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puka
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puka is offline  
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 13
Female 
 
04-12-2016, 11:37 PM

Scared puppy has bad incident with older dog! Advice needed!

Hi everyone,

My puppy Puka is 17 weeks old. She's a rescue that was found in a box with her siblings.

She is quite scared and nervous when I take her for walks. We live in the city so there's a lot of noises, trams, buses etc. She generally stops in her tracks any time one of the trams goes past and she hates it. I think it might be because the box she was abandoned in was right beside a motorway.

Anyway she seems so guarded outside that she won't go to the toilet at all (she goes immediately when we get home right by the door).

I take her out every day during the quieter hours to get her used to the noises and she's met quite a few new people (both outside and at home) and she is 100% friendly with everyone she meets.

But she is scared of other dogs. I never act wary around them and always let her stop to meet any dog we come across and let them sniff each other etc. I act comfortable because I want her to be comfortable, but I am not sure anything I'm doing is really helping and I am worried that she's going to be scared of these things forever if it doesn't change soon...

Which brings me to an incident we had today...

I took her to the dog park at 10pm because I wanted her to get some time there alone to run around and play and get used to the sounds around her and be totally relaxed and comfortable (also because she is not spayed I don't feel okay having her there during the day running freely with other dogs).

So anyway, while we were there a woman arrived with her dog and I didn't see them come in until it was too late and the dog immediately ran up to Puka and started barking crazily and lunging at her aggressively. She was terrified and shaking and ran between my legs screeching in fear. I felt terrible for her but I also felt like the woman was irresponsible to see a puppy on a leash in the dog park on its own and let an aggressive dog do that.

The owner of the dog apologized a lot and we left. But I didn't want that to be her lasting impression of the dog park so we waited until the aggressive dog left and we went back in and had more fun. I was trying to correct her association with the place to see it as somewhere she has fun rather than somewhere that big dogs attack her!

But still, I'm now worried that her associations with other dogs will be all negative. I want her to get used to other dogs and feel comfortable and confident with them.

Any insight or advice would be HUGELY appreciated (plus, any insight as to why an older dog would immediately aggressively lunge at a puppy like that?)

Thanks!

Danielle
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kaliska
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Location: Iowa, US
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05-12-2016, 02:44 AM
Problem with going to the dog park late is everyone with a dog that doesn't do well with others has the same idea. It's when we run into the most issues instead of the least. Middle of the afternoon on a weekday while everyone is working or a very short break in some bad weather usually results in a much better experience. Luckily our dog parks also all have training runs where 1 person at a time is allowed unless you come together to socialize dogs without the chaos of the main park and to do distraction training. Dog parks here really aren't the best socialization places otherwise for shy dogs. They are better for once a dog is confident and you want extra exposure to problems so you can teach them how to handle dogs that aren't well behaved or people who react weird. I started my shy akita getting used to the dog park by walking around the outside during busy times and sitting at a picnic table near the entrance. She still sticks to me like glue and leashes aren't allowed in our parks. Dogs on leash can feel trapped and respond with fear or aggression. Loose to loose dog meeting is often safer even if they can get farther away from you faster.

Do you have any training places that do positive reinforcement? A basic obedience class is a great way to socialize with controlled dogs and here some of the training and boarding places offer controlled playgroups where they match the dogs up with similar personalities or personalities that are beneficial and check everyone's vaccination records. Our dog parks still don't check anything except rabies but have implemented a 4 month old minimum requirement to cut down on illness outbreaks in unvaccinated puppies. Many also take easy to feed treats to parks where children play and let people feed their puppy so the noise and passing of people, especially running children, or nearby roads become no big deal. As one of the shiba sites says; children should be seen as nothing but hot dog dispensers. It keeps them from being fearful and they do not learn to play rough with children. They learn to automatically sit and wait for a treat while ignoring everything else.
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puka
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Location: Budapest, Hungary
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Posts: 13
Female 
 
05-12-2016, 07:44 PM
Thanks for this response! That's definitely true about the late hours at the dog park attracting the dogs who don't do great with others, for whatever reasons.

I'll try to take her some afternoon when most people are at work (I work from home so luckily I can take her any time)

There's a good training place not too far away which I read does training specifically designed for city dogs who are scared of the loud noises etc. Hopefully that will make a difference. Mostly I'm worried about her interactions with other dogs so I'll try to ask them for advice on that too. It'd be great if there was a puppy class where she could be matched with similar temperament dogs.
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brenda1
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Location: Lancing West Sussex
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06-12-2016, 08:56 AM
Hope you can help your pup. A good puppy training class will help if run correctly. Just a tip here be careful if they use clicker training in an enclosed environment she may freak at the noise. What is the name of the dog training place you are going to?
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