Anxious Sheltie

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DieDany

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Recently I met a girl who owns a little Sheltie. Her name is Amy she is 8 months old and apparently VERY anxious. At calm places such as the house or woods she is okay but she has issues in the town where people and vehicles are passing by, kids are shouting etc. In that case Amy is very timid, she refuses to walk and tries to escape. Her mom uses to sit with her in the park and let her watch what is going on but I don't think it helps. IMHO hereby Amy has plenty of time to watch all the "scary" and "horrible" things and she soaks in her "despair". I would better play with her and do something funny that attracts her attention. But it's just an idea. I haven't seen Amy yet but this week I and her mom arranged a walk with our doggies just to exchange some experiences and chat about Shelties :winkgrin: I hope Perry and me will be able to help this sweet little Sheltie girl to know that the world is great and there is nothing to be afraid of.

I'm going to read the thread about Toby and Ginny by OntarioSheltie I'm sure that I find some great advices there. If there is another thread discussing the same issue, please let me know. I appreciate any thoughts. It's always a sad look at a totally frightened Sheltie I just want to help her to overcome her fear :fl
 
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Yes, Beau was once one of those frightened Shelties, I think she might want to talk with her vet and give her baby some anxiety meds. I have Beau on them and once it was in his system, I also did behavior modification, It really works, And, as odd as it seems I would talk to him and let him Know that Momma wasn't going to let anyone, or anything hurt him. Now, he walks with confidence, even with loud noises, the only time he flinches, is if he hears anything that sounds like gun fire(But, to be fair, when I hear backfire, I flinch at the sound of gunfire to)

I know some people are going to blast me for mentioning anxiety meds, but, hey, I take them too, if you can take medication for high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, There's no shame in taking it for anxiety. This is a brain chemical imbalance and if the pup needs help, he needs help
 
Consider a Thundershirt or even a child's T-shirt that the dog can wear. It wraps tight to give a snuggling, calming effect.
 
My intent here is not to alarm you, but we have a female blue merle who will be 3 years old in September and she's an anxious bundle of fur. Just seeing someone walk by the house upon opening the door and she goes nuts. She also starts crying and whining every morning when I get ready for work. We've tried a Thundershirt, meds, training, etc., and nothing has helped. I love her very much, but of the three we have she is by far the most effort. I wish I could offer you a magic bullet. If you find one, let me know.
 
You may also want to read the thread on Tinsels' journey, Tagg was very patient and slowly exposed Tinsel to different situations. I am sure would would find the thread helpful.
 
8 months is another fear imprint stage in a dog's life. She has to keep her out there and try to make every trip a positive one. Personally, I would go to the quietest place I could find with some but not much traffic, both car and human, give a fair bit of distance and work on sits and tugs and anything else my dog knows using plenty of treats - or her dog food if she loves it. Stay totally calm and accepting of everything. What I mean is, if the dog reacts, I don't. I will, however, place my hand on the dog to calm it. If you stare at the thing that you know that the dog is afraid of it will transmit down the lead. If you have to pick her up and have her on your lap at first, do so. Eventually, and will lots of time, work to getting closer to that which frightens her. Try to stay below her threshold. If you start off back from the road so that she sees but isn't threatened, it's good. Baby steps forward over a long period of time will go a long way to giving both her and the owner confidence. Unfortunately we do have the tendency to see a reaction and try to avoid it or start to worry about it but it doesn't demonstrate to the dog that we can control situations so it doesn't have to worry. It always reminds me of gun dogs. You would never take a young gun dog out to the rifle range and bombard it with the sound of guns going off. Most likely it will bolt and fear the noise it needs to adjust to. You would let it start to hear guns in the distance and as it got use to one level of noise you would take it closer. It's the same process.
 
Today we met Amy and it was great! Frankly she is not really anxious just shy and a bit insecure. She walks the street normally no hiding or escaping - if there is something she doesn't like she pulls a lot but it's not too difficult to calm her down. Though it's WAY better than I expected! I'm so happy about that :biggrin2:

Perry liked her but with all respect. He gave her a kiss and some tail wags but they didn't play just like they do with Sofie the Border Terrier. I'm sure Perry knows that she still needs some time. He's a real gentleman :smile2: (Though I can't say the same about the other dogs in the dog park - the running into other dog's face or harrassing a 4 month old Spaniel puppy by a friendly but highly rude pitbull is according to their owners "a normal doggie play" :gaah)

We already planned another walk to the woods. There will hopefully be no ignorant pet owners. It will be fun!
 
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