Antisocial dog...

[Premier]

Hey guys and gals,

I need a little advice. I'll be taking Milou and myself to be trained shortly but I'd like to know of any advice and tips before I go to training with him.

He has become so anti-social lately. When we first got Milou, we socialized him well and he was friendly, shook his tail and all. But a couple months back my goddaughter was playing with him and I guess she was too rough with him that ever since then he's become antisocial. If a stranger wants to greet him, he might go up to them but then backs away and hides behind my girlfriend or me or he goes up to them runs behind us and starts barking at them.

I tried to retrain him, by having him sit, have someone greet him, then i reward him but this has not worked so far. So any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[silverpawz]

Is he food motivated? If so then having the visitor hand feed him a yummy treat after he sits would be a great start if he's comfortable enough to take food from them. You want him to associate new people with something he loves - hence the treats.

I'd also keep him on a leash for better control.

A good game I like to play with shy dogs is the "Treat and Retreat". Walk up to the visitor, only close enough that your dog is visably comfortable, ask for a sit, reward the dog and then move away. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The goal is to teach the dog that you aren't going to force him to 'say hi' and to catch the good behavior of him being calm BEFORE he becomes afraid. Gradually you work up to being closer and closer. It's also important to model the behavior you want to see from your dog. So if you want him to be calm, you have to be calm.

Go slow, he doesn't have to love everyone he meets, (heck, I don't like everyone I meet either. LOL) and he doesn't need to be pet by every person either. Personally, my goal would be to have him relaxed while sitting next to me as I talk to visitors.

It's great that you're going to classes, a trainer that can see your dog in person will be able to give you much more tailored advice.

 

[Roxy's CD]

How old is he? Some people don't believe this but many believe that dogs go through what's know as "fear stages", usually there's no merit for their fear and it passes in a few weeks.

Roxy is anti-social. She's also going to school but I've started to just tell people to ignore her. Don't pay any attention to her at all. In time she gets curious and she'll go check them out. They still ignore her. And when her tail starts wagging, I'll let them give her a treat and make her work for it. Ex) Sits/downs/tricks.

 

[Premier]

He's a year and a couple months old. He's been like this for a more than 4 months so far.

 

[tinksmama]

I'm no expert here but what seems to work well with Tink, who's 15 weeks and has huge dog fear... is to keep her really busy when she's around what she fears- like when a new dog comes near, if i hold still,she freaks out-talk about antisocial!
So I've been working with her, keeping her on leash, work some commands, and focused on me, the treats,and the praise, till she get so curious about the others she want to go look,and seems to forget about 90% of her fear/ugly behavior-
I do this in the moment, and she's improving a lot- just 10 mins ago I had her walking in tight leash circles with her heel command till she got over herself,and sniffed the other dog on her own!
And...as an owner with a small dog, and small kids,and their friends around all the time, NEVER again leave doggie alone with small kids, for the protection of all of them, too much potential for trouble- kids learn gentleness but it takes a long time... if you have to, crate the dog for her own protection from a little too much love...
BTW, your doggie is SO cute!