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I have a 10-week-old Alaskan Malamute female and we've had about three or four trips to the dog park. She is around 19lbs. The dog park is divided into a "small dog" section and a "large dog" section. She enjoys the smaller dogs and is very inquisitive and playful, but whenever the big dogs on the other side of the chain-link fence approach the fence quickly or bark, she gets extremely frightened and hauls away from the fence and dives under the nearest park bench and is afraid to come out. If the larger dogs are quiet, and approach the fence slowly, she will gradually get a little closer to them. Today, she approached three well-mannered, interested greyhounds but she started growling, and the closer she got, the louder she growled.
Once, when she encountered a bigger dog without a fence separating them, she yelped loudly, snapped, and ran.
I spoke with the breeder I got her from about this. I said I was surprised Sasha was so afraid of big dogs, considering her father was HUGE, but the breeder wasn't surprised. She said it was BECAUSE the father did not want anything to do with his puppies, and so he would growl and chase them off when they tried playing with him.
What is the best way to break her of her fear? As we all know, fear in puppies can manifest into aggression in maturity, and this particular breed is known for aggression toward other dogs if not extremely well socialized by about twelve weeks of age. I want to socialize her to be well-mannered, trustworty, and to have fun in a dog park with dogs that may seem big now, but will probably be much smaller than she will be when she grows up. How can I socialize her during her most impressionable learning period if she is so frightened by the bigger dogs?
Once, when she encountered a bigger dog without a fence separating them, she yelped loudly, snapped, and ran.
I spoke with the breeder I got her from about this. I said I was surprised Sasha was so afraid of big dogs, considering her father was HUGE, but the breeder wasn't surprised. She said it was BECAUSE the father did not want anything to do with his puppies, and so he would growl and chase them off when they tried playing with him.
What is the best way to break her of her fear? As we all know, fear in puppies can manifest into aggression in maturity, and this particular breed is known for aggression toward other dogs if not extremely well socialized by about twelve weeks of age. I want to socialize her to be well-mannered, trustworty, and to have fun in a dog park with dogs that may seem big now, but will probably be much smaller than she will be when she grows up. How can I socialize her during her most impressionable learning period if she is so frightened by the bigger dogs?
