Hello everyone. Haven't posted in a long while. Hope everyone is doing okay. Anyway, I need some advise please. Precious, my yorkie, who is now 14 weeks old, STILL doesn't do well at all with strangers. She is scared to death of anyone that comes in the house or when we are out and about as well. She runs and hides behind me or into her crate if we are at home. She won't let anyone other than us pet her either. I have taken her out to see other people and to hear other sounds, etc. but nothing has helped. She gets so afraid that she is trembling. Any suggestions of what I can do? Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Shirl :D

was her mother confident around you all??? it might be worth ringing the breeder, she may know best what to do, its not an easy problem to solve,

I agree u really want to sort it out now, maybe try puppy class. I never did with Junior and when we r in the home he is fine with everyone, but out of the home he is scared. I had him in obedience, open and now agility well more for fun and socializing. So far he is coming around more and more and feeling more sure of himself. This age I no is when they learn alot and u want to do alot of socializing. good luck
ttfn :)

Thanks for posting a response. I must say I"m a little worried now. I just thought it was a puppy thing that she would get over. Her mother was very friendly around us, only she didn't want us near her when she was nursing the puppies. Which I thought was normal, being protective. I'll speak to my breeder and see what she has to say. I want to take her to puppy classes, after this week. She just had her second shots and the vet said I had to wait two weeks before I let her be around other pups. So Friday it will be 2 weeks. I'll be able to get her out more after that too. I have even given visitors a treat to give her so she would go to them, but no luck with that either. And she LOVES liver treats. Thanks again. Shirl :D

jsu a quick thought as it is very early lol :0)
how about a dog friendly person coming round & coming in to your home COMPLETELY ignor puppy has a seat & you could put liver treats all around said person whilst they sit completely still say pretending to read the paper, but making no real movements she may eventualt go up to this person & if she likes the treats & realises that this person is not going to try to "say" hello, do this same routing over a few days & see if she will approach to take any of the treats around the person & see how she gets on.
just a thought as i am not yet fully awake. As the others have said this is the most important time for socalising, however if she wants to hide behind your legs i would let her but i would also INGNOR this behaviour whilst she is doing it.
hope it goes well
scatty

Hiya Shirl
Maybe Scatty has hit the nail on the head there !!
If people come in the house and when theres a new pup they immediatley come over oooing and aah ing and she's such a tiny wee thing it's all very intimidating .
Do you have a friend who would come and ignore her ( sounds awfull doesn't it --'OOh would you like to come round and ignore my dog ??' :) )
like Scatty said maybe just come round ignore her ,sit on the floor and roll a ball between you -
Nice to hear from you ( and a sneaky pat for precious :D )
Liz

Yep, I agree with Liz and Scatty's solution...
Hmmmmm
ignore and dog visits person
ignore and dog calms down
ignore and dog goes away

Hmmmm is 'ignore' one of the miraculous cure-alls in dogdom??? ;) :D :D

LOL I agree too :)

From what yiou have said the mother sounds fine, and the best way to get pups to feel safe is by using the "association" learning, hence the liver dropping but ignoring.

Pup learns there is great stuff happening when starngers or visitors appear, but is not stressed by their forced approach. Learns to associate the visits and the people with good things and if done carefully with strangers visiting too, the puo is bound to get better.

After some time she may start to hesitantly approach the visitor and again she should be ignored but treated. Only when she seems very confident will she be able to be petted to aviod undoing good work.

A good behaviourist could help and guide you with this if you weren't sure how to progress.

Lindsay

I would also add that you should ignore her at the same time, so that she will want to force a social interaction from someone. If you both ignore her, and she goes up to the other person, they can just let their hand drop for her to sniff, but not make any eye contact. If she stays with the hand, which should have a trat, then move onto a stroke before the tit bit is given, gradually mo9re until eye contact can be made!

What you must not do is pick her up or reasure her, as she will then think there really is something to be afraid of, and also will thrive on the atention that this behaviour gets her.

Hey Shirl, something opposite to tell you that's rather funny :D :D :D
I was at the groomer's picking up Samm the other day. She wasn't busy so we settled in for a short chat :) A bit later, an owner of a Bichon & Yorkie came to pick up her two dogs.

The Yorkie was thrilled to be free and did the whole meet/greet thing for a bit with Samm who was loose in the small area. So I'm leaning against the wall and listening to the two women make plans for the next appt. when all of a sudden I had about 5 pounds of Yorkie on my chest. She had actually jumped 5+ feet to 'see' me. :rolleyes: :) It was a good thing I grabbed her out of reflex or she would have slid all the way to the ground.

Both women AND I were quite suprised at this... She decided that she wanted to curl up in my arms and was not happy to leave me when it was time to go :rolleyes:

So hopefully, your pup will settle into something in the middle and not quite so exuberant as this 'un was ;) :) :D
Just a note, when she starts to shake and tremble.... ignore it completely. Don't try to comfort her at all. Otherwise she'll learn to 'play to the crowd' and it will get worse. If she has been given the 'there, there, dear' treatment, you'll have to work through this and it will take longer than what you might expect.
good luck and be strong ;) :)
toodles

Thank you all so very much for all your suggestions! Very good ones, I might add. I will call a friend and ask her to come over and see my dog but I want her to ignore Precious. Ha, Ha, That ought to get my friend right over!!!!!!!!!! :-) No seriously, I have a friend who dearly loves dogs and would gladly do this for me. So I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

Eog, I loved your story about the Yorkie jumping on you!!! Good thing you have the instinct to catch!!!! I took Precious to a friends house last week and there were maybe 6 women there. Of course she was scared to death and tried to crawl under my chin!!!! My friend asked me to let her hold her, so I handed her Precious. As I was just beginning to tell her that Precious was real afraid of other people, Precious took a flying leap over to my arms!!!!!! I was about 3 feet from her!! Scared the life out of me!!!!!!!! She hid under my chair while I was there. She did let people come to her and pet her, she just wouldn't let them pick her up. Of course everyone wants to pick up a puppy, just like a newborn baby.

Well I'm going to try these ideas you all have given me and hope that they work. Thanks again!!!! ~Shirl~ :D