Why is my dog afraid of everything?
This is a question that we often get from sitters and owners who work with Rover. Help the community out by answering them in our forum!
3 Answers
Some dogs are very skittish naturally so you have to approach them in a calming manner.
This sounds like a self-esteem problem, so you must approach it delicately. We want to challenge the dog physically and mentally with things like obstacle courses, busy environments, and any situation in which the dog can get feedback from other, more confident dogs. Helping a dog build self-esteem is a very, very long process, and not nearly as fast as aggression rehabilitation. You have to build confidence slowly, and the way you build it is by helping the dog to repeatedly accomplish small goals. Practice obedience training, practice obstacle courses; they don’t have to be champions, but they have to go out and do it. With every success comes a little more confidence.
I don't have an answer lol.... Walt and Daniella answered it perfectly! I have a dog that is naturally skittish and shy. I've had from 2 weeks old, so I know no abuse etc. (Her mom was very feral however) As Walt said you have to do things that help build confidence. Right now we play a game called "find". I hide her food bowl, or my nephew and she has to find it. It is one of the few times she gets jazzed up and excited. I have tried obedience and agility, but she likes the tracking. So sometimes its a matter of finding what trips that dog's happy trigger.