Hi everyone, im the proud father of a 9 week old doberman bitch called Jodi and have had for about a week. Things have gone very smoothly so far, upon coming home for the first time we placed her near her new crate with a blanket over and she went inside and snuggled down. For the first two days she rearly came out except to eat and wee/poo. Amazing she is already toilet trained and whimpers near to door to go out and do it on the grass in the garden!!. She sleeps from 10:00 untill about 7:30 and does not make a sound, eats well and is now lively and playfull in the garden and around the house, rearly nips and enjoyed chewing her toys. But when we leave the house for instacne carrying her to the corner shop, she literally shakes with fear over each new experiance. I try not to reassure her and to repeat the occurance, i know she has only been away from theh breeder for a week and i know its all new to her but is shaking normal or is it a bit extreme. She also shakes when shes hears loud noises in the garden like the garbage lorry.
We attended our first puppy party last night and she sat and watched and when any of the other puppies approached her she slowly walked away and sat behind my legs or in the corner of the room.

I know this is probably normal, but i would like some reassurance if possible and advice so i can help her whilst she is still young.

many thanks

Hi, I read this with interest because it reminded me of our dog when we first got him. I think your dog is more timid than ours because he wasn't at all nervous of other dogs. But he was very nervous when we took him out onto the street the first few times. Traffic really freaked him out. We had to carry him across the road he was so scared by cars. He was also very nervous of anything excessively noisy like the hoover, hair dryer or even music. I was surprised by this because he was born and spent the first almost 3 months on a farm with a family and I was sure he must have come across hoovers and hair dryers. The busy city traffic was a bit more understandable. I'm glad to say that after the first couple of weeks he was out there dragging me across the street and seemed totally undaunted by anything. I think it will pass if you just persevere as you're doing and I'd suggest lots of socialising in the park or a training class to get her over the fear of other dogs. Or if you know anyone with dogs you could let her meet where you've got some control over the situation it would help. Good luck.

Hi, yes agree when you introduce her to dogs make sure they dont over whelm her, try to inroduce her to pups who are gentle and not boisterous jumping all over her head.  Also to get her over noises you could tape some sounds like buses stopping, the hair dryer, washing machine, and it'd be great if you could get some fire works on tape then play them to her while she's eating her food.  She's only a baby and if her breeder had them locked away in a quite place this is all new to her, so try and get her into loads of new situations now until sixteen weeks old there brains are like sponges taking in everything new, make sure you reward her when she has a positive response to a situation.

Warm regards Susan

dan join the dobermann uk forum - lots of advise and experienced dobe people on there.... www.dobermann.me.uk scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see the link
edited to add that I am not saying there are no experienced peeps on here :-)

Thanks for the advice, will try and get some tapes from amazon or somewhere. The doberman forum sounds ideal. Joining now!!

Whilst writing this Jodi has just eaten her first garden snails, hmm yummy, hope they will not do too much harm.

DanR have sent you a PM

Hi there -

I think you're doing the right thing by not reassuring her and by repeating the occurrance.  But remember to repeat it until the fear goes or you are actually just encouraging the fear.  You could try backing away from the thing which is frightening until you find a point which is far enough away that she doesn't seem frightened any more.  When you reach that point, feed her treats continuously (lots of bits of hotdog sausage or cheese is good).  Then take a step or two towards the frightening thing again while still feeding her - if she still shows no fear, keeping feeding.  Do this and continue to approach the thing until you can stand right next to it.  If at any point she shows fear, back off slightly till you find a level she's not afraid of and approach more slowly.  Don't do this for too long at a time because it can get stressful - lots of little 5 min sessions each day is better than one 2 hr one, for eg, and you'll see that through latent learning she improves between sessions.

As for socialisation with other dogs - be careful at the puppy parties.  Don't let her get bullied by excited pups (labs and goldie pups are often very boisterous and bold) - always make sure that she's happy if another puppy, say, jumps on her in play.  If you think she's having a bad experience, stop it immediately - just pick her up.  If she is very timid and sits behind your legs, you can try throwing food on the floor around your feet as though you're feeding ducks - hopefully the first time with everyone else's puppies on lead so they can't come and eat it!  Just chuck some bits out there and totally ignore her.  She should slowly in her own time come out and eat it.  When you think she's a bit more confident, take her off lead when the others are still on lead, and allow her to decide whether to approach them or not.  That way she will be in control of approaching or removing herself from other pups.  When she seems more bold, then pick the most timid pup besides her and let them both off together and see what happens.  It's very important to match her playmates carefully.  Afterall you wouldn't leave a very quiet shy and withdrawn 4 year old child together with a loud, dominant bully... Don't let her learn to be a victim....

There are two other things to say - sometimes shaking isn't fear, it's extreme excitement and arousal at something new.  So not necessarily bad, although it's hard to say if it's fear or not without seeing her, just bear that in mind.

Second, at the age she is now (9wks) a lot of puppies go through what is called the 'fear' stage.  This is a stage in puppy development where they often appear to be afraid of everything and to spook easily.  It doesn't mean they'll always be like this, it's usually just a phase they're going through.  So those two things should reassure you a bit.

DanR , if she's shaking but not running (like my max) then i would think its not to much of a bad thing. Unless her tail is between her legs then you have an issue! She's also in her FEAR IMPRINT STAGE. Take her out to pee and back in , carry her out to socialize but don't traumatize her of it WILL be for life.

Yes my goldens are very 'bullyish' :p. They get really excited and  try to play with every puppy as fast as they can. My max is a wild boy!