Handling Shyness—Sonics little adventure
Sonic comes along when we visit and volunteer at a pet-friendly nursing. We used to think he was quite outgoing (he is) and not at all shy (wrong). People love dogs, and we were quite happy to share the joy with our social butterfly, but then things changed. With Sonic the change seemed abrupt and alarming, as his behaviour went from an apparent 'yay, people! butt wiggle' to tail tucked slink away 'I want outta here' and afraid of treats. On afterthought, because hindsight is everything, I realized that sometimes forward 'friendly' behaviour is actually 'appeasement' and 'checking out a potential threat' so when all goes well, you have what looks like a 'friendly' dog, and when things don't go well, the shyness seems surprising, but it's not--it was there all along, just not interpreted as such by the humans.
Here's what I did about it.
Sonic has been taught that approaching 'scary' objects is a lucrative win win deal. Basically, if he so much as looks toward a 'scary' thing, I will mark (using a clicker or 'yes') and offer a treat (tasty tidbits) at that exact moment. Often, this will lead to a full inspection. It's important that he always has a choice to advance and/or retreat. Outdoors I use a 15' leash (I can always shorten it as appropriate) and indoors a 6' leash (ditto). This would be the pre-training: a skill set I created from my 1st week with him when I realized he was afraid to cross a metal bridge.
Look up-- 101 Things to Do with a Box, and Donna Hills "Look At That" training video if you need a fill on clicker training techniques, and marking and shaping behaviour.
Once I realized how bad Sonic's problem at the nursing home was (he was beyond taking treats-literally afraid of hands) I needed to first figure out what we did wrong. Wrong was anything pushy, like shortening up the leash so people could pet him. Equally pushy but less obvious, was using a treat to coax him to come closer to people, along with letting others coax him with treats. Letting people coax or command him into their space with voice and whistles. All these things had been happening over and over again, eroding his trust and confidence.
Some of this was beyond our control, and that's where some active training comes into play.
I chose to mark & treat Sonic anytime someone said his name or whistled or otherwise tried to engage him. This let him know that he need not worry about commands or pressure from other people, it let him know that it was okay, and quite lucrative to ignore people, and that when strangers say his name (or whistle, etc.) good things happen and they come from me. It let him know that when other people paid attention to him good things happen. It let him know that when other people paid attention to him, he could keep his distance.
If he was still having trouble, I would have him do known, fun, commands, sit, spin, something easy. It would put him in a more confident frame of mind.
Once Sonic's attention was squarely on me, he also became 'less available' for petting. People get bored quickly when the dog ignores them, which meant there was less pressure directed at him. This helped put him at ease and I didn't have to bother with socially awkward explanations or attempts to control the behaviour of other humans.
I added back the 'mark and treat' for engagement or interest in strangers while at the same time marking and treating any 'shy' or 'avoidance' behaviours. In otherwords, I let him know that any choice he made in regards to dealing with strangers would be the 'right' choice.
Once that was going well, I added back giving dog-knowledgeable (co-operative) people a treat, and he had a choice of taking the treat or not. I mark/treat any choice he makes, so if he didn't want the treat, he still got a treat. If he did take the treat, he also got a treat. Win, win, win!
Things are pretty much back to normal now, and it's a matter of maintainance, which means, no matter how socially awkward it may be to tell someone, 'he's shy, maybe not today' we must not push him into 'saying hi' and let him make his own choices.
PS. Sonic is NOT a therapy dog, in this context he is a visiting pet dog. There is no obligation for him to meet with strangers, but socially, it is really nice to have friendly interactions with dog.
PPS. This is one dog in a specific situation, so it's not general advice, just a story of 'what I did'. Obviously, if your shy dog choses a less passive method of dealing with shyness, this doesn't apply.
Sonic comes along when we visit and volunteer at a pet-friendly nursing. We used to think he was quite outgoing (he is) and not at all shy (wrong). People love dogs, and we were quite happy to share the joy with our social butterfly, but then things changed. With Sonic the change seemed abrupt and alarming, as his behaviour went from an apparent 'yay, people! butt wiggle' to tail tucked slink away 'I want outta here' and afraid of treats. On afterthought, because hindsight is everything, I realized that sometimes forward 'friendly' behaviour is actually 'appeasement' and 'checking out a potential threat' so when all goes well, you have what looks like a 'friendly' dog, and when things don't go well, the shyness seems surprising, but it's not--it was there all along, just not interpreted as such by the humans.
Here's what I did about it.
Sonic has been taught that approaching 'scary' objects is a lucrative win win deal. Basically, if he so much as looks toward a 'scary' thing, I will mark (using a clicker or 'yes') and offer a treat (tasty tidbits) at that exact moment. Often, this will lead to a full inspection. It's important that he always has a choice to advance and/or retreat. Outdoors I use a 15' leash (I can always shorten it as appropriate) and indoors a 6' leash (ditto). This would be the pre-training: a skill set I created from my 1st week with him when I realized he was afraid to cross a metal bridge.
Look up-- 101 Things to Do with a Box, and Donna Hills "Look At That" training video if you need a fill on clicker training techniques, and marking and shaping behaviour.
Once I realized how bad Sonic's problem at the nursing home was (he was beyond taking treats-literally afraid of hands) I needed to first figure out what we did wrong. Wrong was anything pushy, like shortening up the leash so people could pet him. Equally pushy but less obvious, was using a treat to coax him to come closer to people, along with letting others coax him with treats. Letting people coax or command him into their space with voice and whistles. All these things had been happening over and over again, eroding his trust and confidence.
Some of this was beyond our control, and that's where some active training comes into play.
I chose to mark & treat Sonic anytime someone said his name or whistled or otherwise tried to engage him. This let him know that he need not worry about commands or pressure from other people, it let him know that it was okay, and quite lucrative to ignore people, and that when strangers say his name (or whistle, etc.) good things happen and they come from me. It let him know that when other people paid attention to him good things happen. It let him know that when other people paid attention to him, he could keep his distance.
If he was still having trouble, I would have him do known, fun, commands, sit, spin, something easy. It would put him in a more confident frame of mind.
Once Sonic's attention was squarely on me, he also became 'less available' for petting. People get bored quickly when the dog ignores them, which meant there was less pressure directed at him. This helped put him at ease and I didn't have to bother with socially awkward explanations or attempts to control the behaviour of other humans.
I added back the 'mark and treat' for engagement or interest in strangers while at the same time marking and treating any 'shy' or 'avoidance' behaviours. In otherwords, I let him know that any choice he made in regards to dealing with strangers would be the 'right' choice.
Once that was going well, I added back giving dog-knowledgeable (co-operative) people a treat, and he had a choice of taking the treat or not. I mark/treat any choice he makes, so if he didn't want the treat, he still got a treat. If he did take the treat, he also got a treat. Win, win, win!
Things are pretty much back to normal now, and it's a matter of maintainance, which means, no matter how socially awkward it may be to tell someone, 'he's shy, maybe not today' we must not push him into 'saying hi' and let him make his own choices.
PS. Sonic is NOT a therapy dog, in this context he is a visiting pet dog. There is no obligation for him to meet with strangers, but socially, it is really nice to have friendly interactions with dog.
PPS. This is one dog in a specific situation, so it's not general advice, just a story of 'what I did'. Obviously, if your shy dog choses a less passive method of dealing with shyness, this doesn't apply.
