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There is no doubt that owning and working with a fearful dog can be a challenge. If you own a fearful dog is it very important for you to educate yourself and learn as much as you can so that you can help your dog become less afraid and a more confident companion.

Certain breeds such as working and herding breeds have a natural predisposition to be more suspicious or cautious of new people, objects, events, etc. Therefore if you own such a breed you should make an extra effort to spend a lot of time on quality socialisation, quantity is important too, but by quality I mean that the early experiences your dog has should be positive. It is far more productive for your dog to meet 50 new people in a week and have each experience be good, than meet 100 new people in a week, but 50 of these meetings go bad.

Fear in dogs is often a mixture of unfortunate experiences coupled with a lack of early socialisation appropriate to the dogs temperament. Retraining will of course be a challenge, but fearful dogs don’t have to stay fearful forever.

Right from the outset you will have to have the right attitude and approach. It goes without saying that patience is a must, as is quick thinking, flexibility, as well as sensitive training. In addition setting clear, consistent, achievable goals is vital. Pre-train and pre-plan; be specific about how you want your dog to react in a given situation, and have a fallback.

Building confidence in a fearful dog is time consuming, so be prepared for the long journey. Your approach will need to be flexible, allow for and expect regression, learn form it, re assess, adapt, and move on. Don’t panic when things go wrong, mistakes will happen, but if you panic this will only confuse your dog. As your dog’s guide and handler you need to remain confident (act if necessary), shift plans, and continue, this approach will assure your dog.

Be flexible enough to know when you’ve tried to progress too quickly, and insightful enough to know what changes you need to make for your dog to be successful. These two qualities alone go a long way to making a good trainer.

Routine and predictability is very important when working with a fearful dog. Knowing that A leads to B, which leads to C, gives your dog confidence and a sense of control in the environment. This is key, especially if your dog not only reacts to events/cues etc, but is also apprehensive before the event.

Routine and structure around the home is important for all dogs, but even more so for fearful dogs. So again, be consistent in your rules and expectations, and where possible set a daily schedule for all activities such as feeding, walking, training, rest, play, etc. You can be more relaxed and flexible with house rules once your dog has gained a lot of confidence, but make quick judgement calls, if you think your dog’s confidence is slipping, re-apply some rules.

To see improvement in a relatively short period of time, break your goals down in to manageable steps.

For example let’s say your dog is afraid of strange men:

Clicker train your dog to play hand targeting games with a familiar male that he/she is not afraid of. Making a game out of what your dog is afraid of is a great way to build confidence. If you practise hand targeting enough it will become second nature to your dog.

• So to start have a familiar male sit sideways on a chair at a distance from your dog. Have him throw really high value tasty treats in various directions, allowing your dog to keep a comfortable distance.
• Then gradually change the variables so that eventually your dog is able to target the hand of the male for a click and treat.
• Then gradually add more variables; have the male standing, lying down, moving around, approaching. Each time you add a new variable be prepared to go back several steps, or right back to the beginning with the new variable.
• Don’t jump straight in and play the hand targeting game with strange males. You will have more success if you first work extensively teaching your dog to hand target your hands, and the hands of people he/she likes.
• Once your dog is readily in the game of hand targeting with familiar people/males, you will need to start over from the beginning with unfamiliar males.

Working steadily like this will really let you see improvements, which will in turn motivate both you and your dog.

If at any time your dog reacts in a way that you know means he/she is stressed, or if he/she is not able to take treats, or is unable to focus on you/respond to any cues, then simply take a break. Stay confident, don’t sweat it. Think about any changes you might need to make, make them, and move on.

Taking the time to teach your fearful dog hand targeting will be time well spent, and probably one of the most important training tools you will always have to hand (no pun intended), to help your dog overcome his/her fears.  Over time you will find that because hand targeting creates such a positive association for your dog, he/she will be more willing to extend himself/herself, and be open to new experiences.

Hand targeting is wonderful, because it gives your dog something constructive to do, instead of being afraid.

Remember that owning and working with a fearful dog is a journey of learning and self discovery for both you and your canine companion. It can be frustrating at times, but with the right attitude it should be mostly rewarding, fun, and a great experience to be cherished.