Very scared puppy

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darkdesires

Forums Novice
I just bought a Shetland Sheepdog puppy a week ago. Bowser is 12 weeks old and is absolutely great. He plays with me, is eating fine, even now knows a handful of tricks, however he is scared of just about everything else. He wont eat if there are other people over, he wont go potty if there are people or dogs out in someone else's yard. I've even tried to give him treats while other people are around (his favorite ones) but he won't touch them. I understand he probably needs to be socialized but the parvovirus is so bad here I can't take him out anywhere until he gets all his shots. Is there anything I can do? I am going to spend about a month at my parent's house and I'm bringing him with me. What do I do if he won't eat while he is there?
 
Hey, congrats on your new puppy!

If you've only had your pup for a week, it's fairly safe to say that he is likely still adjusting. He was taken away from his mom and dad, sisters and brothers, is in a new home with new people, and new smells, and new sounds.

In short, it's normal for him to be scared of darn near everything.

But at the same time, not going potty if he's being looked at or not eating if there are strangers over is slightly strange.

Are you crate training your puppy? If so, just put his dinner in his crate and attend to your guests. And NEVER allow anyone to disturb your puppy in his crate. This is his "safe zone", so as long as he feels safe there he will eat his food, drink his water and maybe even take a nap.

If he hasn't eaten his food and knows where it is after 20 min, remove the food. He's not going to starve if he misses one meal, just give the food back to him for dinner, when he is hungry he'll eat.

As for the potty and people thing, it's best to keep your puppy occupied with walking and not looking at the neighbors. Walk in circles, or back and forth until your pup goes potty. This will take a lot of patience on your part, but even if your pup wasn't paying attention the neighbors it's likely the grass would blow, a bug would fly by, and he wouldn't go potty anyhow.
 
My sheltie was like this as well when she was a pup, she wouldn't go more then three feet away from me at any time and if went into another room and closed the door she would cry like someone was torturing her!

It did take some time to break her of it and even longer to get her to socialize well with new people and new dogs. Once your puppy has it's shots socialize him as much as possible. With my dog taking her to the dog park with a lot of dogs was to much at first so we started just bringing her with us to friends houses to see them and there dogs and worked our way up to the dog park.It's been over two years and she is doing very well, loves to meet new people and new dogs, plays with them and everything but she still will not often eat even her favorite treats in a new place or with a lot of new people or dogs around. It sounds like you know what to do but it takes time.
 
You can carry your pup and take him whereever you're going! This keeps him from coming into contact with places that have heavy dog traffic and parvo risk but still lets him get out and see and smell things.
 
Ditto to what everyone has said. I carried Tully in a small bag (she was tiny) as a pup while I socialised my other dog - then she was experiencing the world but not getting close to other dogs or the ground. Mine particularly liked going to the local shop to get lots of pats and attention.

Puppy school! I highly recommend taking pups to kindergarten. Often you can do this before they have had all their shots as some places have specially cleaned rooms set aside for pups.

Do you know any other dogs? Its a great confidence builder (and a good way to burn off energy) if a pup has other dogs to play with. If you know a friendly dog that is clean and vaccinated there is no problem letting your pup interact. Even better if its another pup/young dog so they can play puppy style but it doesnt have to be. Deska played with my neighbour's old lab (she would come into my the backyard) and to this day Deska still sees her as the doggy matriarch, he was so jealous when my neighbour got a puppy too, he wanted Danny to himself!
 
Thanks everyone. I do know a couple dogs. My friend has a 2 year old Sheltie and an Austrailian Shepard. I didn't even think of that. Thanks everyone I'm going to try all of it.
 
My puppy was exactly the same way.... I would take him outside for him to do his business and wait and wait and wait and finally when he was ready to go a car would go bye and he would come running back to the porch and we had to start all over again..:uhoh: and wait and wait and wait... which wouldnt be soo bad but it was the middle of winter and I was freezing my butt off!!! :lol:
 
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