I am wondering how 'normal' it is for a pup to be very reluctant and nervous in new situations at this age and I'm curious if her behaviour is within 'normal'. She is 13 weeks now and we've had her since she was 8 weeks. We have been socializing her with new outings and people. But she takes a fair amount of time to warm up. Is this something she will outgrow somewhat as she matures?
Hi @LAS At around the age of 12 weeks the additional emotion of fear/anxiety outweighs the additional inquisitiveness to explore the world. This is the norm for all dogs. Rather than galloping towards the new the dog is now wary, watching and taking everything into account. You have about another 3 weeks to continue to socialise your dog (meaning introducing your dog to new situations/objects but always let the dog back off is she is uncomfortable. And crucially make it fun, giving plenty of rewards
Do make sure to take it easy if she is showing signs of fear and to back away and give her more distance from whatever she is afraid of. If you don't do this, instead of 'socialising' her to things, you will 'sensitise' her to them instead...
Poppy definitely is wary in most new situation and she has always been very watchful. I didn't know at 12 weeks their is an increase in fear/anxiety. I'll focus on making new things more fun. I have wondered too though about giving her lots of treats when she is being really timid/anxious. If this is rewarding this behaviour?
No it won't. She has an emotion that is not controlled by purposeful decision making. And on top of that what you are going to do is back off if she shows any sign of anxiety (eg lip licking, tense body, harder face). And back off until she displays any calming signal.(she looks away from the distraction, body becomes loose, she smiles) give here a treat.
You can't reinforce an emotion, so no it won't make her more anxious if you give her treats. (If you are scared of spiders and a giant spider appears and someone gives you cake, are you going to have your fear of spiders reinforced because someone gave you cake? It doesn't work like that...) HOWEVER: Using treats around things a dog is scared of, can create a lot of conflict in the dog - the dog wants the food, but is also scared of the thing. 'Tempting' the dog closer to people or things they are scared of, using food, is counter-productive - the dog will lean in and snatch the food and get away again, but this will have no effect on the fear. In fact the opposite - many is the dog which has become afraid of cheese or frankfurters forevermore, because they have associated the scary thing with the food... (the association can go the other way...!) Instead, I would recommend you perhaps sign up for Grisha Stewart's online puppy course which you can take at your own pace. Grisha developed BAT - a method of working with fearful dogs around things they are scared of - and she has an online puppy course which implements a lot of ideas from BAT. I think that learning more about BAT would really help you to know what to do. Her online puppy course is here: https://grishastewart.com/empowered-puppy-raising/ Good luck...
If Willow is out and we encounter a lorry I show her the treats say "what's this" and all is forgotten she is totally centred on me and treats until the big nasty noisy lorry has passed usually gone the opposite way to us.
Thanks this is all very helpful. I am going to look into this online course, it sounds interesting. I did make the mistake of tempting Poppy with treats when meeting people and she was scared. It didn't feel right and of course it wasn't. Fortunately, for her, I didn't persist with that approach. Poppy being only my second pup/dog, and being so different from my first, is an eye opener and I'm having to learn quite a lot quickly. This forum is very helpful for that
An update on my sensitive puppy I had my first in house session with a positive dog trainer/behaviourist. And she basically confirmed that rather than selecting the calmest pup in the litter I likely chose the most sensitive. I am disappointed - she is going to be much more work. She's a lovely dog but it is challenging to have a pup that is so readily scared and nervous. Anyhow, I am going to work on and recalibrate my expectations. The trainer was encouraging that I can do a lot to mitigate but it feels daunting. If others have gone through this I would love to hear their success stories.
