Poppy is hand shy-some advice please :)

Hello, firstly I hope I've posted in the right place!

Poppy is settling in really well which we are delighted about. She is 17 weeks old and we have had her for a week. But, Poppy hates getting her collar and harness on and she can be hand shy sometimes.

We don't really know how she was trained for the first 8 weeks the other owner had her. I can only assume the children the previous owner had have been rough with her. When we tell Poppy no and then go to praise her once she's done what she's been told she backs off and almost cowers.

We've been doing puppy massage to let her know we won't be bad to her. We also have managed to get the harness on without her backing off with the use of treats. I just wondered if anyone had any other tips?

Thanks guys

You are doing things the right way by rewarding what you want her to do.

Just a thought, are her ears OK? Quite often with young dogs, an ear problem can lead to the type of problems you are seeing with hand-shyness and getting collars/harnesses on. Might be worth a check

Never thought of that, thanks Chris!

Dog Training Tips

The first is simple; you must win your dogs mind. If you don’t achieve this first then you will be struggling all the way. When I talk about winning your dogs mind what I really mean is that your dog looks to you for all the decisions. Before you do anything else watch one of the amazing video sites that show you the 5 Golden rules to establishing yourself as the pack leader.

If you aren’t putting these in place then you are setting yourself up to fail. Just at the crucial point where you really want your dog to listen they will go and do their own thing. For sure your dog may play ball occasionally or even most of the time, you may even have a dog that is obedient 99% of the time, however if you want a dog who always listens to you and does as you ask then you need to win your dogs mind.

The second key to success is to motivate your dog. It is really important that you discover what it is that your dog enjoys both in terms of exercise and play but also in terms of a reward. If you can make the experience enjoyable then you will both achieve more and look forward to training.

Some dogs love to fetch, others love agility, and other dogs simply love obedience training, or swimming out into water and retrieve. At least to start with find out what your dogs love is and help them develop this, what I am saying is work with your dog. The other point to recognize is to make training enjoyable reward your dog.

The three main rewards are:

Food- anything from a single dry biscuit to a whole piece of sausage!
Affection- pats, cuddles, lots of high verbal praise
Toys- games, throwing a stick or object, chasing your dog etc

Your dog is always going to work harder if you are fair in your training. Even if you do not want to use food you should make sure that you use affection accordingly when your dog does well

If you want to use food rewards then always follow these simple tips:

Always vary food rewards
Do not give food rewards every time
Never let your dog know what the reward is
If your dog doesn’t come first time then do not give them the reward

The third key to achieving perfection is practice! Learning how to encourage behavior that is closer to what you want than the last is the third key to success. Again this is where rewards come in so handy! Motivate and then show your dog what it is that you want and there is no need for any negative training!

One of the best sites that shows you all of this and more is The Online Dog Trainer.

Put Together By A Top Dog Trainer. I hope this helps let me know.

A week is a short time time to settle and to recover from her past. The puppy massage is a good idea and will help with any stress she feels.
I would stop saying No as it seems to upset her and she may have negative associations with the word.

Is it possible to leave her collar on all the time and not use a harness until you can desensitise her to them ?

I think patience and carrying on using the treats will help.
The tastier the treat the better.

I would break it down in stages and not go on to the next stage until she is happy with the previous stage. A clicker would help here . Try googling kikopup on you tube , lots of videos about clicker training.

Thank you so much for your advice.

Two months on and Poppy wears her collar all the time and couldn't care less about getting her harness on or her collar if we ever take it off! We decided to keep her collar on all the time indeed and it doesn't bother her anymore.

We are super happy with Poppy's progress. She's not hand shy anymore! She's such a loving pup and loopy too!

Thanks again guys!

Oh Well Done Poppy That's great news

Oh thats brilliant news! Well done to you and Poppy .

Well done to everyone involved. I bet Poppy is a much much happier young lady now