in an obedience course in the area would help-if you can find a clicker training class that would be excellent.

There are also some great ideas on the shy dogs yahoo group.  You can join and read through the archives.