Thread: Shy dog
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Old June 18th, 2011, 04:37 PM
cheshire cheshire is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Canada
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Shy dog

Hi everyone!
We have just adopted a dog from our local SPCA. She is a Border Collie mix (we think she is most likely mixed with Husky, as she has bright blue eyes, big paws and she howls ) and she is VERY shy around people. We asked for some background information before we adopted her, hoping to understand why she is so uncomfortable around people, but unfortunately she came from another shelter and they didn't give any information about how she got there or what she has been through during her four years of life. So we don't know if she was just found, or surrendered by her previous owners... But we think either she was mistreated by someone before, or she wasn't properly socialized.

She acts well with other dogs, she isn't too shy around them and plays correctly, although she is very submissive.
With people though, I've seen her use all the calming signals I could think of: panting, licking her nose, avoiding eye contact, trying to act invisible, acting sleepy, ignoring us and sniffing the ground, moving very slowly, yawning, head low or to the side, ears back, tail low and general body posture low and hesitant. She becomes very stiff when touched and she freezes there, avoiding eye contact and one paw lifted most of the time.
So I was wondering if any of you had some advice on how to act around her, how to help her build some confidence and trust.
We are trying to take it slow with her... She has a crate, and she goes into it when she wants to be left alone or when she gets a little too nervous. We give her lots of praise, and we try to give her treats but most of the time she is over her emotional "threshold" and won't show any interest in them. We also try not to stare at her eyes directly, walk straight at her, crouch or hover over her, pet her on the head (she crouches down when we touch her head) or do any moves that might seem threatening to her. We also try to have her do things on her own, and not force her to do anything (e.g. getting out of her crate, coming to us, going to her bowls to eat or drink, getting into the car, etc)
Other than that I'm not really sure what to do... She comes most of the time when we call her, and she seems more and more confident when she comes to us. She also follows us a lot of the time around the house, so it seems her curiosity sometimes is stronger than her fear.
She does sleep a lot too, and I find it odd... Obviously, it's hot and she's stressed so she could be more sleepy, but she's a four years old Border Collie and Husky mix, so I think it's more out of boredom because she's too shy to get out of her crate. She has toys, and she seems interested in them, but we don't see her play or chew on her toys. I'm trying to make her do some exercise, I take her for walks but she's too shy to play and she doesn't seem very comfortable to walk beside me either. I guess she'll be more comfortable with time though, as she still has to learn that she can trust me.

At least she never growls or shows any signs of aggressiveness. She seems very uncomfortable sometimes, but not enough to feel she needs to defend herself. We try to keep her stress and fear levels as low as possible in order to avoid this, and I'm at least glad she communicates a lot through body signals. I wouldn't want her to feel threatened or people to think she's a dangerous aggressive dog while she actually is just afraid.

Have any of you had experiences with shy dog? What did you do and how did the dog react? Do you have any advice?
Also, do you think it would be best to introduce her to other people now or wait a little and let her get used to her new environment before we do that?
Thank you!
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