Scaredy doodle

[Jenn and Bogey]

Bogey has been home with us for two weeks. He was 8 weeks when we brought him home. I am starting to notice he is on the skittish side. Last Friday I took him to a puppy social at the place where we start obedience training next month. He was overwhelmed. He would hide under the chairs. Fast forward to yesterday, and he was getting nervous around the neighborhood kids. I have three kids myself so he's around kids all the time. For socialization, he's been to Lowes and Petsmart. He came with us to cheer my husband on when he finished his half marathon. Every morning the kids play outside before going off to school, so Bogey comes outside too and watches from the porch. Do you have any ideas what else I can do to make him more confident? He's not fully vaccinated yet, so whenever we are out in public we carry him.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Sounds like you are doing everything possible to socialize him....keep up the good work! His actions sound very normal! Remember, at this age, EVERYTHING is a new expierence for him. Never force him to familiarize himself with something, but gently reassure him, at that whatever it is...won't hurt him. LOL...Enzo has just turned 2 and we probably spent 1/2 hr in front of the talking, cackling witch at Lowes the other day. ;)
As he grows, his confidence will grow along with him. Be careful not to completely over-whelm him....a gaggle of kids would be enough to over-whelm anyone! :p.

[Jenn and Bogey]

Yes, I agree it was too many kids all at once. I'll try to bring him out if we only have one or two kids playing until he's more sure of himself.

[Hannah Love]

Jenn,

This COMLETELY reminds me of my little guy, Higgins. After he'd been with us a couple weeks, we started to realize that he was very skittish around all new people. We were really worried about it because we thought that he was going to be an anti-social doodle forever. I can assure you, now Higgins is just over 5 months and he loves people. We had to work at it, but your guy will definitely come around too.

What we did was a lot of counter-conditioning so that he would begin to like the things he was scared of. This required TONS of treats anytime we were anywhere with new people. Our trainer taught us to use the clicker when we were out in public (like at a table outside of a café, or in front of our house when people walk by, etc) and click & treat every single time he LOOKED in the direction of a stranger. Over and over and over again. This laid the foundation that strange people were not something to be scared of, but rather something that made treats happen.

You also have to be really careful not to force them into anything that scares them. For example, if Higgins was scared of a stranger, we wouldn't force him up to them and we definitely wouldn't let them touch him until Higgins showed an interest and was comfortable. Forced exposure to scary things just makes it worse. So if a new person wanted to pet Higgins (which was basically constant because he was so cute, as is I'm sure is true with Bogey!) we had to instruct them in exactly out to do it, per our trainer's instructions, so that the people were less scary. They had to kneel down, turn to the side (rather than face straight on), avoid eye contact, and toss treats Higgins' way. Higgins would take the treats, one by one, and slowly get closer to the person. Eventually he would take the treat and when we were lucky, he would let the person pet him under the chin. After a couple months of work on this, he now runs up to new people excitedly!!!

All that is the long winded way of saying, Bogey just needs you to make scary things less scary for him by making them smaller, quieter, and involving lots of treats! Give him treats every time he sees something that could potentially be scary. And in time, when he gets a little bigger and more confident, scary things won't be so scary. Good luck!

[Jenn and Bogey]

OMG! I had the same fear running through my head! I'm so glad that Higgins is more confident. Thank you!

[Emery & Watson]

It sounds like you're doing the right things.  Watson is also a little timid (which comes in handy when there are things I don't want him getting into).  We brought him to a weekly puppy social where pups under 18 weeks can play and it wasn't until the 4th or 5th week of going that he actually opened up and really played with the other pups.  He would go to all the humans instead and sit next to them and say hi, instead of playing with the other dogs.  

I think it also helps them to see you or your family interacting with whatever they are scared of.  Watson was afraid of scooters, bikes, wagons, strollers and many times i would have to coo at how awesome the wheeled thing was and sometimes sit on it or touch it myself before he would approach it.  He's only 4 months old now and he doesn't try to dash in the other direction anymore, but as much as he likes humans, he is still wary of kids that are in, on, or just got off a <insert wheeled object here>; so we're still working on it 

:)

[Jenn and Bogey]

Bogey is afraid of my kids scooters! So I've had the kids scooter on the sidewalk and Bogey watches from afar so he can get used to it. :)

[Audrey and Colby]

You have gotten some great responses to your question. Our 18-week-old Colby was the same way. I also did the counter conditioning thing with lots and lots of treats (still do) and I took her to two puppy socialization classes (that were combined with obedience training) a week until she was 14 weeks. Now, she goes to an intermediate obedience class and a separate "puppy party" each week. She has come so far! She no longer is scared, although she still gets nervous sometimes, and she still does not like to roughhouse with a group of dogs. I've noticed she enjoys playing one on one with other puppies much more than she likes to play with two or more. I also take her daily to a park and take her to restaurants with outdoor patios and take her when I can to run errands if the businesses allow pets inside.

I can't imagine how different she would be without continued socialization! She is definitely coming out of her shell to the point where I'm sure someday she'll be a very confident, yet well-behaved dog. So I would say keep up the puppy group socialization and keep introducing her to new things on a daily basis (with lots of rewards)! I have no doubt you'll enjoy watching Bogey grow into a more confident pup, especially since it sounds like you are doing things right already!!

[Jenn and Bogey]

Thank you! It's so reassuring I'm on the right track and others have went through it and now have more confident doodles.