Shy Sheltie?

[Piper's mom]

My middle boy Finnie has lots of anxiety and when he was young was very reserved. He wouldn’t let any stranger pat him, would back up whenever someone would want to pat him but would then approach them and then back up again. We’d go to a local store that allowed dogs and I’d take him and my 3 year old Sheltie Piper (who is a total social butterfly) and over time he did slowly become slightly more friendly with strangers. I’d also take him to busy stores and we’d stand outside the doors (doing sit stays) and walking near people and this definitely helped him over time. He’s now 5 and while he’s more likely to bark at a stranger who wants to pat him, if they ignore him (no eye contact) he will approach them and allow it.
I don’t think it’s the least unusual for a Sheltie to be reserved, how much they are as they get older depends on how much we socialize them.

 

[woof]

I have to agree, my Katy would get super, super depressed at the kennel :'-( Having her beagle brother there with her helped a lot, but he was a special needs dog and was even more anxious than she was! After he passed, we just couldn't kennel her anymore.

An in-home pet sitter was the way to go for us, Katy handled that a LOT better.

We have always had in home sitters for our pet but obviously not possible for some people. We even had a house sitter for nearly a year while we lived in another country for work--and we learned not all pet sitters are equal but mostly we have had great results and at least the pups were in their home. We had some not so good results from kenneling our dogs early on so we swore if at all possible we would not do that again and fortunately we have been able to make that work.

 

[woof]

My middle boy Finnie has lots of anxiety and when he was young was very reserved. He wouldn’t let any stranger pat him, would back up whenever someone would want to pat him but would then approach them and then back up again. We’d go to a local store that allowed dogs and I’d take him and my 3 year old Sheltie Piper (who is a total social butterfly) and over time he did slowly become slightly more friendly with strangers. I’d also take him to busy stores and we’d stand outside the doors (doing sit stays) and walking near people and this definitely helped him over time. He’s now 5 and while he’s more likely to bark at a stranger who wants to pat him, if they ignore him (no eye contact) he will approach them and allow it.
I don’t think it’s the least unusual for a Sheltie to be reserved, how much they are as they get older depends on how much we socialize them.

I have a friend that used to take their Shelties to shopping centers and just walk up and down the sidewalk to get them acclimated to people.