How To Socialize My Fearful Dog? Is It Necessary

[denisetanaka]

Hi,

 

I have a fearful girl. She is 3 y.o. and I have her with us for 8 months. She has improved a lot, but is still fearful and I know she might be like this forever.

 

We live in a apartment in Seattle. We let her once in a Greyhound dog boarding for 18 days and we saw some of her videos when she was there, she had such a great time running and playing with another Greyhounds.

 

So because of that I started to think that she might need more paw friends and play time with dogs.The dog boarding and rescue place is far away from home so is not possible to go there every week. Our neighborhood has a lot of dogs but they always step back when see her, I don't know if because she is fearful or because she is a black greyhound and people usually confuse this breed with dobermans.

 

So we decided to take her in a regular dog day care nearby. Yesterday was her first day and they had cameras so I could see everything.

 

But her behavior was so different from the one that I saw in the Greyhound dog boarding. With Greyhounds her tail goes up so quickly and she starts to run so happily! But with regular dogs her tail was down and she was running in the corners avoiding dogs smelling her butt. She was clearly not happy and they've let the dogs for 4 hours free without any dog bed or flufly place to lay down. It was clearly that she was tired and stressed.

 

I've watched some videos about fearful dogs and they say the best way to train them is with happy dogs as model. But watching my Laila in the daycare it didn't seem she enjoyed. Maybe it's her first day and I am being paranoic. But she was clearly happy when she arrived at home and found her bed.

 

So what do you recommend? Do I need to force her socialize in a regular daycare? Getting a second dog for the moment is not possible, but we thought about it.

[GeorgeofNE]

You've seen what I've observed: most greyhounds love all other greyhounds. Many greyhounds don't know what to make of other dogs.

 

I would not send her back to daycare. Most dogs happily sleep the day away, and you can't force it. Go to greyhound only events when you can, and play plenty of attention to her yourself.

 

My guy only gets to socialize with other hounds a few times a year, but he enjoys it. Does not like other breeds AT ALL.

[palmettobug]

No, definitely not. Johnny tolerated the dog park a few times, until other dogs wanted to play dominance games and he just wanted to do his own thing, and now he can't stand most other dogs. He has a very few "buddies" at our condo's park that he will play with. He is snarky with other greyhounds, so I keep him muzzled during the "meet and sniff butts" phase of our local hound walks.

[rsieg]

Each is different. We go to greyhound only play events a few times each year. Max loves loves loves them, running around until he is exhausted then collapsing in a kiddie pool. Logan hates them, avoids the other greyhounds, hangs around with me and if I move anywhere near the exit gate runs over in the hope we are leaving.

 

Good for you that you figured out what Laila likes and doesn't like -- go with her preferences.

[robinw]

This website is great.

 

http://fearfuldogs.com/