i have a female lab mix who is over 5 months old. we got her at 12 weeks and she is terrified of my husband.  and sometimes terrified of strangers.  she loves me and the kids and other animals but she trembles and tries to run away when my husband comes home. he tries to pet her and feed her to show he likes her and he has never been mean to her however his voice is a little loud and deep and he says he wont change the way he talks because he wants her to get used to him like that. i dont know what to do beacuse i love my puppy and i want her around but i hate the way she acts around him.  i keep hoping she will get used to him but shes getting worse and now she barks and growls at him. is there anything we can do or do you think she will be like this forever??? please help us!!!

i think its a real shame not much advice really except just keep doing what you are doing,and i suppose your husband has to try to gain her confidence,and with strangers i would say you just have to keep taking out and introduce her gently,if people want to pet her i would explain she is nervous and stop and talk for a few mins but dont encourage them to pet her just yet let her learn you are not going to let people hurt her,and hopefully with firm but kind reassurance and plenty of socialising but not in busy places she hopefully will come round,maybe your husband needs to carry on feeding her but not to try to pet her,ignore her maybe and maybe like a shy child curiosity will get the better of her i think you need to let her do it in her own time,the growling is possibly because she is afraid and just saying please leave me alone. I know there are more experienced people who will read this and be able to give you some good advice.
Very good luck keep us posted.

Dogs can be very strange creatures, can't they? They get an idea in their heads and it can be very difficult to bring them round!

Would I be right in imagining that when she's acting fearful, people say soothingly "Good girl, good girl"? If so, she's being praised for her fearful behaviour - which is the exact opposite of what you want!

I would suggest the best thing for your husband to do is to ignore her for a while - not to try to pet her, or encourage her to come to him, or anything like that. When she's a bit more relaxed in his presence he can 'accidentally' drop a treat on the floor for her, but he shouldn't look at her or react when she takes it - just pretend he hasn't noticed. As she becomes more relaxed with him he can give her her food, but not make a big deal of it. Any fearful behaviour should be ignored - only say "good girl" when she's behaving how you want.

Hope this helps.
:)

Was she a rescue at all or did you but her straight from the breeder?

Does your husband have a beard  or wear glasses anything that is different from the rest of you. (long shot)

we took a rescue little girl on a few months ago and had a problem she was terrified of my hubby, she used to run up to me and my daughter but freeze if she realised he was sitting there,it has taken months to get her to accept OH but if he raises his voice to the other dogs she will quiver and not go near him for a few hours, what we did was he would sit on the floor and watch the tv and the other dogs would be lying beside him, when she came to see what he was doing he ignored her he just let her aproach him in her own time no rush was put on her, when she got close he used to just say her name and good girl, and that was it then we progressed onto throwing her a titbit just infront of her when she came near him and her name and good girl, then as she got closer and closer she saw the other dogs taking really nice titbits out of his hands and she edged closer and closer, he gave her no eye contact and never tried to force her to take a treat, he held his hand flat out and she could take the treat and scarper if she wanted to, this was a very very long process but now after many months she will sit beside him on the sofa, and he can stroke her, she runs to greet him in the morning with the others instead of trying to run away, she even goes into the garden with him by herself and will come in when he calls her, but there again she always gets a biccie for comming into the house when he calls her.It can take time and you must take it on your dogs time not on your time scale .Hope this gives you some hope that things can work out for the best.
carol