Nervous Dogs!

[TAXI DRIVER 549]

Can you take your dogs to him to train them?

[beast 1,884]

some dogs are justb wired wrong, genetically or whatever, they just have a bit of a screw loose. these are incredibly difficult to get right, i'm not convinced they ever come completely good and are perhaps better pts as their whole life is just one huge cycle of stress. its almost as if mentally some hsd thrown back to the wolf, they have the wild instincts of panic and constant danger.

 

but these dogs which are genuinely disturbed from birth are very rare,

 

most overly nervous dogs have become that way rather than being born that way. something in their environment has triggered a fear response, whether that is a single scary incident, or an ongoing situation. it may be something very obvious, maybe incredibly subtle. but although they are difficult, frustrating, time consuming to deal with, nervous dogs with the right training can become the most loyal, trusting and obedient of friends, for once they allow you to be their leader they have a lot of the stress removed from their lives so become happy in your company and doing your bidding.

 

difficult dogs are the ones we learn from!

[jukel123 8,678]

I had a mate who was a semi -professional gun dog trainer. His speciality was springers. I went to a trial with him one day. He was running two litter sisters. One was an extremely shy bitch who could not even look at me. The other was an in- your- face, hard-nosed, hard hunting toughie.

Before we left I noticed he'd taken the tough one behind the house and the bitch had come back with its tail between its legs. I asked him what the score was and he said he'd lifted it by its scruff and warned it to behave. He said if he'd done that in the presence of its shy littermate , the shy one would be shaking with anxiety and refuse to work.

When each bitch was run the shy bitch did everything with its eye on its handler. An absolute dream to work. It almost seemed to be saying' I don't want to fall out with you, just tell me what you want me to do.

When it came to the other dog's turn , it ran equally well but you could tell it was always seconds away from rioting and doing its own thing. He reckoned he only ran it in trial occasionally because it knew the difference between a genuine shooting day and a trial. On a shooting day if it started to misbehave the dog knew it would be punished, but it also knew it would not be punished on a trial day because it would look bad in front of other competitors and judges.

So, what I'm saying is persevere ,if you can get over the shyness you might end up with a special dog. It's not your fault the way the dog has developed, even litter mates, as you know, can be like chalk and cheese.