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Location: East Midlands, UK
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 8,775
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Hello and welcome to Dogsey! First of all, my advice would be to calm down, don't get stressed over this, he will settle down, but he may well be picking up on your distress; so don't make a huge fuss when you've trodden on him or dropped him!! Sh** happens, and the more fuss you make the worse it is ...just act cool; I am always tripping over Ben, our enormous wolf cross, and I just ruffle ears, apologise and move on.
Personally if I were you I wouldn't try too hard. Ignore him as much as you can ... but try and rouse his interest and curiosity. For instance, you could sit on the floor and bounce a ball up and down, do not look at him and see out of the corner of your eye his reaction. Or a squeaky toy ... repeatedly play with a squeaky toy whilst sitting on the ground near to him. Another thing you could try is to lie down and pretend to be asleep ... his curiosity should get the better of him and eventually he won't be able to resist coming to see what you are doing! Dogs are very nosy creatures!
Ball games outside are great ... kicking a football around, anything to trigger his interest in YOU and make him realise that you are not The Big Bad Wolf but are fun to be around - despite the fact that you have trodden on him and dropped him, you wicked person you!!!!!!!
Once he starts approaching you out of curiosity, ignore him to start with, do not look at him, just whisper quietly Good Boy. You will have got the picture by now I'm sure ... don't push him or crowd him, let him come to you.
I always remember my old riding instructor telling me that when trying to lead a reluctant horse, do not look back at him, look forwards and walk forwards purposefully and he will follow ... it works!!
Hth ... there will be lots of others on Dogsey who will all offer you great advice ... good luck!