How to help Noah get over his fear of men..

..in particular my husband!

I have had him nearly a month now (6 yrs Saluki x greyhound).
We obviously knew he was a very nervous dog, he must have been abused badly by a man, and i know these things take time.

With me, Noah has really come out his shell, i see him play with the other dogs, i can let him off for a run, he sits on my bed when i go upstairs...in fact he is clingy to me. But when the OH comes in all that changes, he will hide behind our dinner table and that is it for the night, when we go to bed he will sleep in the crate but he will not relax till OH goes out the door to work! I dont think he sleeps much at all!

My question is would you just go about things as normal or do you think my husband should actually try and be more hands on with him...even though Noah hates this.
He will not take any treat from the OH even chicken or something yummy...but with me he is a little scavenger.
My husband has NEVER seen the dog I see!

I was kind of going with the "lets just act normal" route until he learns there is nothing to be afraid of, but I am worrying now that the more he clings to me the further away from my husband he gets, like i am his protecter from the "bad man"!
If OH puts his dinner down he wont eat it, if he walks him he has fear in his eyes and tries to pull away.
So should he keep trying these things or just leave him to come round by himself?
Thanks for any advice
HM x

I had this with reah....all men infact, even men in the distance.

It a long road to trust hun.

Can I ask does hubby sit on the floor when offering treats, I got a male neighbour to help (didn't know Pat then) he would sit on the floor and gently throw a piece of tasty treat (or in Reah's case bread as that was all she would eat then) over aa period of time the treat would be thrown a little further away from her so she had to crawl near to my neighbour to get it.

When Reah started walking I got another male neighbour to walk thier dog with us she was so scared that she used to try and get away, but my neighbour used to keep talking to her.
We had to use Hydrotherapy and she wouldn't let Ian near her without going for him, so his wife used to do it, with Ian standing near, eventually Ian procceed to keep talking and throwing treats at her, until he could get his hand near enough to let her sniff it.

Now she loves men....except ones with ginger/ish hair and even with those she just stays away, but aleast she is attacking them

Thanks YS. yes its all men here too, he will constantly look behind him if he sees one out on a walk.

OH has tried sitting on the floor and gently throwing chicken but he wont eat it...like I say he is really greedy with me!

I just dont know if this is making him worse? i know it will take months, maybe years! But want to make sure i am going down right track. Dont know if OH is best to ignore him altogether or to keep trying??

He could, but I thought with Reah it was best that I tried her once or twice a day, as she actually attacked men and would sink her teeth in.

It doesn't have to be all the time that he tries, as long as he is talking to Noah most of the time, and reassuring him constantly he will come round hun, its just Noah realising that he can trust, which as you say could take months or longer, with Reah it took her nearly 2 years if thats anything to go by

How does Noah react when he sees your hubby playing with the other dogs? Just thinking maybe seeing the other dogs being relaxed and happy and mucking around with hubby Noah may be a little more relaxed as hubby = fun?

I took on a 13 month castrated dog eight years ago! He had been severely abused by men and the damage caused I now know is beyond repair! Do not despair when I say that, he has altered 99% but I would never ever be able to trust him 100% with ALL men! He absolutely adores woman and children! BUT! there are certain things that will trigger him with certain men! This is NOT often , but there is certainly something that does 'trigger' him ! it could be 'a hoodie' or a certain stance, or a sudden hand movement, I have learnt during my eight years of ownership to read the signs, and we have had NO instanses with him for a long long time now! but as I said I would never ever trust him 100%

He will still show aggression at men he does not know on our property! I ask anyone on our land to completely ignore him, not to make eye contact the keep there hands still and at their side palms in, and to make not sudden movements he will normally investigate the visitor from a distance, then go closer to have a better sniff (his heckles are us at this time) you can viually she him become more secur and eventually welcome the visitor!

~Over the years I have blamed myself for still having to be so careful! I have often throught that he had picked up my feelings and been on guard because of this, but it is certainly fear agression in our case! and because of fear being unpredictable the only advantage I have is being ahead to think of him in any forthcoming situation.

This is probably sounding very complicated and a load of old tosh! but guess I am just trying to say you will learn to read him, then the situation of being fearful of men will no longer exsist!

I'll give up now before I confuse myself!!

All the very best!

So sad when you see them be fearful especially when it is towards a specific gender. A month is not long to have a dog and if it is an ingrained fear, you should definitely do something to try and decrease your dogs fear, but ignoring it, worst case scenario is the dog could end up trying to protect you from what he sees as something to fear (hubby).
Wondering if any of these ideas would help.
- Hubby not approaching him or focussing on him (maybe sitting in a chair) but having a high value treat near him that you place on the ground then you sit next to your OH and feed Noah treats, slowly (by this I mean days or even weeks) bring him closer to your OH with treats and your OH not react, it is trying to bring your dog closer to your OH and teach him that being near him, he is not going to cause him harm. Hopefully at some point your hubby could have a treat in his hand an Noah to come to your OH and get it, but not have your OH call or put his hand forward just let Noah be the one to step forward.
- When on lead, get Noah to sit and change from your OH to you, and do it regularly, try to do the exact say commands.
Maybe get a longer lead so the dog can find a comfort zone and over weeks slowly Noah will hopefully reduce the fear he feels when in your OH's presence.
It may feel like you are pandering to Noah but really it is a case of Noah having a bad reaction to your OH (from another males hands) and linking the two.
Even if your OH changes the dogs water, or puts Noah's food down and walks away and allowing Noah half an hour to go to the food, putting a treat in his crate while Noah isn't in it but seeing him do that, and leave it there, even if he doesn't eat it (something you give him that he loves), it is about showing Noah your OH is of no threat and is giving him space to see but not be unable to escape from. The damage didn't happen over night and trust can be a whole lot harder to get back than if it was never lost.
Good luck xx

Perhaps I missed it as I skimmed through, but it is important for those dogs don't trust to avoid positive human behaviors dogs find threatening. Standing tall, looking somebody in the eye, and a big toothy grin can get you out of a bad situation with people or make a good impression. However, it sends a dog all the wrong messages. They also need to keep their hands away from the top of the head.

One of the things I liked about Patricia McConnell's The Other End of the Leash was its strong message that dogs are canines, people are primates. They are different and don't like some of our monkey business. To solve certain problems, we must work around the differences.