As many of you have seen from my other posts i have a very timid, 13 week old golden retriever pup. It did not become apparent that she was shy until 12 weeks of age, when we went to a puppy party and then subsequently started to go out at 13 weeks. Before she was allowed out i tried carrying her around several places (High streets, the beach, the new forest, to my friends house e.t.c.) and she started puppy playschool at 8 weeks, in an attempt to socialise her well. However since she is very timid i feel that she needs a lot more socialisation than i first thought. I already intended to take her to different places and to see people, dogs, horses e.t.c. She has already been for 4 walks and it has become apparent that she is scared of traffic, other dogs and to a small degree she is shy around people. My question is, when the term socialisation is used does it simply mean the puppy goes to lots of different places and sees many things that they are likely to encounter? If, as my puppy, she is scared of something, e.g. traffic, what should i do? Would it be enough to expose her to as much traffic as possible and click and treat her when she doesn't react? How much do i reassure her when she shows fear, without reinforcing the fear? Can anyone tell me how they set about socialisation and how they overcame obstacles like fear? I realise that i have already missed 4 vital socialisation weeks and that i only have a few weeks left to really make a difference. Thanks in advance for your help.
Lucy and Ellie the very timid pup.

Generally it is thought that, if your pup shows fear, the best thing is to not react to her at all. Any 'reassurance' will be considered as praise for her behaviour. So completely ignore her, to the extent of letting the lead go loose so that she even feels alone. Only talk to her when she is showing the behaviour you want.
It's a terribly difficult thing to get right! Good luck.
:)

It sounds as if you are doing very well :)

I agree it is best to not react to any fear. If for example you are taking her to a road to get her used to traffic, and she is scared, you will in a way need to use your instinct a bit. For example, you may feel the need to back away from the traffic and then praise her when she is more relaxed (and clicker training will be great for this, but you MUST ensure you are clicking her for relaxed behaviour ). The next day maybe get a bit closer, and so on. It is easy to push a puppy a bit too much, but at the same time she does need socialising. If my pup was ever a bit shy, I used to use a very "jolly voice" which worked well.

My pup was very scared when she met her first strange man at home (my partner did'nt count!) as he was very big and tall with a deep voice. I simply asked him to ignore her and we sat and chatted. I got him to chuck the occasional sausage on the floor. After 10 minutes she slowly came over and once he took her toy and invited her to play, she was fine. (She will do pretty much anything for a toy).

Have you a copy of The Perfect Puppy? as this goes into socialisation and explains how to do it quite well. Try to vary the types of people and dogs she meets - for example men with beards, glasses, hats, etc. Reallly push the boat out when she reacts well and give her lots of praise and a game and food rewards. Oh - and try to be confident yourself. And take control of situations - dont let anyone push her too much just because they want to say hallo. I had this with a child in Pets at Home and he basically tried to chase my pup

Good luck

Lindsay

My puppy was very timid when he was the age of your pup. I remember the first time I took him to a puppy socialisation class, he spent the whole hour under my chair observing everything else. The best thing that socialised my puppy was going to training club. He had to sit still and ignore a lot of other dogs for over an hour every week. He is very confident with dogs now. The more routine you make some of the events, the more familiar and less frightened your pup will be. My dog is still a little cautious with people but in a few more months I think this will be a lot better. I also had the habit of sending nervous signals down the lead everytime we came across a new event. It is difficult to act nonchalently but it really helps if the dog senses that you are confident and therefore he should be. Good luck

Just read your post, ive noticed that my Dog is scared of those flappy signs that swing in the wind you get outside Estate Agents, Shops, Cafes etc. i always try to reassure him and stroke him but its never worked and he always acts scared.. now i know why!!

Thanks :-)
Andy

Something I found quite helpful when I first took my pup Cam out was to over-exaggerate my "confident" body language. For example, I found a spot near a busy road (though not too near as I didn't want to terrify him!) where we sat for a while. If I could see that some particularly scary was approaching, like a lorry, I turned my head and studied something infinitely more interesting on the horizon, and totally blanked out the lorry. As Cam was looking to me all the time for reassurance I'm sure he picked up on these nuances - and it's a good way to make sure you don't tense up and focus on the scary object. When we first went out I also tried to be careful not to put us in a position where we would coincidentally start walking away from a car when it passed in case he thought that they were frightening me from my chosen route.

Good luck!

I've found a good way to socialise puppies is at a Market or Car Boot Sale, you find people will stop and speak to you, I usually carry pups round the first time I go as they can be busy places. Also go to your nearest shopping centre and just sit about for a while, again people will come and talk to the puppy, this should give that bit extra confidence.

We found one of the best ways to socialise our Staff pup was to walk her to the local shops, and the post office on a Monday morning loads of elderly people who nearly all stop and fuss a pup. Ples she's unphased now by Wheelchairs, Sticks, Wlaking frames as well as an added bonus and also over past the local I&J school at play time loads of noise. And I must say Car boot sales same again carrying her when she was really little so she had that added security, not loads of legs.

Karen