Anyone have any ideas?

[minikelli]

Ideas specifically on how to get a puppy who is growing by leaps and bounds to not be afraid of her shadow? Lucy Belle has already gained over 25 lbs within the last month and a half -- making her the biggest dog in the house already, but she's also earned the nickname of Lucy the Lionhearted... Quite literally will cower when she sees her shadow at night! Which is funny but sad in the same breath. For a puppy that has such verve and energy it amazes me how this one point just terrifies her poor soul, and for the life of me I've not been able to get her past it on her trips outside at night...

Also, including a more recent pic taken a week or so ago to show everyone the changes like size and ears we've gotten to see.

[woodland_miniatures]

Awww, wish I could help, but I'm a cat person (as you can see my owner in my avatar). Lucy Belle is an absolute darling, though, and I hope someone more knowing of doggie psychology comes along later, and bettting that they will. In case you haven't noticed, a LOT of us belong to our four-footed friends.

[New Day]

Lucy Belle is so cute!

We never had much success with helping our 2 scaredy dogs (both passed now) but they were older rescues when we adopted them.

I do recall being told by the trainer to not make a big deal out of their fearful reactions since that reinforces the behavior. More advice was for us to act confident in the situations they found scary. Also, to make it like a party. Show how happy we were and how much fun we were having. So, for example, during thunderstorms, which Blossom was terrified of, we tried being playful and saying "wheee!" like it was a party and gave her treats when she was being brave. For her, though, that just made her scared when someone said "wheee".

Sorry I can't be of more help. Maybe google some sites, consult a trainer or even check with the people you got her from to see what they say. Or maybe even check with the vet in case she may have a vision issue?

Good luck, she looks like a real sweetie.

Here is a link I found http://avetsguidetolife.blogspot.com/2012/01/scared-of-shadows.html

[havanaholly]

Lucy Belle is beautiful.

[-defunct account-]

If you make a big deal about unwanted behaviors, she will become neurotic about it. Just keep reinforcing the good with positives like treats and lots of love, and ignore her 'foolish' quirks. She can sense when you're anxious, so when you start worrying about shadow time, she'll know it before it even begins. Then the shadows come out, so she figures - well you're freaked out and you're the pack leader, must be worth freaking out over. Just go right on like everything is cool. Walk right outside at night with her, pass over her shadow and show her nothing happens by simply doing it, say nothing, and go about your business. If you try to sooth her and tell her stuff like it's okay, she'll associate that with it's okay to be scared of it.

When she finally does go and acts normal about it, then make a big deal about what a good job she did outside.

Get a raincoat, it might take a few weeks, but you'll get there.

[Dalesq]

There's some good advice here already. But you didn't say how old she is. Dogs go through a couple of development stages that include fear regression. It may just be a phase, but of course, you don't want to reinforce the behavior.

[minikelli]

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments, and helpful tips! My main concern is that from her current growth rate if she continues to try and climb my legs when she sees it, she'll fell me soon... lol Guarantee though that I have specifically tried to let her know it's okay, and so I think I'll try to remember tonight not to do that and just try to act normally with her. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Unfortunately the woman who found her in the ditch only had her for a couple of weeks, and she already had a couple of bigger dogs(Rotts) and knew she couldn't keep her. So according to the vet about the only things we can halfway guess -- is that she's probably a mix of German Shepherd, possibly Dobie, and maybe some terrier mixed in(due to her whiskery chin). Also, pure guesstimate that she's not quite 6 months yet, and may end up somewhere around 90-100 lbs when full grown. In other words she'll be nearly as heavy as me. lol

[Dalesq]

Definitely time to work on "off" and "sit." You're right you don't want her jumping on you or anyone else.

[minikelli]

She's actually already got sit down pat. She learned that one quick thankfully! One thing most anyone who spends time around her can see is she really wants to please her people. Main neuroses that have become apparent she does not like to let me out of her sight(think that's from my time in the hospital and possibly from whatever twit dumped her in a ditch), her shadow, and big birds scare her to death. In other words hawks and vultures that are commonly overhead here, are still an issue -- and again, my thought would be this stems from her being in a ditch for however long she was...

[-defunct account-]

We adopted an older dog (7) with a couple of issues Kelli, it took some work but she was a wonderful girl and more than worth it I had no choice but to train her, because she outweighed me by 25lbs and had been a professionally trained sled dog. if she thought for one minute that she was the boss, a squirrel she wanted to chase could have been a disaster for me.

Some thing that freaked her out she was able to learn to ignore by us finding ways to distract her and eventually she stopped paying them attention and started looking to me for things to do that were fun instead. This might be even easier with yours since she's a pup. "there's that stupid giant bird...I wonder if the lady has a toy to fetch.. oh awesome, PLAY TIME".

At first ours hated the car, because the car meant a serious trip and moving, but eventually she learned it meant long walks in the park She was nervous around stranger dogs, but after getting lots of positive controlled exposure with us present, she felt safe and was happy to play with new dogs.

Once she understands that you will protect her from nasty birds (or whatever) and sees you're not scared, she'll be okay. Use her clinging to you as an advantage! She's decided you're the boss, she probably didn't like it when her protector person was missing.

Good luck to you both, she's a gorgeous girl. I love a big dog, they give the best snuggles

[fov]

If you haven't looked into these before, Cesar Milan's DVDs and books are super helpful for giving strategies about how to deal with dog behavior and not turning your dog neurotic. (My dog's kind of neurotic in spite of this, but I shudder to think what she would have been like if we hadn't watched the DVDs before we got her!)

