Socializing My Dog With Kids?
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
I have a mutt from the humane society. We have no idea what she is, but people have asked us if she’s: lab, greyhound, Viszla, Dalmatian (body/head shape, not coloring), pit bull… She’s about 10 months old, and at her shoulders she’s right at the top of my knees and weighs 48 lbs. We’ve had her for 4 months. We’ve done some training with her at home (house breaking, sit, stay, lay down, come, shake, etc.) and she’s been VERY smart. We walk her on several long walks a day and play with her inside. We take her to the park probably… 5 times a week. We walk her around on the walking paths and let her run free in the baseball fields (fenced in) with tennis balls. She LOVES other dogs and wants to play with every one that she sees. She’s also pretty friendly with dog owners. But she’s skittish around other people. She backs away from people and puts her tail between her legs. Like I said, we do try to socialize her. When she backs away, we usually let the person try to give her a treat, but she won’t eat from them. She’s especially scared of kids. We’ve been kind of “forcing” her to be around people by taking her to petsmart just about every day and she’s getting a little better… she’ll walk up and sniff someone from the back or the side. But if they’re facing her, she’ll get scared.
It would be great if she’d have a comfort level with people like that of a service dog… but I don’t see that happening lol.
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don’t force her to interact with people just yet. she needs to be able to observe them from a distance and become more comfortable with them before she is actually interacting with strangers and children.
this is a gradual process, and any rushing can set you backwards.
youre doing great – keep it up and she will come around
your dog has a genetic shy temperament which can not be changed but can be modified. Use the desensitization method for people, start with a type of person she is least scared of and have that person at her comfort level away. If she doesn’t get skittish when a person walks by a 10 feet use that far away at first. Have the person walk by and when they do you give her a very tasty treat. When she realizes people walking by=yummies you move the person 2 feet closer, when she is comfortable with 8 feet away then the person walks by at 6 feet etc. until the person walks by and gently tosses the food at her feet. Next the person pauses and hands her the treat then walks on. Next the person stops briefly and you have a short conversation while the person ignores the dog except to feed her treats. By now she should be looking forward to that treat feeding person and the person can briefly pet her under the chin then treat. When that stranger is accepted you move onto another slightly more “threatening” to her such as a man then go thru the whole process then do kids. You need to have lots of friends or helpful neighbors.You can not change her inherited temperament but with a lot of work you can modify it. Plus an obed class where she has to focus on you and not people would be good. We’ve trained several shy dogs, and one went on to get his AKC CD title and another won his obed class 8 weeks after he was adopted with a perfect score. I’ve included a couple of sites with more and slightly different methods.
It sounds like you have a very smart, sweet dog who has most likely been abused by former owners, hence her apprehension around unfamiliar humans. If this is the case, it may be close to impossible to ever completely make her comfortable around people she doesn’t know. But, like children, the more she is around certain people, the more she should warm up to them. Since she is very young, she could grow out of this behavior, but with my own personal experience of abused dogs, it most likely will be a while before she is completely at ease with humans, if ever. If she has been abused, NEVER ‘force’ a human on her. Keep doing what you are doing, being very gentle and patient with her training, and she should eventually settle down. You are doing an excellent job taking care of her, and God bless you for taking on a shelter dog!
make sure that the people are not giving her any eye contact, are bending down at the knees and not over her at their waist, also make sure that they pet her under the chin because all of these are the polite non threatening way to do things.
what kind of treats are you trying to have others feed her? make sure its a high value treat like chicken.
keep it up!
she sounds to be very unsure of people. i would not start socializing her with children yet. also ‘forcing her’ to interact with people may make it worse. allow her to bond with you first, then take her to the pet-smart, have people walk around her, but ignore her. if she chooses to walk up to people that is fine, but dont force her. eventually she should learn that people are ok, i really recommend getting her involved in an obedience class with a professional trainer who can steer you in the right direction on what would be the best way to introduce her to children.