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My Cute Little Dog is Terrified of Me
Taming the Timid Dog
by Gretchen Williams Jurek

I am now trying to gain the trust of a little 10-lb. adopted dog. She has been scared for life, and will barely trust a human ever again, me included. It is easy to figure out what previous people did to her.

She is extremely energetic and bouncy. She seems to have a lot of Italian Greyhound in her, and they are notoriously difficult to housetrain... So I presume what happened is that previous people got sick and tired of having her go in the house. It seems they called her to them, and when she came, they hit her or yelled at her, or somehow terrified her.

I have watched people do this, and I don't think they realize the confusion it is causing their animal. This poor little thing doesn't ever want to come to me; when she finally does, since my other dogs are all there and seem to be happy about it, she comes with her tail all the way under her belly, and her rear end down, as if she is going to run or fall over into the submissive posture.

She seems to be absolutely amazed when she is praised and not hit or screamed at... but if she gets outside without a leash on, she will look at me over her shoulder and run away as fast as she can, even with my other dogs staying with me.

Moral to this story: A dog has a short memory, and takes one thing at a time. If they peeed in the house ten minutes ago and you call them over and scold them, all you are doing is confusing them. As far as they are concerned, they did what they were asked - they came to you, and then you punished them. This leads to absolute confusion for the poor dog, and ruins its trust for all time. A dog simply cannot realize that you are angry about something that is in the eternal past.

They are not tiny people in fur coats! They do not think that peeing is wrong. It can take a short time or years for housetraining to catch on. In the meantime, hold your temper and your tongue. A dog should be praised when it is just doing regular things, like coming to eat. Pet and praise it! Then, if you even raise an eyebrow later about something it did that you disapprove of, it will be very responsive, believe me!

My dogs don't need to be told what displeases me, and they do those things sometimes... but I let it go. They are DOGS, for Pete's sakes! Not kids! And they are not inherently wicked and conniving, and all that kind of anthropomorphizing... A dog will do anything to please and does not want to displease the pack leader (you or me).

Give them room to be what they are. They will always try to do what we people want. They just need to have it set out very clearly, with no mixed signals.

Now, my cats, on the other hand...

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Behavior

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