I was going to say something along the same lines of what April said - don't coddle her when she's scared of her shadow. Just ignore it. You can also distract her with a good behavior -- if she starts to freak out, call her into the other room and practice sit a bit with cookie rewards. (The message there being we reward you for desirable behavior, but you don't get any reinforcement for undesirable behavior. If she learns that every time she sees something that scares her, she should remove herself from it and sit in front of you for a cookie, that's a good lesson!)

About the birds: my dog is very anxious when we see other dogs during our walk and we've tried to teach her that she should look at us for a reward. Someone at the humane society pointed out to me that we might never get her to look away from the other dog completely, because she sees that dog as a threat and needs to keep tabs on what it's doing and whether she's in danger. (She's a rescue who was found wandering, I'm guessing she had a run-in with another dog at some point.) But after quickly checking out the scary thing, she looks back at me and gets her cookie. Practice rewarding your dog for a "head snap" -- say her name and treat her as soon as she turns her head in your direction in response. The more you practice this, the quicker her head-snap will be and then you can use it to distract her in these situations -- she'll get the idea that when she sees something scary, the right response is to look at you and get a reward.

Also I agree about the jumping and climbing. It might be cute now but that's just going to be harder and harder to teach her not to do. Don't say anything or push her off or anything, just ignore her and turn/walk away. Dogs (especially puppies) want attention and they'll take negative attention if they can't get positive attention. And reward her like crazy when she's being good and calm. If she really wants to please you she should catch on quickly to what type of behavior you want and what type you don't.

[minikelli]

Thanks Emily, funny I've had pets my entire life -- but Lucy is definitely the most neurotic I've ever adopted. She's a definite character and has the family wrapped around her paws already, but I do know that with the size gain she's been having definitely need to get this under control and fast!

[rodentraiser]

Have you thought about obedience training classes? There's always commotion, lots of people, and lots of other dogs at an obedience training class. And instead of concentrating on the obedience so much, you could tell the trainer that your goal is not necessarily obedience, but simply to get your dog over being afraid of things. That way you aren't doing two things at once, like trying to make her learn while she's frightened. How many of us can learn under those conditions? You can always practice the obedience exercises at home. And if you feel your dog has calmed down to that point, you can always take the beginner class again and then concentrate on working your dog at class. Don't give up! Try to do the entire 6 or 8 week class. You may not notice the change in your dog every week, but in the last week, you will certainly see the change from the way she was in the beginning.

But go with your gut instincts. Most trainers are wonderful, but if you have doubts about any of the training methods, don't hesitate to voice your concerns to the trainer and if the trainer insists you do things you don't think will help your dog, quit and try doing some basic obedience outside a busy shopping mall or post office. My way of training has always been to fit the training to the dog, not the other way around, but there are still some old trainers that can only train one way and one way only.

Before I'd take your dog out in public, I'd start with teaching her a general "heel position" with the dog sitting next to you and doing some general heeling at home first. Keep your lessons very short. Maybe 5 or 10 minutes at least 4 or 5 times a week. Keep it fun! If you do this at home at first, then it will be familiar to her when you take her somewhere else and it will give her some security while you're introducing her to strange places and people. Plus, she will be in a position where you can pet and praise her.

Shop around for obedience classes. Look in the phone book for dog clubs and breed clubs. I might hesitate to bring her to Petsmart or Petco unless there was no other choice. And if you are trying to get your dog over being afraid of things in general, I'd pass on the private lessons if anyone offers.

Hope this helps!

[minikelli]

Kelly,

Lovely idea -- but unfortunately the closest obedience class would be at least an hour and twenty minutes away... We are very much in the sticks here. lol

[rodentraiser]

Well, you can still do this yourself. Pick up a book on basic dog obedience at the library and work with your dog for a month or so and then start by taking her out to a busy store and doing about 5 or 10 minutes of obedience work there - and remember, your goal is to get her to relax, not to have a perfect obedience dog. See if you can get her attention for even a minute (if she's scared, shell be looking around at everything but you) and then reward her and go home. Try doing this a couple of times a week for about a month and see if she relaxes at all. If you decide to do this, let me know how it turns out.

There's also some dog training forums on the Net that may be able to help you too. Good luck!

[minikelli]

Kelly,

I don't mean to make out like she's timid -- in daylight hours she doesn't even really notice it... Come night time is a whole other story however. lol She's actually already doing a bit better after having gotten some hints from everyone about the not coddling and making the neurosis worse, think she's doing better b/c I'm doing better in not feeding that. Even though that's not what I or I suppose anyone ever intends to do when letting their baby know it's okay and not to worry... The birds are still an issue, but doing better already with the fear of her shadow, so keeping my fingers crossed that things continue to go up from here. She is definitely the quirkiest dog I've ever had the pleasure of having in my life -- but have to say she's already wrapped the family quite nicely around her paws.

[heidiiiii]

She is very beautiful. And as many know, me included, that mutts are really smart! Plus she is a rescue so she will do her very best to make you proud of her and love her.
Just ignore her but do make sure you teach her that jumping up on legs is a no-no. Our 2 yr old, Ruby, still does it to Fred when he comes home from work. It drives me batty. I did get her to stop doing it others though.

Good Luck!